Yama River, Sea of Okhotsk

Yama Rivers flows into the Shelikov Bay of the Sea of Okhotsk to the west from Magadan

 The river is about 300 km long.

 The river flows through the wide valley, filled with pebbles, and forms numerous channels and islands.

 The valley is grown with sparse larch forest, has many marshy areas 

 The best fishing in the Yama River is done by floating the river by inflatable rafts. 

 Tent camp of a group of fishermen at the gravel island

 Brown bears are plentiful at the Yama banks during the salmon run

 Yama River hosts 3 (!) different species of anadromous charrs:  Dolly Varden (top), white-spotted charr (bottom), and endemic yellow-mouth charr (Levanidov's charr) - Salvelinus levanidovi.    

 Chum is the most numerous salmon of the river; the spawners number hundreds of thousands.  Most of chum are spawning 30-150 km from the sea both in the main river and in its tributaries.   

Arctic grayling in the Yama River can be huge: this 53 cm female had weight 1800 grams. 

To be continued...