Armenia, Arpa River - Caucasus brown trout

Short fishing trip, Caucasus, Armenia

I was working in Armenia.  This country used to be part of USSR; now it is independent country, situated between Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Iran.   The entire territory of the country belongs to the watershed of the Caspian Sea.  One weekend I went fishing with my friend, local fisherman. 

On a road near Yerevan it is possible to see huge Ararat volcano with a snowy summit at the altitude of 5137 meters.

  Dry mountains on the road to Arpa River.

 Armenian villages with lush gardens look like oases surrounded by harsh mountains.

 Arpa River is swift and powerful.  The water at that day was slightly murky.  

 At the banks I had found numerous signs of high productivity of the river

 I have started to fish with floating line and a small nymph 

 One cast went too far and got to the opposite bank.  The nymph was immediately bitten by a fat frog. 

Catch and release

 The frog is unharmed.  Let's look for trout.

To be continued

Yama River, Sea of Okhotsk - 2

 When snorkeling in the clear water of Yama River, I was able to see different fish, including coho & chum salmon

 Kundzha or white-spotted charr (Salvelinus leucomaenis) can reach 12 and even 20 kg.  

This is the biggest Salmonid fish of the rivers where there are no king salmon or taimen.  

 Deep and slow side-channels are the best resting areas for coho salmon.  Dark spots on this photo are fish!

Hooked coho is often jumping (photo of Nikita Vladimirov)

 This fisherman is holding 3 rods with a coho salmon on each of them...

 Typical flybox for the rivers with Pacific salmon, charr, & Arctic grayling: bright streamers, "salmon eggs", skating patterns, caddis-fly imitations... 

Chum salmon are often resting in deep pools and bays.  This fish in the Yama is much more numerous than coho.   

 Quite often chum (left) and coho (right) form joined schools

 Yama is famous by nice size Dolly Varden charr