Yudoma River

Yudoma is a big river – it is 820 km long. Yudoma is the biggest tributary of the Maya River, which flows into Aldan. Aldan belongs to the Lena R. drainege. The name "Yudoma"comes from the word “edoma” which means “steep bank with deposits of ancient ice”. Exactly in the layers of this type of soils the frozen carcasses of wooly mammoth and other extinct animals were found.

Middle reaches of the yudoma River

Yudoma is very diverse: it has complicated falls (rated at least III), short canyon stretches, areas with “braids”, long deep pools with sandy bottom and slow current. The most interesting stretch of the river is 150 km from the Yudoma Gates (small spectacular canyon) to the Dikiy (Wild) Falls. The only way to get to the river is helicopter charter from Okhotsk. The upper part of the drainage is not populated. Here there are only some native Even reindeer herders. The river valley has about 5000 lakes.

Unloaded helicopter comes up, and the group is left on the gravel bar on small pile of gear

"The Gates" - the most spectacular part of the river "Braided" area with numerous channels "Wild Falls"

Fishermen go through the "Wild Falls"

The river has typical fish fauna of mountainous Siberian streams: taimen, sharp-nose lenok, Arctic grayling, whitefish, and burbot. Numerous lakes of the wide valley of the Yudoma host Northern pike, yellow perch, and roach. The fish density in the main river channel in summer is rather low - most of Salmonids spend warm part of the year in tributaries.

This little taimen was landed with "Articulated Streamer" Sharp-nose lenok from the Telgi River, tributary to Yudoma

Northern pike is numerous in slow backwaters, and can be caught in the main stream as well

Trophy yellow perch was found only on some lakes

Tunguska River float-trip & fishing - May 2009 (Amur River drainage)

Kur River is 434 km long. After junction with Urmi River it forms 90 km long Tunguska River which joins Amur River at its left bank, opposite from the city of Khabarovsk. On May 8-10, 2009 I have made 3-day float-trip on the Tunguska River. I was using inflatable kayak "Timan" made by "Drakar", Lithuania.

The Tunguska River is big & slow, has no riffles, and sandy bottom.

The morning was cold, and there was fog on the sunrise

The most numerous fish in catches was sawbelly, surface-feeding small Cyprinid fish. It is common prey of most of the Amur predators.

This is three-lip, a small strange looking predatory fish from the Amur.

Catfish were feeding on shallow sandbars. I was catching them with dark or red streamers, presented close to the bottom. This fish can feed any time - day or night.

Catfish is very strong fish - even stronger than some Salmonids...

Tugur River - home of Siberian taimen

Siberian taimen in the Tugur River can be rather big. This healthy-looking fish was landed in September 2008.

The Tugur River basin is practically unpopulated (there is one small village near the river mouth), there are no roads (except winter roads). There is no mining and tree-cutting here too. There are 23 species of freshwater fishes in the river, including such numerous populations like chum, pink salmon, lenok and Siberian taimen.

Tugur River is flowing into the western part of the Sea of Okhotsk; its mouth is situated near the Shantar archipelago. The main source of the river is called Konin; it is rather slow forest-type stream with colored water & only few side-channels. Its main tributary, Munikan, is swift and has many log-jams. Below the confluence with the Assyni River the Konin River turns almost 180°. It’s direction is sharply changing from the southern to the north-eastern. Slow-flowing Konin becomes swift stream with numerous channels & log-jams. Only from this point the river has the "official" name Tugur.

Tugur below the confluence of the Konin R. with the Assyni R.

Upstream view to the confluence of the Konin R. (middle) & the Assyni R. (on the left).

The same confluence in big flood. Assyni R. is murky, and the dark water of the Konin R. is almost clear.

Huge unpassable log-jam at the Konin R. requires long portage through the dense forest...

129 cm taimen landed with a streamer in the evening (Konin R.)

My longest fish landed in the Tugur River (133 cm)

Oleg Abramov (oufitting firm "Krechet" from Khabarovsk) is happy - it was hard to land this 135 cm fish!

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

A little about the blog author

Mikhail Skopets with 130 cm (52") Siberian taimen landed with a fly in the Tugur River

I was born in 1954 in Ekaterinburg, USSR. This is a big city in the Ural mountains, which was at that time called Sverdlovsk. From 1977 till 2007 I was living in the Russian Far East, in the city of Magadan on the shore of the Sea of Okhotsk. Now I am living in Khabarovsk, Russia (Lower Amur River). For my whole life (from the age of 5) I was devoted to fishing. First it was bobber fishing in still water, later - spin-fishing for Northern pike and yellow perch. When I was 20, I have first tried grayling fishing in taiga rivers of the Urals. This was my first meeting with grayling and artificial flies - my two loves for the rest of my life. It was when I have started to tie my own flies, to invent new fly patterns. At that time my interest to learn flyfishing came to nothing due to the absence of the fly-tackle in the stores at that time. From my childhood I was reading everything about fishing and traveling. The best writers at that time for me were London, Hemingway, Fedoseev, Arsenyev, Kuvaev...

