Trip to the Bichi River, Udyl Lake, Amur River - Part 2 (Udyl L.)

In the lower reaches the Bichi River before entering the Udyl Lake is forming a big delta.  The area is swampy & treeless; it looks like tundra.  My camp is hidden near one of the nearby streams, Bitki R.  The distance to the lake is 1 km. 

End of June is time of downstream migration of the chum salmon smolts.  All predatory and non-predatory fish is now feeding by these small silver smolts.  I will be using smolt imitations of appropriate size.  My main goal is to catch Amur whitefish with a fly. 

The area is flat, the current - rather slow.  The terrain is not spectacular, but it is notmal for habitats of whitefish.

I was using 7 weight rod, floating line and sink tip.  Whitefish is normally not coming close to the surface, and prefers to feed in middle layers of water. 

Amur whitefish

Amur whitefish; the biggest specimens of the species can be up to 5 kg. 

This species of whitefish is predatory; it has terminal mouth.

Along the north shore the 50 km long Udyl Lake is very shallow

On the gravel bars of the lake outlet there are lots of cornelians

Kolchem village at the lake outlet

To be continued...

Trip to the Bichi River, Udyl Lake, Amur River - Part 1 (Bichi)

I was floating the lower reaches of the Bichi River, crossed the Udyl Lake, and went down the channels to the Amur River.  The trip had ended in the Bogorodskoe village.  From here I went by regular bus to Khabarovsk. 

The MI-8 helicopter, which had to take a group of taimen fishermen back home, had brought me to the river. 

The helicopter is gone, and I had stayed alone on the river.

The plan was to move downstrean with inflatable kayak.  The main goal for the trip was to catch Amur whitefish with a flyrod (nobody did it before). 

I was fishing in the river on the first day.  After a strong rain it became murky, and I was limited to the sloughs and bays.

Big bright flies are the best for Amur pike (this one is called "Rainbow")

Amur pike

Smaller streamers were bringing "predatory minnows" - Amur minnow ...

... and Amur ide.

Good size pike

This pike is kept for the supper. 

The "anti-wobbler" fly is one of the best for pike.  The uright blade makes the fly both wiggle and come to the surface.  I will make a post on these unique flies a little later. 

To be continued...