The river that we present is situated in the north of Spain. It is a wild river, a pure river, steeped in history,
born in the Pyrenees mountains and that gived his name to the
current region in which it is located, Aragón. The Aragón name comes from Indo-European voice "ar" meaning "stream".
At the end of the spring the melting of snow causes a significant increase in the flow of the river.
This known as “Mayencos” – spanish word that means milky and high flow waters -.
The queen of the water is the trout. A trout of Mediterranean origin inhabits the rivers of the Pyrenees,
it is called Zebra Trout for its dark stripes across the body. They are very aggressive and fun to fish on dry fly on the surface using short casts.
Big barbel dwell in the middle part of the river, they raise from the Yesa Reservoir. This Cyprinidae with long barbels feeds on
macroinvertebrates by absorbing them from the surface of the stones at the bottom of the river. The fishing on the surface with large beetles is
explosive, difficult and spectacular. They can reach close to 80 cm in size.
In some of the tributaries of the Upper Aragón Subordán, colorful and aggressive brook trout have acclimatized and live here. In the
50s and 60s some parts of the Pyrenees have been restocked with several species of that genus and the offsprings of those fishes have endured
to the present days.
The Aragón River Valley hosts many mountain lakes called “ibones”. Its waters are ideal to combine our
favorite hobby with mountaineering scenarios. The ibón called Truchas (“Trout”) in the picture is a nice example.
In some of these mountain lakes the trout are extremely beautiful and can reach considerable sizes. The access to these
lakes in most cases is done by foot and it takes between one and four hours to reach them.
Fishing in small streams on the high mountain, at an altitude of between 1000 and 2000 meters, is a delight. The size of the catch is
usually small, but it is big fun fishing and in an idyllic landscape. In streams like in the pictures above, trout are native and usually very scary, thus it is
necessary to use long leaders and fine tippets.
The Aragon River is a major tributary of the Ebro. Other popular tributaries like the Veral and Aragon Subordán
were the scene of the World Fly Absolute Salmonid 2003 championship. The Yesa Reservoir located in the lower middle part of the river sets the border with
the Navarre region. When its waters sink a great little hidden treasure comes to light: the hot springs of the old village of Yesa. This usually occurs in late autumn
and it is an ideal time to go for a swim. The river Aragon runs, upstream of reservoir Yesa, parallel to the Pyrenees, following what is known as Canal
Berdún or Bal Ancha.
On the banks of the river Aragón there are small villages with traditional cuisine and fantastic architecture. If you want to fish on the sunny side of the Pyrenees, the traveler may consult the
www.pyreneesflyfishing.com page
that offers guided holidays for groups of anglers and family in places of restricted access with the most wonderful landscapes of the mountain range.
