Fly fishing in León & Palencia:

Guides, Permits, Equipment & Lodging

The provinces of Leon and Palencia just to the South of Asturias and Santander make up one of the areas of greatest tradition in fly fishing in Spain. It was in this land that the Astorga manuscript dated 1624 first detailed the practice of confecting artificial flies for trout fishing in Spain. La Vecilla, another town in Leon, is home to the world famous Leon cocks raised for their brilliant saddle feathers.

We offer the travelling fly fisherman the chance to fish some of the mythical trout rivers of Spain including the Esla, the Porma, the Orbigo, the Luna or the Sil in Leon among others or the Pisuerga and the Carrion in Palencia with an excellent local guide. Depending on the dates and water conditions, we will select rivers offering the best possibilities of good hatches for the best dry fly fishing possible. Generally prime time for dry fly fishing will come in May and June. With the hotter weather in July and August, the best fishing on most rivers will be earlier in the day or late in the afternoon. However, we do have secret spots on shaded rivers where we often enjoy great dry fly fishing all day long. Many of the dam controlled rivers will be running high as water is released for irrigation purposes, thus we will often target smaller tributaries or areas higher up in the system.  as we head into the second half of September, we will begin to find the best conditions of the season for dry fly fishing on the dam controlled rivers as water flows are reduced. The primary target in these regions will always be brown trout native to the Iberian Peninsula.

With such a tradition in dry fly fishing for trout it is only natural that León and Palencia produce some of the finest fly fishermen in the world. Indeed we are fortunate to count on the services of two former world champions of fly fishing for salmonids, Pablo Castro & David García Ferreras to provide our Master Guide Service to clients as well as other fantastic local guides with an intimate knowledge of their waters and a technical mastery of the sport. If you are interested in learning Spanish nymphing or euro nymphing techniques or picking up some of the secrets of the highest levels of competitive fly fishing, in just a day with one of our guides you can learn things that will make you a better fly fisherman from then on. 

As for fishing licenses and day permits for controlled limited access waters, no worries, PescaTravel will take care of this ahead of time so you do not have worry about it. We do recommend that you book several weeks in advance to assure guide and permit availability and allow time for handling.