“It’s a bit shy”, recognizes Jean-Michel Ravailhe. The president of the Dordogne Federation for fishing and the protection of the aquatic environment is not yet worried, but he is a little disappointed. This Saturday, March 12, the opening of trout fishing everywhere in Franceand in the Dordogne, the number of cards sold is slightly down on last year.
In the Dordogne, 9049 fishermen took their card on the evening of March 11, against 9578 last year. It’s not much, but this 5.5% drop marks the end of two years of increases. With the coronavirus epidemic, and the confinements, the Périgourdins wanted fresh air, and the Federation passed the bar of 20,000 fishermen in the Dordogne in 2021.
A hobby that becomes expensive with the price of diesel
“Currently, we are asking ourselves questions. Normally, the day before the opening, we are at 900 cards per day, and there Thursday we were at 750. Most of the cards are taken in the week preceding the opening of the trout”notes Jean-Michel Ravailhe.
He puts forward as a possible explanation the gloom induced by the very heavy news at the moment with the war in Ukraine, but also the rise in diesel : “I think that the very significant increase in fuel is one of the reasons. Fishermen who like to go to the north of the department, if you live in Bergerac or Périgueux, we quickly reach a third of the full car there and back”.