Magadan (pop. 90,000) from Nagaeva Bay, Sea of Okhotsk

I was graduated from the Biology department of the Ural State University in 1977. At that time I have decided to find me place to live as far north and east as possible. Russian Far East for Russia is the same as Alaska for Americans - the "last frontier". I have succeeded to organize an official invitation from the Institute of Biological Problems of the North (Rus. Acad. Sci.) - and I still work in this research institute. I am a fish biologist (Ph.D. in fish biology). Every summer and fall I spend in expeditions. I used to work in different regions of the Russian Far East: Chukotka and Kamchatka, Yakutia and Magadan region, Primorie and Khabarovsk region, Amurski region, Sakhalin and Kuril Islands. The fish which I like the most is grayling, even though I used to work with other Salmonid fish: Pacific salmon, steelhead, charr and taimen. When I first came to Magadan, I was an excitable spin-fisherman. I have liked other kinds of fishing as well - drift-fishing with salmon eggs, plannerboard with flies, ice-fishing with lures or bait. Abundance of fish was gradually diminishing my interest to fishing - catching fish was becoming too easy. Besides that, use of bait of treble hooks do not suite catch-and-release. In an old magazine I've found the know-how of silk fly-line. Another line I've made out of plastic covering of electric wiring. My first rod and reel were self-made as well. This tackle was rather clumsy, but suitable for practical fishing. I was learning to cast from the magazine articles and English books. With these primitive fly-tackle I've landed several salmon, dozens of charr and lots of grayling.

Self-portret from underwater: this is how the fish see us...

Every summer since 1992 I was working as a guide with fishermen from Western Europe and US; many of them were high class fly-fishermen. In every journey I was doing my job and at the same time learning: learning from the fishermen and from the nature. Russian Far East is true "last frontier" for flyfishermen - many of our sportfish were never caught with flies before. In literature there is no information on such species as Sakhalin taimen, cherry salmon, whitespotted charr - or on diverse predators from the huge Amur River. When starting to "survey" these species I had to invent new flies and fishing tactics. From that time I've abandoned the spinning gear. Drift-tackle I am using only in winter, when it is too cold to flyfish. My recent passion is photography, including underwater photography in lakes and rivers.

From 1998 I am regularily writing for the Russian sport-fishing magazines, mostly for Rybolov-Elite (Elite Fisherman) & for the only Russian flyfishing magazine Nakhlyst (Flyfishing). In 2003-2004 I was at the editorial board of Nakhlyst. By 2009 I had publishes over 70 popular articles. In 1990 I have published my first book on sport-fishing (20,000 copies printed in Russian). Recently I have self-published a book on fly-fishing in the Russian Far East. It is 304 pages colored book, which was printed in Russian in March 2007 (2,000 copies).

From 1994 till 2005 I was working with the Wild Salmon Center . Now I am free-lance journalist, writing for sportfishing and outdoor magazines, mostly Russian ones. Besides that, I take part in environmental projects of different type, including the ones in the field of industrial ecology. I continue working with fly-fishermen, collaborate with sportfishing clubs of the Russian Far East, take part in casting and fly-tying training programs.

Taimen fishing, Bichi River (tributary to the Lower Amur River)

Bichi is 300 km long, it is left tributary to the great Amur River. The stream is famous by its trophy Siberian taimen.

Bichi River is rather slow, and has clear colored water.

Local fishermen use old-style spinning gear with thick mono line

The river has several log-jams, some of which exist for many years

Group of fishermen is doing portage around the unpassable log-jam This 16 kg taimen I have landed with a streamer (Articilated Leach type, see below)

The fish was caught for the edge of the upper jaw bone pierced by the hook

Black Articulated Leech (String Leech) on 2/0 or 3/0 hook is one of the most efficient flies for both taimen species, Siberian & sea-run

Articulated Sculpin is taimen fly based on the design of String Leech

Articulated Grayling - another fly with weighted head and big hook on a string

Articulated Mouse - surface fly with a hook in a loop of 7x7 steel tippet material. I have landed several taimen with this fly equipped with 3/0 Octopus hook. 37 kg taimen, caught in the Bichi River in October 2004 by Oleg Zakrzhevski

Anyui River - first fiishing with flies in 2009!

Anyui River near Khabarovsk is swift stream with chum salmon spawning grounds. In April the ice in the areas with current melts, and it is possible to start flyfishing.

It is time when you can use skies, boat, ice-auger & flyrod on the same day. Ice-fishing did not bring success, but nymphing was good! There was a hatch of tiny stone-flies, but no surface activity of fish. We were catching Amur grayling & lenok (2 forms) with shrimp imitations near the bottom.

Amur grayling

Lenok (Siberian trout).