Chavanga Fish Blog

Tuesday, 3 November 2015

Fishing on the Icha river, a brief overview of its potential.

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Vasil Bykau

Fishing on the Icha river, a brief overview of its potential.

The concepts of "beautiful" or "good" river quite subjective. Typically, we put in them different meanings, but there are common points such as untouched, beautiful landscape around, comfortable size of the river, convinient banks and of course - sufficient amount of fish. We can add up many various factors which makes the river better or worse, depending on the needs and personal preferences of angler. First of all, I would add here few things that are very valuable for fishing -comfortable and easy transportation and the lack of fishing pressure. Then we can talk about organization of the process of fishing, and the convenience of living and accommodation. I will abandon all sorts of sentiments and immediately move on to the things that seem to me more - less objective in assessing the river, as a place for fishing and recreation.

I'll start with the river. The river is medium sized, available for fishing in the most parts. The river is very diverse, there are islands, shoals, holes, rocks and so on, all this creates big variety of interesting areas fir fishing. Water generally is crystal clear, the bottom is solid. The water level reacts to the rise of moderate rain, not critical for fishing. Of course, torrential rains which last for a couple of days could lead to a significant reduction in water clarity and cause a a big jum in water level. But such an extreme weather changes happens here pretty rare, and theoretically they can spoil a fishing trip anywhere in the world.

The river is very curvy, creating a lot of areas suitable for both banks fishing. Numerous islands, holes and curves allow us to fish the river virtually with any water level. You can always find a good place for the fish and for the angler. In general, 40 km of the river is allocated for fishing. Therefore, we have huge bit of the river, which is enough for a week or two of comfortable fishing for a big group of fishermen. Once again I want to draw your attention to the size and nature of its river bed, which makes it very convenient for fly-fishing.

The character of the river explains its popularity among fly fisherman who visited the river. The river flows in to the Okhotsk seas, and has all kinds of Pacific salmon. Two of them are the most interesting for fishing: chinook and coho. Chinook - the biggest fish and coho appears in the river in the very comfortable time for fishing in the season. But, in my opinion, the most interesting targets for fly fishing are the rainbow trouts and white-spotted chars. This fishing is more diverse and dynamic. Rainbow trout population here is quite decent. There are no giants, at least, I have not came across on a hook, but the average size of trout greater than 1.5 kg. Can be a good trophy fish weighing more than 2 kg. Given the extremely diverse channel of the river, trout and char fishing becomes a true pleasure.
I must add here that it is very important the correct organization of fishing. The use of boats with water jet engines makes it possible to separate participants to different areas. At the same time the pressure on the river is minimal. The second major part of each fishing trip - is the quality of living and eating. In my opinion the camp quite comfortable, clean and adapted to the needs of fishermen. Dryer, bath, WC, comfortable bedrooms, what else does a man need who spend the day on the river? Technically equipped kitchen, chef and comfortable warm dining room. For a one-two weeks stay here, the daily fishing fatigue does not accumulate. It explains the advantages of comfortable river and good accommodation conditions in the camp.

At the end of this brief review, I would like to discuss the factor on which at some point we finally find ourselves on the bank of the river. This is the factor of transport, delivery to the river, this factor determines the price of the programs. Sometimes the price of various programs heavily dependent on the transportation aspects such as helicopters and so on. Here on Icha river we have a unique combination of aspects that in my opinion suits the needs of fishermen. As there are no roads along the river, we use boats to get to the camp, which makes it needless to use helicopters and saves us a fortune. At the same time, the leased land 40 km intended for fishing, virtually inaccessible to foreign fishermen or poachers. Moreover, we do not depend on the weather so much, which is very important in Kamchatka.

My personal impression of fishing and working here is that it is very pleasant to fish and rest here. I know that fishing is sometimes heavy and monotonous work, which can only be justified by some high purpose. So as its sometimes happens with Atlantic salmon fishing. The fish variety and population on the Icha river still so great that there is always an alternative that doesnt allow us to turn a great vacation in exhausting work.

Flies for rainbow trout and pacific salmon fishing

Due to the nature of rivers and fish species Kamchatka fishing has its own distinctive features. It forces us to change our usual fishing methods and tactics. This applies to the selection of places for fishing, suitable tackle and artificial flies. Perhaps the easiest topic to discuss - is the theme of baits, artificial flies to catch rainbow trout, brook trout and Pacific salmon. To begin, I want to express my gratitude to our old friend Ianus for the opportunity to showcase his collection of flies. Later we will return to discuss their characteristics and their use on the Icha river.

