At 1260m elevation,  Lake des Estives is an idyllic fly fishing hideaway. The mountain lake has a surface area of 9acres and a 7,5m depth.  Fed by springs, its clear water remains fresh througthout the year. The Lake is home to peak condition fish, noted for size and hard fighting qualities.  Trophies sizes rainbow and brown trout are plentiful.
Fishing is from the banks, 95%  are accessibles, the trees are far enough from the water edge to allow plenty of room for your backcast.  And to get to these trouts rising out of reach, one can also fish from the two  boats availables .  The fish have the usual behavior of mountain lakes trout , opportunistic, they rise to the many terrestrial insects which, throughout the seasons, come to fall on the surface: hawthorn and heather flies, beetles, grasshoppers, crickets, daddy-long-legs and ants at the end of the season. And tirelesssly, they feed on the many larvaes  living in the lake and on the hatching  adults : midges, stoneflies, caddis , damselflies and all kind of mayflies without forgetting the numerous coarse-fish fry. That makes for days of great  fishing experience, where you will have to apply your best skills, from stalking  large trout cruising  in the shallows, to cast dryflies to these fish rising to terrestrials ,then fishing with streamers or bobbies and in the evening, with a good hatch on the water, back to dry flies or emergers.    Given the combativeness and the size of the trout, the tippets should not to go  below 16/100th . For " Bobbies " fishing a  22/100th tippet  is minimun of

Fishing is with barbless hooks only. A maximum of three wetflies is allowed. Landing net is a must. Wading is not advised.    To allow all flyfishermen equal chance to cast in productives area, please  rotate every 45mn .   Please open the slideshow to visit the cottages and the lake .
Flyfishing Prices For more informations:  lac.estives@free.fr    Tel:(33)-4 71 78 84 65  for calling from outside France