Armenia, Arpa River - Caucasus brown trout - the end.

After releasing the first catch, a frog, I continued fishing with a nymph.  

The first fish waskhramulya(Varicorhinus capoeta)

 The next species was Kura barbel - Barbus lacerta cyri  

 

 Finally I was lucky to land a nice trout.   

Beautiful fish!  It is my first trout from the Caspian Sea drainage.   

 In many cases we had to fish from steep rocky banks of the river.   

My Armenian friend was using standard local tackle - long pole with a bobber.  He was using worms as a bait.

 Local fishermen do not have catch-and-release tradition.. One of the fish was tiny rainbow trout, which had probably escaped from a nearby hatchery. 

 I was able to catch one more trout with a wobbler fly.  

These flies are very convenient to use when standing high above the river.

 Wild poppy flowers

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