Salmo Trek: A hiking/fishing competition with Kevin & Stella

Salmo Trek: an unexpected podium!

The Salmo Trek is a competition organized by the FFPS whose aim is to push competitors to exceed their limits! Indeed, as its name suggests, the Salmo Trek is a mixture of salmon fishing and trekking! Like all competitions, the aim is to catch the most fish, or rather the longest length of fish, 1 mm being equal to 1 point. But that's not all, there are also points for the fastest teams on 3 timed special stages along the course. The competition, spread over 3 days, is self-sufficient, meaning that each pair must leave with a tent, sleeping bags, food for 3 days and, of course, fishing gear! For this second edition, the adventure took place once again in the Néouvielle massif in the Pyrenees, with a slightly different route to that of 2021. Competitors had to respect a predefined zone, with some twenty different lakes to choose from and 9 compulsory crossing points. The route involves over 45 km of walking and 3,500 m of ascent, which requires a minimum of physical fitness and preparation! As we're both passionate about the mountains and fishing, Stella and I decided to take part in this second edition of the Salmo Trek as a couple, with the sole aim of reaching the end and experiencing a real adventure! With feedback from last year's competitors all particularly positive, there was no doubt that this would be a memorable competition!

Precise preparation

Accustomed to fishing for Trout, a large part of the fishing tackle was already in our possession, soft lures, swimming fish, Metallic jigs, wobbling spoons, spinners, you name it! As for the rods, we each chose to leave with our own rod that we use for dam lake fishing, namely a Rainshadow 68ML for Stella and a 721Xray for me. Both of these rods are very good casters, which is a real plus for lake fishing, especially in places where the fishing pressure is quite high and you have to fetch far! As a complement, for finer fishing with insect imitations or soft, undulating micro lures, I take the little Area Flanker, a real UL bomb for Trout! Finally, I also needed a rod that was long enough, capable of sending 2 or 3 gr lures far enough, to sweep some ground during moments of low activity, but still with a good reserve of power so as not to risk losing a big fish! Laurent from Rodhouse then told me about a prototype in 2.13 m for a power of 2-9gr with a very fine tip and a very fast action! Bingo, the order is placed and the rod is assembled a few days before departure! I'm also taking on board my lighthouse 864-4, which isn't annoying hanging on the backpack, but might be able to unblock a situation if the Trouts start gobbling in all directions! As for the trek and associated equipment, some of it was already in our possession too, as many of our weekends are taken up by hiking/fishing in the lakes and rivers of our Corsican mountains! However, as we generally go out for the day, we invested in the missing equipment: sleeping bags, stove, tent, as well as consumables: freeze-dried meals, energy gel, dried fruit, etc.

SALMO TREK: a DAY 1 OF CRAZINESS

After taking the plane and a rental car, we arrive on site on the eve of departure and join other competitors for a meal in good spirits, but it's not long before we go to bed for a good night's sleep before setting off on our adventure! Friday, July 1: Here we are! Over 130 competitors gathered at the Col du Portet, listening attentively to the final instructions before taking their places on the Salmo Trek starting line! Only 4 or 5 women are taking part in this competition, and it's with great pride that Stella and I take the start as a couple! We set off at a decent pace up to point n°1, the first special stage to be validated! Our strategy, carefully thought out on the basis of information we'd picked up left and right, took us directly northwards. We soon reached the middle Bastan lake, where we made our first pitches. After only ten minutes or so, I spot a large marauding Trout at my feet, which is not at all interested in my undulating line and quickly returns to the depths of the lake... I decided to change my approach and grabbed my freshly mounted prototype with a small finess and a 2gr darter head. The first sensations with this new rod are very pleasant, the soft lure + TP combination casts really well, the fine tip and fast action allow me to animate my lure cleanly, in short, I like it! After a few casts, as the lure was moving over the bottom, I take a huge hit and announce "Fish!!!" It's big! Well, I don't know, I'm not used to this rod, but it feels heavy! The rod takes a few nice head shots and all of a sudden the surface explodes, indeed, it's a beautiful fish that will come to ground in the landing net held by Stella! A Trout fario that will measure 41.3 cm on the rod, which will do a world of good for the mind and motivation, after less than 20 min of fishing! After insisting on the area with no further results, we moved on to the upper lake where Stella tapped what also appeared to be a big fish, but which unfortunately unhooked after a few seconds. That's part of the game, especially without a barb, but you've got to keep going! We then decided to continue climbing northwards, fishing several lakes along the way, to no avail... The bivouac area in which we were to sleep having been changed at the last minute, our strategy had changed slightly and we decided to head for the Port-Bielh lake, where there was a large quantity of Arctic char, the only fish subject to a 10-fish quota for the competition, which we absolutely had to fill if we were to have any hope of hanging on to the top of the leaderboard! Arriving at the venue for the evening's catch, we made a series of long-distance casts with 11 and 15 gr jigs and wobbling spoons, until Stella finally landed the first char! That's it, we've located them, the first one is just meshed with 210 mm on the toise! A second, then a third, Stella has got the hang of it, and her lure seems more effective than mine! I change to the same lure and catch my first char! After 1 h 30, only the quota is made, with the added bonus of a 220 mm Trout! No longer any reason to stay here, we move on to the nearby lake to set up camp, in the hope of pulling off an effective early-morning coup!

