Very Beautiful Fish

New images of salmon and trout of the genus Salmo

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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

Upper part of the famous Rio Grande (Tierra del Fuego)

World-famous Rio Grande (Tierra del Fuego island) is 220 km long.  The upper 120 km of the river belongs to Chile, and its lower part - to Argentina.   Most of the fishermen come here in search of the trophy sea-run brown trout, which can reach 18 kg.  This fishing occurs in the middle & lower part of the river, in Argentina.  It is also possible to catch sea-run trout in Chile, not far from the border with Argentina. In its upper part Rio Grande has good density of resident brown trout. 

This shot was made from a hill, 70 km from the source of the Rio Grande.  The stream is 12-20 meters wide; its depth is 30-150 cm.  The river floodplain is treeless, and the hills along the river valley are covered with beech trees.  The river is not deep and can be crossed by wading at most of the riffles.

In the river we were catching only one species, brown trout.  The fish were from 200 g to 1 kg.  The biggest fish density was below the riffles, but the biggest fish were found in the deep part of the pools, in the areas with cover (snags or submerged peat clumps). 

 

 It is always fun to catch brown trout.  The fishing was quite easy: the fish is not selective and (on windy days) not spooky.  Dark Wooly Bugger on #8 or #6 hook was a good choice for this stream.  

 

Calafate bush is protecting its tasty berries with inch-long spines

 

 Southern caracara

 

Lago Lynch, Tierra del Fuego, Patagonia

Lago Lynch is a big water body in the upper part of the Rio Grande drainage.  The lake surface is about 50 square kilometers.  It is posssible to reach the lake by 4 km of wet trail, coming off a remote logging road. 

Along the road there were lots of beaver dams.  Beavers were stocked into the waters of the island in 1920es; the animal has devastating effect at the beech forests of the island.    

Grey fox is one of the native animals of Patagonia 

 The trail was quite wet; in some areas we had difficulties to pass even in 4WD pickup. 

 

Guanacos along the road

 

 Along the east bank the lake is very shallow, and its bottom is flat.  We did not have a boat, and it was hard to find fish.

 

Finally I have managed to find a "structure" - a deeper area surounded by shallows.  It was situated over 100 meters from the lake shore. 

 

 In this place we have started catching fish.  These were mostly rainbows up to 1 kg. 

 

 The tackle: 15' 2-handed rod, floating line, clear slow-sinking leader, and 0,25 mm tippet.  The fish were biting small dark wet flies & nymphs on #10 & # 12 hooks.  Retrieve: pulls and pauses.   

 

 Ratio of rainbow to brown trout was 2:1.  Some brown trout were dark - they had normal "river" colors.

 

Other fish were almost silver, which is typical for the fish from big, clear waters 

 

 We have decided to keep 2 trout and prepare them in a foil with onions.  Calafate berries are adding special flavor. 

 

Rio Rusfin, Tierra del Fuego, Patagonia, Chile

Rio Rusfin is flowing along the road 85 in Chilean part of the Tierra del Fuego. 

We were camping near the road in the beech forest. 

Rio Rusfin is a small creek flowing in wide valley.  There are no trees or bushes in the creek floodplain. 

The creek is 2-6 meters wide; average depth is 30-60 cm; some holes are up to 1,5 m deep. 

Trout was feeding in deep riffles and in the upper parts of the pools

Regardless to the small size of a creek, in March there were mostly good size trout here

This old dredge was used during the Tierra del Fuego gold rush.  It was long ago, in beginning of the 20 century.  Now the river looks healthy regardless to the former mining activities.  We all know how bad placer mining is for the trout streams...  I am glad 100 years is enough for rehabilitaton.  

Brown trout is nocturnal animal; it is biting flies even when fisherman is not able to see his fly and tippet

Rio Galliegas Chico

Rio Galliegas Chico is right tributary to the middle reaches of famous Patagoinan stream - Rio Galliegas.  The river begins in the middle of a wide, dry valley on Chilean territory, several kilometers from the border with Argentina.  Above thar place there is no stream in the valley; the river appears on the day surface as a spring

creek. 

 

A horse is hiding from strong wind behind a bush

The stream is vodka-clear, chocked by weeds and green ooze. 

The river looks like a chain of separate pools, connected with green marshy meadows.

The average depth of the pools is 1-1,5 meters.

The river is one of the easiest for catching good size trout, at least on windy days.  The fish is not spooky, and there is no need to cast far.  Drop a dark streamer into the deeper part of the pool and retrieve it with jerks. 

We were hiking along the river further downstream.   

The river is populated by nice size trout.  It is true brown trout - the fish has bright, red-brown color.   In many pools it is hard to land fish - it is hiding in thick weeds.    

"Memorial to the wind" at the road #9 near Punta Arenas

In the national park Torres del Paine, Chile

The national park Torres del Paine is situated 300 km to the north from Punta Arenas, capital of the Region XII, Chile.  One of the main attractions of the park is a group of spectacular rocks called Cuernos.  These rocks are built of black hornstone on top of white granite.  Some people like to climb such cliffs and claim that it is even better than fly-fishing... 

This shot shows the same mountains as background of the biggest stream of the park - Rio Serrano.

Rio Serrano is powerful, deep and wide.  In the end of February 2010 near the stream outlet out of a big lake Lago del Toro there were lots of chinook salmon.  All fish were dark and did not want to bite our flies same as lures of local fishermen.   

In the river it was possible to catch good size trout

All fish caught at the park territory should be released

In the park there are many lakes created by glaciers

Waterfall between the lakes Lago Nordenskjold and Lago Pehoe

It is hard to visit the park and not to take numerous pictures of guanacos

Local gees have striped feathers which are excellent as fly-tying material

In the areas where the gees feed it is easy to find plenty of feathers,

which make excellent streamer wings