Sorry, gone to Africa for 6 weeks

Some images from my trip to Congo in 2008

It was a trip for work, not for fun.  The fishing was not too exciting - I was catching only aquarium size fish.

 Freshwater crab

 Freshwater shrimp

 Good size "Moth"

 danger!

 Leaf-cricket

Miss Africa

The family is going home after a day in a field

One more time on Amur skygazer - Oct 9 & 10, 2010

It was 2 day trip to Amur River near Khabarovsk with my friend's motorboat

We were fishing from anchored boat with 2-handed rods

The pool was 2-4 m deep with stronger current in the middle

 Average fish was about 1 kg

My friend Andrey was using mostly classic salmon flies; they were working well (photo ABond)

 He was also lucky to land a pike with red wobbler fly.  Amur pike in the fall is not biting "normal" streamers too often.  It prefers something with more action and vibrations (photo ABond).

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 I was testing new wobbler flies.  On that day different colors were working..

including blue ones

I have landed Amur whitefish; for a flyfisherman it is rare quarry.  

Locals catch whitefish with bottom-lines baited with small fish.  

 

 Our camp on a tiny gravel spit

 

Oct 02, 2010, Amur River in downtown Khabarovsk

Today I was fishing the Amur River in downtown Khabarovsk, near the "cliff" in the park.  My main goal was testing new wobbler flies.  These flies can be tied in different colors and sizes, but these were made for pelagic predators of the Amur River, first of all - skygazer.  

The first fish I caught that day was tiny blackbelly.  This was strange (even bigger specimens rarely bite flies).

  About 10 AM I had a serious pull from the depth about 3 meters from the surface. 

This was 72 cm long skygazer; it is also called Korean tarpon.  

This fish belongs to carps, but looks like a giant herring.  

The weight of fish was about 3,5 kg (close to 8 pounds)

Skygazer had bitten silver and pearl wobbler fly with yellow tail.  There were more bites, but 2 landed fish were much smaller than the first one.