With Phil Pembroke
It’s no surprise that fishing in France is becoming increasingly popular. With such beautiful locations containing so many large fish and transport to these venues being quicker than travelling across the UK by car, France is an opportunity for the everyday angler to feel like a pioneer. Oh, and then there’s the wine and cheese, of course!
Peche Francaise is not a ‘flash’ book. It’s printed in black ink, including the cover, on fairly bog-standard paper, but don’t let that put you off. If you’re planning to fish in France for the first time (or even if you’ve been before), this book could be just the guide you need. So often, we see design being viewed as more important than content. In Peche Francaise, the opposite is true, with all the emphasis being on the quality inside
There’s no waffle in Peche Francaise. It starts off with a brief introduction to the country and then a very useful A-Z of angling in France. Once you’ve sussed your épinoche from your esturion, you’re then told all about the rules and regulations of fishing in France. I know for a fact that this will be of a great benefit to many anglers, as I’ve had so many emails asking me for the answers over the years!
There then follows some incredible details on a whopping 176 venues throughout France, including diagrams of many places and tips for fishing them. I don’t know if Phil has fished them all himself, but it certainly reads like he has! If he hasn’t, he’s certainly got the information from somebody who has, as it’s just too detailed to have been made up! You’d be hard pressed to find information like this about a local UK water, let alone one in a different country! Oh, and it’s not all about carp, as some may have expected.
The contact details are invaluable, too. Phil hasn’t just given the reader the phone number of a lake, for example. Where possible, you’ll addresses for local angling advice, where to get your permits and where to find more general tourist advice.
According to the author, France has 235,000 kilometres of rivers, 15,000 kilometres of streams, 50,000 hectares of lakes, 30,000 hectares of “retenues de barrages” and 30,00 hectares of canals and reservoirs. He fails to mention the fantastic cuisine, but we’ll forgive him on this occasion! Suffice to say, it’s enough to tempt more and more anglers from the UK each year and the ‘excuses’ that we all used to have for not visiting have vanished with the introduction of the Channel Tunnel and budget airlines. There’s nothing to stop the keen angler “popping over for a weekend session” nowadays!
With 125 pages in A5 size, this book is a real tease. It almost dares you to pack the car, take a year off work and try out all these fantastic French venues yourself!
At the time of writing, Peche Francaise is available for £10 + £1 P+P in the UK. Visit http://www.spainfishing.com
for further information, including details of other books in his series. ISBN 0-9546924-2-X
