Fish of Switzerland

The country occupies a unique hydrological position: water falling on it runs to the North Sea via the Rhine, to the Mediterranean via the Rhône, to the Adriatic via the Ticino and to the Black Sea via the Inn. Four basins, four ancestral faunas, in a territory you cross in a few hours.

The large Alpine lakes — Geneva, Constance, Neuchâtel and the rest — are deep, cold and very clear. Their volume gives them real thermal inertia: they warm slowly in spring and hold their chill late in the year, which shifts the good windows relative to nearby lowland waters.

Mountain rivers complete the picture with brisk, oxygenated water of a clarity that leaves little room for approximation. Fishing is fine, often working upstream, and the approach matters more than the tackle.