Waller in southwest France

The very late spawning time this year was passé and we drove directly to the southwest of France to get an objective impression of a water system after a long time. There has been a lot of talk about this in the scene in recent years. Incredible big fish rates should be there to catch. In order to be able to have a say, we now checked the terrain there on our own. About ten years ago we were already there once. Back then, in January, we were facing a clinking cold winter tour. Several kilometers more on the speedometer and in no time at all. "Cold as Ice" was sung in 1977 by the group Foreigner, one could call the tour of that time "Cold as Ice" that. And yet a fun chaos that reflected the reality of pioneering work. But this June we were well prepared, the adventure could begin.

At the end of this tour, which was accompanied by daily changes of location, we can say with certainty that the rivers of the Garonne region in southwestern France are a top hunting ground. There is a double Waller Joker for all anglers: You can catch a "mountain" of fish here and you don't have to crack a hard nut to get a fish on the line. The degree of difficulty is therefore not particularly high. There is almost no current in the two rivers we fish for in the Garonne region. This is a result of the many dams and weirs that stand there every few kilometres.

There are no flotsam problems despite the lush underwater vegetation. And the really gigantic catfish stock, on which almost no fishing pressure has been exerted so far, plays into the hands of visitors. An ideal area for anyone who wants to learn and drill - even to the point of physical exhaustion. Or, as in our case, to test new Wild Cat'z product samples for bending and breaking in practice. Like our divine Wild Cat'z rod and the reels of Black Cat, e.g. the Long Ranger.

Now some people's ears are ringing. That goes without saying. As always in life, but there is also a flip side of the coin here, which relativizes this district a little. The often rumored popular exception fish will not be caught here, which is due to the extremely dense catfish population. Due to the high number of catches there is of course also a big catfish from time to time. However, the well-known other top areas in France, Italy, Spain and also Germany offer fish with different body proportions. Targeted big fish fishing takes place there. That's a fact!

Furthermore, it is impossible to bring the necessary amount of bait fish to fish at full throttle over a longer period of time. The used feeder-rods don't bring the success like at many other rivers in Europe approximately in order to hold its bait-stock reasonably high. Especially not on usable bait sizes. After 88 catfishes with pot fish of 2.44 meters and 2.48 meters our ammunition was shot and we had to go home a few days earlier than originally planned.

We do not want to judge this area too negatively and make it dependent on the unfortunately not occurring exception copies. The Wild Cat'z once again had an adventurous time in a very beautiful and wild nature. We've rarely seen humans. Our project is stored as "successful" in our memories. As a team, we continue to function unbeatably. Strengths are promoted, weaknesses weakened!

Whether we will visit this region again so quickly is written in the stars. Perhaps it will take another ten years to assess the development of the portfolio again with one's own eyes. Until then there will be many more tours off the beaten track. Again and again on the search for new climes and on the hunt for the diamond, the three meter Waller.

Oh, là, là ...

Your Patrick Haas, Wild Cat'z