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More about fishing in Kamchatka, you can see here:

http://blog.chavanga.com/2014/10/wild-trophy-raibows-new-kamchatka.html

http://blog.chavanga.com/2014/10/wild-wild-rainbows.html

http://blog.chavanga.com/2014/10/what-else-can-you-catch-on-fly.html

http://blog.chavanga.com/2014/11/flies-for-rainbow-trout.html

http://blog.chavanga.com/2015/10/summing-up-season-by-2015-part-one.html

http://chavanga.com/home
http://chavanga.com/fishing_information/11

To catch the silver salmon, we have to present the fly as far as possible and close to the bottom. If you have started to cling to the bottom - it means that we catch correctly. Caught stone indicates the correct presentation of the fly in the water.

Wednesday, 21 October 2015

Summing up the salmon fishing season by 2015. Part 5

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Vasil Bykau

Chavanga river salmon fishing season, week 2 of October.

Middle of October, despite our fears, proved to be the most successful in the fall season. Probably, the reason for the improvement in the weather. Although the water level in the river was far from optimal, but the weather noticeably improved, its became warmer. Cold, north wind stopped. The air temperature went up to 8-12 degrees. Instantly the water temperature in the river rose to a comfortable 6 degrees. Salmon immediately responded to this change in the state of the river.

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13-15 October we noticed an increased number of fish that entered with the tide of the sea and went up the river rapids. Salmon has not went far up, taking all the deep holes in the lower section of the river. Interestingly, we managed to catch a nice salmons on fast rapids and waterfalls. Particularly successful was the afternoon, coinciding with high tide. But our catch results in the pits and deep pools where fish gathered have been much worse. Salmon preferred not to rise from the bottom, which made fishing in deep pools hard. It was still effective to fish on Ally`s shrimp and medium-sized Sunray Shadow in different versions temporarily restored their relative effectiveness. Apparently, the low water level affected activity of the fish and suspended the run of the really big fish from the sea. I think by analogy since autumn 2014 season, the biggest fish in the river will be later, probably in late October or in November .. But, to our regret, the season of salmon fishing in the river is finished. According to our information similar situation happened in the river Strelna. If the weather allows, and intensive salmon run continue in the coming weeks, the beginning of the season 2016 can be very interesting.

(Chief with fresh fish, caught not far from estuary)

(Beautiful colours)

(Chief cant stop posing)

(Another nice looking fish, caught in Aquarium pool)

(Estuary fishing was productive, as salmons started to run into the river)

(George and the silver!! :)

(Small bit of Chavanga village, high tide hours)

(George....)
Vasil old : nobody know how George hooks his salmons, his fishing manner is very simple but he need only 10-15 minutes to land the next one in a most difficult situation. I don`t understand it. He catches well, as if he feels the smell of salmon

(Vasil junior lost it straight after the photo was taken, rapidsup-stream of estuary)

(Junior caught good fish upstream of the bridge)

(George and his fish, caught right upstream of Aquarium pool)

(Good shot)

Pêche au saumon atlantique, lov lososu v Rusku, Kola Peninsula salmon tours. fang von lachs in Russland, salmon fishing in Russia,

Summing up the salmon fishing season by 2015. Part 4

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Vasil Bykau

Chavanga river salmon season, first week of October

The first week of October is usually the best time for fishing fresh silver salmon. Typically, these days quite comfortable for the angler. Temperature of the water in the river slowly goes down leading to enhancing the river with active and strong salmon. Unfortunately, the situation repeated itself, which has affected the results in the previous year. The second season in a row the first week of October characterized by a sharp cold snap and a further significant fall in temperature of the water. The cold and dry north wind has led to a decrease in the water level in the river and catastrophic temperature drop. Every day I anxiously checked the temperature from 3 to 2.5, and then to just 2 degrees midweek. Salmon run has slowed down. Fish were going very slowly up the rapids. Most of the fish we caught were directly from the estuary. Activity of the fish was extremely low, numbers of salmons were at the feet of the angler, not responding to the flies. Salmons that entered the river weeks ago became passive as well. Markedly reduced the number of fish jumping. Where you could see fish jumping, there was silence. The water temperature fell to 1.5 degrees. There were the first ice floes that moving through the thick water. Salmon left rapids. Places just under and above cascades showed some results, as fish was stopping there before slowly going up again. It was difficult to choose an effective fly. It was effective to fish for a while in the place were salmon stop for some time to rest. But sometimes it was also effective to quickly fish some of the best places in order to attract some active fresh fish. The size of fish caught also was not very pleasing. We have seen a truly big fishes jumping in some pools. These were the fish we came here for. But we did not managed to catch them:).

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(Marcelo landed fresh beauty in Pantaloni pool)