Elgygytgyn Lake & Tugur River

Tugur taimen

Elgygytgyn Lake char

The articles of the Elgygytgyn Lake & Tugur River are posted at the blog 

http://flyfishingrussia.com/

Azhabachie Lake, Kamchatka: bears, birds, and fish

http://flyfishingrussia.com/  -  a post on Azhabachie Lake, Kamchatka.  Good size images.

Kamchatka, Raduga River, September 2011 - Part 3 (Azhabacie Lake)

On the next day we had decided to go to the nearby Azhabachie Lake.  The big water body is famous by its sockeye salmon spawning grounds and by "hordes" of brown bears.   At the image is the downstream view at the Kamchatka R. from the mouth of the channel, connecting the river with the lake.  The channel is about 10 km long.  

 The "Raduga" biological station at the channel belongs to the Institute of Marine Biology (Rus.  Acad.  of Sciences, Vladivostok).  Here the scientists study the ecosystem of the lake. 

 We go upstream the channel, heading to the lake

At one good-looking spot of the channel we have seen lots of rising fish and decided to stop for fishing. 

Some of these fish were smolts of Pacific salmon (coho).  Some small charrs feeding with insects were also caught with a dry fly.   

 Andrey was able to catch something bigger with a heavy leader.

 It is a charr

 Most of charrs of the Azhabachie Lake are not silver; these fish are resident. 

 I have hooked something strong and fast moving

 It looks like a trout!

 Yes, it is one. 

It is a good size fat trout with a healed scar from some predator (otter?).  The trout in the lake outlet feed with sockeye smolts, so they have enough food.  

Finally our boat is nearing the Azhabachie Lake, which is 8 km long and up to 36 m deep.  

To be continued..

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..

Kamchatka 2010 - Avacha River

Preparation for the trip to Kamchatka includes tying numerous, very bright flies for salmon and charr

The main goal of the trip was participation in a fly-casting and fly-fishing seminar, which was organized by a tackle store Orbita Rybolova (Petropavlovsk-Kamchatski, Kamchatka, Russia)

Before and after the seminar I was able to fish the lower part of the Avacha River.  It is popular among the local sportfishermen.  Poachers are also plentiful. 

A gear fisherman with a little chinook and 3456 m Koryakski vlc as a background

Fresh pink salmon (June 20, 2010) with sea lice.  Pink salmon were biting pink and red flies.  The most efficient presentation was slow retrieve after a downstream (or downstream-and-across) cast.  The size of  the flies should be between #10 and #4

Little chinook (5 kg) caught with a fly

The fly which I was using - a yellow-and-blue String Leech

Tiny resident charr caught with a wobbler fly 

The same fly was also working well for anadromous Dolly Varden charr

Vilyuchinski vlc

Misterious Elgygytgyn Lake, Central Chukotka

Elgygytgyn Lake is the most interesting water body of the North-Eastern Asia. Imagine treeless tundra of Central Chukotka (68°N) with sloping mountains. Right at the divide between the Arctic Ocean (Chaun River) and Pacific Ocean (Anadyr River) these mountains form a perfect ring 17 km across.

This hollow has space origin: it was formed by an impact of a huge meteorite 3.5 million years ago. Elgygytgyn is considered the biggest of the young meteorite craters on the Earth surface. About a half of the surface of this ring is filled by water – by a round lake 12 km across and up to 180 m deep.

Elgygytgyn Lake on June 30, 1986

The mountains around the lake are populated by the biggest population of wild caribou in Chukotka

The lake is extremely cold – the temperature near the bottom is never above 2,5-3ºC, and on the surface it is always near freezing. Elgygytygn Lake is too cold for most fish species to survive; it is inhabited by 3 species of charr. Charr community of the lake is represented by a big predator, Boganid charr, and two endemic small species, feeding on zooplankton – small-mouth charr and long-fin charr.

llong-fin charr - Salvethymus svetovidovi (on top)

small-mouth charr - Salvelinus elgyticus

Boganid charr - Salvelinus boganidae

The weight of the biggest specimens of Boganid charr in the Elgygytgyn Lake can be about 15 kg, my own record fish was 9 kg. Open-water tackle can be used from mid June (in holes near the mouth of tributaries) till the freezing of the lake (September).

Boganid charr in spawning colors

June 1986. Two charrs caught in the hole along the bank. Record 9 kg fish caught through the ice.

Long-fin charr belongs to new genus of Salmonids, discovered in 1985. Scientific name of the genera – Salvethymus - was created out of the words Salvelinus (charr) and Thymallus (grayling). At first sight this fish looks similar to both charr and grayling. The genus has only one species, kindred to charrs. Long-fin charr is ancient fish with many primitive features. It is considered to be close to ancestor of all charrs. Long-fin charr are slow-growing fish: the biggest specimen was 30 cm long; its age was 30 years!

Long-fin charr (male in spawning colors) Long-fin charr in the hole in the ice

Inya River (Sea of Okhotsk)

Inya River is 300 km long. It is flowing from a chain of big lakes at the altitude of 1000 m onto the Sea of Okhotsk. The lakes have glacier origin.

Outlet of the Inya River from the Hel-Degi Lake

Upper part of the "Lower Canyon" of the Inya River Lower Canyon

Inya is swift and has lots of log-jams. Its upper part is quite dangerous for rafting.

Camp of the Even raindeer herders

Dry fish (chum salmon and Dolly Varden charr).

The fish is prepared traditional Even method.

Storages of the Even raindeer herders. In such storages the belongings are safe from such animals as bear or volverene.

Sockeye salmon & Arctic grayling in the Etergen Lake

Diversity of fish in the Hel-Degi Lake: Arctic grayling, "big" form of charr, "small" form of charr, resident dwarf male of sockeye salmon.

Chum salmon at the spawning ground (female has black strip on the sides)