Day 2: taking advantage of the activity peaks!

After a fairly cool and short night, we quickly tidy up the whole camp and start fishing at 6am, the legal time we were allowed to do so! A few gobies are spotted on the surface of the lake, but the activity doesn't seem fabulous nonetheless! After a little over an hour without a touch, while she's still satelliteing her 11g pink undulator with her 68ML, Stella announces fish! Phew! I rush to the landing net and welcome this magnificent 316 mm char to improve our already decent quota! Once the sun hits the surface of the lake, no more activity is visible and we decide not to linger! After a few more kilometers, we arrived at a lake which we fished for over an hour without a single touch, despite the diversity of techniques used... Never mind, we've got to stay focused, it'll all come together in the end! We then arrived at a small, shallow lake with translucent water, where we spotted several fish, some of them gobbling. I then quickly grab my little Area Flanker, rig it up with a leaded minnow head weighing less than a gram with a little larva imitation, and make a Sioux approach among the branches to stay as unobtrusive as possible! After a few casts presenting the lure to various fish, a Trout is tempted and takes hold of my lure after a mini animation. The hooking is precise, the rod bends and I don't hesitate to pull on it to prevent it from going into the branches. A beautiful 28 cm Trout then joins the landing net, doing our points tally a world of good! As the other fish were really wary and almost impossible to fool, I decided to try my luck with a fly before leaving the lake. Despite the limited space and my poor fly-tying skills, I manage to land a small black fly on the head of a small Trout gobbling, which immediately rises and is bitten at the end of the lighthouse 864-4 ! Unfortunately, it will only show 20.5 cm on the toise and the mesh is 21 cm... After many more unsuccessful attempts, we decide to head for the lakes further down the valley, as we still have a lot of miles to go! After a few casts in various lakes along the way without a single hit, we arrive at one of the last lakes before continuing for many kilometers, during which the fishing will be very difficult on large dam lakes and the fishing time very limited. Walking along the edge of this lake, I see a beautiful Trout on the edge, so I hasten to throw all the rods to Stella, grab the Area Flanker announcing "she must be 28", throw my little larva very precisely in front of the Trout, who will quickly arrive on it to grab it! With the landing net attached to the hiking bag, I take the risk of dropping the Trout by grabbing the line by hand! Stella then unhooked the net and I slipped it in, just long enough to get out the measuring rod! A 27.9 cm fish that was a real pleasure, a memorable sight action for which we had to be very reactive, and the fact that we always had the rods in our hands enabled us to catch this fish, unlike many competitors who folded their rods and hung them on the bag for the walking phases! We then quickly calculate how long it will take us to reach the next point and our bivouac, leaving us 45 min of fishing before we have to trace! Stella still insists on her big wave in the middle of the lake, while I decide to adopt a finer, complementary technique. The prototype allows me to send a tiny 3gr undulator quite a long way and feel it swim over the bottom very slowly. The strategy paid off: in less than 45 minutes, I landed 3 more Trouts and Stella one, all of them around 27/28cm! This gives us a total of 8 trout with a good average size and a nice quota of 10 char, giving us hope of a top 10 finish on this Salmo Trek, especially given the mixed feedback we've had from other competitors throughout our trip! It's time to set off for Lac de Cap de Long, an emblematic lake for fishing large salmonids, but one that is very, very difficult to fish, on the edge of which we plan to bivouac! At the end of a long and steep journey, during which our mental and physical capacities were put to the test, we arrived just at 9:45 p.m. at the lakeside, the deadline by which we had to stop moving having been set at 10 p.m.!

