The Adour is the salmon river of Gascony, running from the Pyrenean headwaters above Bagnères-de-Bigorre to the Atlantic at Bayonne. Salmon fishing is closed across the Adour and Gaves basin under the 2026 prefectoral order. Brown trout and grayling in the upper valleys are the substance of the season now, and they are good. Sea trout run the lower river and take a fly in daylight, as they do across the Cantabrian rivers — this is not night-fishing country — and remain fishable in season. The main pools are well known to the local AAPPMAs and the beats rotate on a system that generally works. Check the regional arrêté before fishing: French regulations tighten almost yearly.
In the Pyrenean gaves and headwater torrents, resident brown trout move from early-season olives and March browns into strong spring and early-summer stonefly activity, then a long spell of evening caddis and small buzzers, with terrestrials most relevant on wooded lower gaves and much less important high above the tree line.
- Mixed
