My brother and I are mulling over an idea to go to Spain and check out the Pyrenees. Anyone have any experience with fishing this region? We’re not looking for a guide service but basically wondering about stream access. Is there a great deal of private land and is that water private or deemed public. I noticed there are wildlife parks which is probably similar to national forests. We’ll most likely be in those areas vs, private property. Any info would be appreciated.
I have not been but Michael Agneta did a blog post on Troutrageous about these guys. https://www.pyreneesflyfishing.com/
Maybe they can help?
I’ve never been personally; however, ever since reading “For Whom the Bell Tolls” in high school, I’ve always wanted to fish there.
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Last January Joakim Karisson made a post about a planned trip to Andorra. But I think never did a follow up post. A PM to him might yield some information if he is still using this forum.
And of course Jean Santos may be of some help depending on where you are going. He lives in France and I believe has family in Spain. I know Jean is still reading the forum.
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I could also get you in touch with Dave Noll. (Not certain if he’s on here, but I have his email). He fished over there with the Pyrenees guides that @arieger mentioned, but may have some additional info.
Here’s a post of his trip. Perhaps a little different than what you might be looking for, but gorgeous photos nonetheless…
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David Noll. He was just there last season. I could get you in touch with him as well.
Thanks for the info. Tom, I was able to contact him through BPL.
Hi Rob, I can help you for preparing your fishing trip, I don’t know all the Spanish Pyrenées, only the valleys of Nogera Pallaresa , Cardos, Valferrara, that are the nicest valleys for tenkara fishing
Here is the map of this fishing zone :
https://www.tavascan.net/la-vall/activitats/pesca/
http://turisme.pallarssobira.cat/fileadmin/user_upload/Documents/fulleto_pesca_pallars_low.pdf
There are no private waters , but fishing is not allowed in National Parks of Catalunhya.
A net is obligatory for catching your fish , and felt is not allowed for your wadding boots, only rubber.
You have a lot of rivers to play in , you only need the annual fishing license for Catalunya ( 15€ for 1 year) and a permit for the fishing zone( Coto de Pesca) you’ll fish the following day ( around 5€/day).
Making everyday this permit is not very easy. In some hotels they can help and make you a manual permit, while you are having your breakfast. It’s much easier than connecting to the fishing site, choosing the right Coto , paying and then printing the permit
The Hotel CASES in la Guingueta d’Aneu is perfect ,and you have more rivers than you can fish in a whole month with only 30 ‘ of car drive around la Guiguetta:
You have plenty of fish and all the headwaters are excellent for tenkara fishing with lots of Mediterranean brown trout and you’ll fish only broke trout in lakes and rivers above 2000 meters.
The best season is mid June to mid July and September, during the summer holidays there’s too much people around the rivers . Until mid June there is snow melting and the rivers will be too high.
Access is quite easy, most of the times you have a road that follows the valley, bur for fishing the headwaters the road becomes narrow and a 4WD car may be useful.
Here are a pair of videos that show you what the rivers look like, in the first one I’m fishing near Romedos lake :
The second one is a Spanish guide fishing 100km west ( Aragon)
I hope this will help, and don’t hesitate to ask if something is not clear:
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Jean, if your catching rate is like that every outing you could equal the shoku ryōshi of old time used to be. Some were reported to catch 6,000 ~ 7,000 fish per year. 
David , the speed in this video is 1,5X and I stay a long time in the same place, usually I cach 1 or 2 fish and change for another pool.
What is nice in the headwater of Pirineos is sight fishing . The water is clear and seeing a fish moving to your fly is more funny than catching hundred of tiny fish. I’ll never equal the shoku ryōshi of old time 
The length of fish in Pyrenees is around 18/20cm in the headwater but you can catch some fish around 40cm in the river Noguera Pallaresa in the Catch& Release zones.
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Jean -
After the conversation (Brown trout in Japan) about certain species of trout being invasive in Japan, it made me wonder about Spain or France. Is the brook trout considered invasive there, to your knowledge?
The fly you mention in your video is called the pirenaica. Is it something similar to the image below? (Image found here.)
Après la conversation (Brown trout in Japan) au sujet de certaines espèces de truites envahissantes au Japon, je me suis interrogé sur l’Espagne ou la France. L’omble de fontaine est-il considéré comme envahissant là-bas, à votre connaissance?
La mouche que vous mentionnez dans votre vidéo s’appelle la pirenaica. Est-ce quelque chose de similaire à l’image ci-dessous? (Image trouvé ici.)
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This is amazing! What a resource! Thank you so much for posting. I travel to Catalunya often for work (wine biz) and have always wanted to tack on time. Now I have to!
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I thoroughly enjoyed both videos. Thanks for sharing. It makes me want to catch the next plane.
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Bonjour Peder, nice to read you . Many thanks for keeping this forum running and allowing our small family of international tenkara enthusiasts growing!
In France Brook trout is not invasive , they were introduced only in a few rivers in the Alps frequently above 2000m where only a few brown can live. Brown trout is dominant and has the best feeding spots. I like brook trout , but most of fishermen here do not. They are too small and they can’t keep them…for the pan.
In Catalunya I only caught Brook trout( Salvelinus) on lakes and rivers between lakes above 2000m . These lakes are iced 6 months per year and there is no brown, only Salvelinus can live there.
Yes this fly is the pirenaica , with red body and orange tag, Mine have hackle instead Cdc
Here’s the Spanish site : https://moscasparapescar.es/la-pirenaica-mosca-seca-para-torrentes-y-alta-montana/
Peder, you write French with no faults, Bravo !
Thank You Adam,
It is 3h1 / 2 by car from Barcelona, if you have a pair of days to go it may worth it: Nice area, friendly people and lots of pretty wild fish . And Catalonia has the best cooking in Spain.
In French Pyrenees you’ll find better cooking but less fish.
Thank You David:blush:
Hey David come on , jump in the plane. At this time you don’t need passport
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You are so nice JeanSantos. Very cool of you. I hope you are well.
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I spent 8 days two weeks ago fishing in Cataluña . The level of the rivers was perfect, and we caught plenty of tiny brown and had a lot of fun . I hooked a big one( between 40and 50cm) but my orange tamo wasn’t big enough and the trout broke my tippet after 10 minutes fighting…
Here’s the video:
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I enjoyed the video. I plan to fish there one day…
Thank You Adam. Send me an email if you want to come to Spain, I can guide you. The fishing season is the best between mid June to mid July.
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Thank you. I will contact you when I have a plan.