Sakhalin Island, Poronai River, Part 2 (see message from August 16, 2009)

The first days were hot, and it was hard to catch anything interesting.

It was mid July; time when countless poplar seeds are flying downwind

Poronai River has lots of long deep pools. It can take long time to cover even one such pool with sport tackle.

Pacific redfin (Tribolodon ezoe) is anadromous Cyprinid; it can bite any lure or fly.

This fish was caught with a pike fly.

In the evening of the day 5 it had started to rain. Tomorrow I could expect that taimen and salmon will become more acrive.

I was using sinking line and heavy fly, suitable for taimen. Sea-run taimen often bite flies tied out of bucktail. 35-inch sea-run taimen (Hucho perryi)

The second fish was only slightly bigger than the first one.

(to be continued)

Sakhalin Island, Poronai River, Part 1

Poronai is the biggest river of the Sakhalin Island; it is 350 km long. THe fish fauna of Poronai is mixture of resident fish from the Amur River (pike, ide) and anadromous fish from the Pacific ocean (Pacific salmon, charrs, sea-run taimen, Pacific redfin).

The river is protected by marshes and swamps; its upper part it is impossible to reach by car. To get to the starting poind of the float we had to go by ATV.

This road to the upper part of the Poronai River is impassable by any car

To get to the river we had to hire an army personnel carrier

This is upper Poronai near the mouth of the Taulan River. The river has colored water; it is 10-20 meters wide, and up to 2 meters deep.

We were floating the river and fishing in all suitable places. Here we had to saw through a log jam. Passing another log jam

The first fish was Amur pike. It is one of the most numerous species in the river.

In summer the Amur ide is feeding mostly on insects, but it is always ready to swallow small fish. Silver streamer on a bottle-tube was working well.

On the gravel bars of Poronai there are lots of pieces of coal; we were using it for cooking

Tiger lily