Sea of Japan, August 2010 - family vacation

The coast of the Sea of Japan near Livadia and Nakhodka is very popular among Russian vacationers.  Bays with road access are crowded, but with a boat it is possible to find remote corners and camp. 

Sea of Japan, abandoned lighthouse at the tiny Trambetskogo Island

Anna Bay near Livadia

Huge mussels of the Sea of Japan are the best when grilled

Raw eggs of sea urchins have excellent flavor and taste

My wife with sea urchins

The coast is rocky; the depth along the rocks can be from 1 to 10 meters

The only fish I was able to catch with flies was a tiny brown rockfish

I was using fast-sinking shooting taper (33' piece of T14) and chartreuse Gotcha fly

Kamchatka 2010 - Vorovskaya River

Vorovskaya River is flowing into the Sea of Okhotsk through the birch forests of the western Kamchatka.  The river hosts stocks of all 6 species of Pacific salmon, Dolly Varden and white-spotted charrs, and rainbow trout. 

Grassy jungle along the river hide trails of brown bears

Cherry salmon in Kamchatka is always small - as big as pink salmon

This male of cherry salmon is beginning to gain spawning colors

Rainbow trout is plentiful in the river; its average size is not big

An attempt to land chum salmon with light tackle could cost you a rod

In the middle reaches of the river there are lots of braids and log jams.  It is is dangerous to navigate the Vorovskaya even with a jet-motor.  Lots of narrow channels are blocked by the logs. 

Upper part of the river has bigger gradient (over 0,002); log jams are also present here. 

We have decided not to go upstream from these rapids

The point which we were able to reach in 2010

Andrey is preparing grilled fish for dinner

Kamchatka, Avachinskaya Bay, fishing in the Pacific

Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the capitol of the Peninsula, is situated at the Avachinskaya Bay.  This wide and deep bay is well protected from the storms and has a narrow gate.  On a good day you can see several volcanoes surrounding the bay and the city.  The tallest is Koryakski - 3456 meters.

Near the gate we were passing Three Brothers rocks with a colony of sea birds

Sculpins are plentiful in the ocean, but we were looking for something better

One of the sculpins

We have started to fish on the depth of 25 meters.  I was not able to use flyrod and had to fish with a spinning tackle and bait.

On smaller depth we were also catching rock greenling

..and starry flounder.  I had managed to catch one flounder with a fly in 9 meters of water.. tough.  In Russia this flounder always has its left side blind. 

I was lucky to land this greenling (no idea on the species) with a flyrod on the depth of 5 meters

This is the gate of the bay from the shore

Levaya River, Kamchatka Peninsula, July 2010

Levaya R is right tributary to mighty & murky Elovka, which frows from the north of the peninsula and joins Kamchatka River in its middle reaches.   Levaya has clear water and is rather swift.  Here we see a good view to Shiveluch vlc, the most northern one of the entire Kamchatka, and one of the most active.  Right now it is erupting - you can see a cloud of ash. 

This is the junction of Levaya (close to us) with Elovka (far part of the image).  In Russian Elovka means "Spruce River".  

There are about 10,000 bears in Kamchatka.  These are 2 of them...

One more fishing bear at the Levaya River

Kamchatka subspecies of Arctic grayling is very numerous in this area

The main attraction of the stream is rainbow trout.  It is not selective at all and can "eat" any fly.

This charr is endemic to Kamchatka R. watershed drainage; it is called "stone-charr".  This is a predator, which often bites big flies which are used for salmon. 

Sockeye (red) salmon is plentiful in Levaya.  Normally this fish is hard to catch with sport tackle...

... but it can bite streamers & small wobbler flies.

Kamchatka River & Klyuchevskaya Sopka vlc (4700 m) near the Klyuchi village - the most active volcano in Asia