Beautiful Fish - Char

Photos of different char species in the blog   

http://flyfishingrussia.com/

Kamchatka, Raduga River, September 2011 - Part 2

The next morning was foggy.  I was fishing the Raduga near the camp, at the first pool upstream from the junction with the Kamchatka River.  Because of the low light conditions the fish were not very active.  The best flies were the brightest ones - fluorescent pink or red. 

 At the opposite bank from the camp there was a bear trail.  No, it was not just a trail, but a true bear highway!

 Some prints are made by the "nice" size animals. 

 I was wading on sand along the low bank, casting to the deeper water. 

 This silver-sided kundzha (white-spotted charr) is fresh from the sea. 

In the pool there were lots of silver charr, but nothing very big

 A tiny red wobbler-fly with a foam back had a profile of a mayfly nymph.  This #12 fly was wiggling under the surface, and was considered a morsel by grayling. 

 The same fly was also attracting good size charr.  The fish were rising to the surface to intercept it. 

 Steller's sea eagle (white-shoulder sea eagle) with its 2,5 meter wingspan and 9 kg maximum weight is the biggest bird of prey.  Condor is bigger,  but it is a scavenger and not a hunter.  The main food source of the bird in Kamchatka are Pacific salmon.  This particular specimen is young - it does not have the full, mature colors of the species. 

 My friend Andrey had decided to test Tasmanian Devil - this lure is new for Kamchatka.  When spin fishing Andrey is always making a single hook out of a treble.  The pink lure was catching all local fish - charr, trout, salmon, and even grayling.

To be continued..

First time at the Delaware River

In May 2011 I was invited by my friend Bob to visit him at the Delaware River.  The weather was wet, but not windy. 

Bob's camp is very simple and basic.

This place is considered rather dangerous for non-fishermen..

 Bob has a wooden canoe with which we were planning to float the river.

Nice stretch of the river - no roads and no houses

Trout was not active on the surface, so I had spent some time pursuing a quarry new for me - shad.  This huge anadromous herring was biting tiny (#10) & bright wobbler-flies.  Shad was found in the pools.  

I was also able to catch two little brook trout.  One was caught with a Pluchille streamer, and another - with a wobbler-fly. 

Bill was having some luck with dry flies & rainbow trout, but no trophy specimens were landed  

In one of the pools I had landed a little walleye, which bit a 3" long yellow wobbler-fly

A goos protecting its nest.

Lago Fagnano, Tierra del Fuego, Chile

 We are heading to the south of the Tierra del Fuego Island.  The road is literally cut in the rocks. 

Finally the long-awaited Lago Fagnano is visible from a mountain pass.  At the pass we see the first snow.  

This huge lake is 100 km long and up to 500 m deep.  In the first evening we were able to fish the lake - the wind was very mild.  I was lucky to land a very unusually looking rainbow trout. 

 The fish was very strong, rather skinny and bright silver - with no pink strips on its sides.

 About 9/10 of the Fagnano Lake belongs to Argentina; we have visited the western, Chilean part.  Here there is the lake outlet - short Rio Azopardo. 

Rio Azopardo is swift and powerful; its water is very clear.  There are rumors on huge sea-run brown trout which are caught in this stream.   The wading was tough - in most areas the stream was way too deep. 

I was able to catch a fat brook trout.  This fish is probably coming into the river out of the lake for feeding or spawning. 

 Good size rainbow trout was caught far from the bank with a nymph on a floating line

In the upper reaches of the Rio Chico (right tributary to the lower Rio Galliegas)

Rio Galliegas is one of the most famous streams Patagonia - it hosts a good size anadromous brown trout.  The average fish in this stream is 2,8 kg, and the biggest can be up to 15 kg.  Most of the drainage belongs to the territory of Argentina, but its sources are situated in Chile.   

Rio Chico is right tributary to the lower Rio Galliegas.  We have come to its upper reaches after a 100 km drive on dirt road.  Now we are on Chilean territory: Argentina is several kilometers behind me.    

There were lots of nandu ostriches along this road

The river has very low gradient; in many areas it looks like a chain of pools with weeds

We have come to the area where Rio Chico was flowing through a long, shallow lake

In the pool we have started to catch fish - these were good size brook trout.  The fish were biting black Wooly Buggers and other dark streamers.  I was using a tube-fly.  There are no other fish species in the whole drainage of Rio Chico - only brook trout. 

One of the fish was incredibly bright, fat and high-bodied.

The next lake downstream from the first one had no fish.  Here we have seen flamingoes.