More walking than fishing for the last day!

At daybreak, we still give ourselves an hour to fish this huge lake of Cap de Long, hoping to land a really big fish! The fishermen a few meters from us pull out a small unmeshed christivomer, a species whose mesh is fixed at 35 cm. After a few casts at more than 70/80m with my 721xray and an 11-gr undulator, I take a touch above the bottom, hook hard to get the hook in at this distance, and bring back a fish that isn't very combative, but still seems quite heavy. I weed it out and, given the colors it displays, immediately think of a small christivomer, like the other anglers nearby. Estimating the fish at around 25 cm, I take a quick photo in the landing net and quickly release it, happy to have caught my first christi', but disappointed that it wasn't meshed! After dozens of other casts, we decide to leave the lake to cover the many kilometers remaining to arrive in time at the finish of this Salmo Trek! On the way, our legs start to feel heavy, and our minds start to wander! I think about what we could or couldn't have improved in our strategy, about the fish we caught, and about that first christi'... Then suddenly I have a doubt, I look at the photo again, compare it with the char caught the day before, and not without shame, tell Stella that I released a char without even measuring and counting it to improve the quota... I must not have been awake and was so hoping to catch a christi that I thought it was a juvenile! Both absurd and laughable, this anecdote will bother me for the whole of the return journey, even though it wouldn't have improved anything and the final result will prove it, I feel particularly stupid about this reaction! We spend the rest of the time walking, stopping quickly in a few places to take a break and fish, but to no avail... Chatting to all the Salmo Trek anglers along the way, our results look pretty good and we're pretty confident of a top 10 finish, which was already our dream before we set off! It's time for the interminable climb to the finish: the Col du Portet, which we left 3 days before! All the competitors chat and exchange ideas during the climb, in a very pleasant atmosphere! We've done it! We've reached the end of this incredible adventure, together! Stella and I are really proud to have accomplished this journey, and even though we're exhausted, it's with a smile on our faces that we get our catches validated by the marshals and keep a close eye on the rankings! We're waiting on the line for our friend Morgan and his son Marc, aged 7, who also managed to finish this race, and who are without doubt the most deserving of all the competitors!

A twist in the final rankings:

Once all the competitors have arrived, everyone drives down to the town of Saint Lary-Soulan, where a meal and prize-giving party are organized! Final adjustments are being made to the rankings, and the bonuses for the best walkers have to be awarded, as well as that for the big fish, a 47 cm christivomer. Once all these points have been awarded, we take a look at the standings and see that we're still in 4th place, with a total of 4,885 points! An incredible ranking for us to finish in the top 5 of this competition, especially considering the talented teams present! On top of that, Stella is declared the best female and wins a prize, which is richly deserved, as she fished very well and gave it her all throughout the 3 days! The 3rd and 2nd runners-up (who were the winners of the previous edition) are congratulated and applauded. Then it's the turn of the first-place finishers to take to the stage to be congratulated in turn and collect the huge cheque for 4,000 euros promised to the winners! The evening is spent in good spirits, and everyone leaves early enough to get some rest after the strenuous efforts of the last few days! It wasn't until the next day, when resting and checking the photos of the winners' fish, that several competitors realized there had been cheating, and that different fish had been counted several times! After numerous complaints from the competitors and unfailing evidence of cheating the year before, the details of which I won't go into here, a disciplinary committee was convened and they were naturally disqualified, leaving the winners of the previous edition of the Salmo Trek, whom I'd like to congratulate once again! This turn of events enabled us to take the third step on the podium out of more than 65 teams, which is absolutely incredible for a first, and a mixed one at that! A magnificent place and an incredible adventure that we won't soon forget! By the way, I'll probably have a little blank sticker printed with "Salmo Trek Special / 3rd place" to add to the prototype, which should often be part of my bundle for Trout sessions! Learn more about La Salmo Trek