Changing Seasons
The seasons are changing in Eastern Mongolia. The conifer trees are starting to turn yellow and will soon make there annual needle drop leaving this once Montana look-alike landscape a soon to be leafless and colorless windswept barren cold Mongolia wonderland. The fishing however is starting to pick up.
We’ve explored 100’s of kilometers of unexplored headwaters and tributaries looking for viable taimen populations. We’ve found a few remote taimen strongholds where accessibility to these sections of rivers was more than difficult to reach. Outside of these sacred stretches of river over-harvesting by local villages has taken an immediate toll on these fish. The UB cowboy (a wealthy 4x4 and fishing enthusiasts from Ulaanbaatar) quite frequently inhabit these stretches of river and have a knack for throwing 3 pound spoons into the deepest holes that they can drench. They all know taimen fishing is illegal in some areas so they hide behind their right to legally lenock fish; the result is usually dozens and dozens miles of taimen-less water. Unlike North American salmonids, taimen can live in excess of 50 years and generally don’t reach a spawning maturity until 8-9 years of age. To decimate a section of water all you need is a few uneducated UB cowboys and some hungry locals and the fish are gone, it doesn’t take much effort at all.
We’ve lost some monsters! How big were they? Beats the hell out of me. I’ve watched Tim’s backing knot ripped from his fly line as his Skagit heads bails down the river at Mach-10. We just sat there and looked at each other in a moment of silence and ahhh, we then ran like a couple of inmates breaking jail after it. 100 yards later Tim caught up and grabbed the line and started to pull on the beast fist over fist as if he were off shore hand lining a big tuna. This fish was massive! In fell swoop half its body surfaced and snapped 20# test effortlessly. This is one incident of many where big fish have laughed at us and have almost made some of us cry! There was a very long silence intermixed with a few cuss words and it was off to try our luck somewhere else.
The landscape is frosted every morning now and the hoppers have passed on. Its big streamer time on the river, which usually means we’re back to huck-casting flies and lines that would be medically diagnosed as not very healthy to fling around. Whipping around this apparatus for prolonged casting periods is beginning to take a toll. I actually know a few fly fishermen whose wrists would probably blow-up, or instantaneously combust, or maybe even liquefy to substance character similar to yogurt between their hand and forearm.
Anyhow, the method to our madness is getting borderline crazy trying to catch the big boy, and it's getting close to the time where the crew drives west to fish the boreal forest along the Russian border and possibly freeze to death. I’ll keep you posted. In the mean time check back soon for a blog update from our photo-extraordinaire Tim Pask… It should be interesting.
Chou Chou,
Owens
We’ve explored 100’s of kilometers of unexplored headwaters and tributaries looking for viable taimen populations. We’ve found a few remote taimen strongholds where accessibility to these sections of rivers was more than difficult to reach. Outside of these sacred stretches of river over-harvesting by local villages has taken an immediate toll on these fish. The UB cowboy (a wealthy 4x4 and fishing enthusiasts from Ulaanbaatar) quite frequently inhabit these stretches of river and have a knack for throwing 3 pound spoons into the deepest holes that they can drench. They all know taimen fishing is illegal in some areas so they hide behind their right to legally lenock fish; the result is usually dozens and dozens miles of taimen-less water. Unlike North American salmonids, taimen can live in excess of 50 years and generally don’t reach a spawning maturity until 8-9 years of age. To decimate a section of water all you need is a few uneducated UB cowboys and some hungry locals and the fish are gone, it doesn’t take much effort at all.
We’ve lost some monsters! How big were they? Beats the hell out of me. I’ve watched Tim’s backing knot ripped from his fly line as his Skagit heads bails down the river at Mach-10. We just sat there and looked at each other in a moment of silence and ahhh, we then ran like a couple of inmates breaking jail after it. 100 yards later Tim caught up and grabbed the line and started to pull on the beast fist over fist as if he were off shore hand lining a big tuna. This fish was massive! In fell swoop half its body surfaced and snapped 20# test effortlessly. This is one incident of many where big fish have laughed at us and have almost made some of us cry! There was a very long silence intermixed with a few cuss words and it was off to try our luck somewhere else.
The landscape is frosted every morning now and the hoppers have passed on. Its big streamer time on the river, which usually means we’re back to huck-casting flies and lines that would be medically diagnosed as not very healthy to fling around. Whipping around this apparatus for prolonged casting periods is beginning to take a toll. I actually know a few fly fishermen whose wrists would probably blow-up, or instantaneously combust, or maybe even liquefy to substance character similar to yogurt between their hand and forearm.
Anyhow, the method to our madness is getting borderline crazy trying to catch the big boy, and it's getting close to the time where the crew drives west to fish the boreal forest along the Russian border and possibly freeze to death. I’ll keep you posted. In the mean time check back soon for a blog update from our photo-extraordinaire Tim Pask… It should be interesting.
Chou Chou,
Owens
posted by Terry Wolvert at
8:30 AM
2 Comments:
This post has been removed by the author.
Sad to hear that a handful of "UB cowboys" can have such an impact. It makes you wonder about our own individual impact even as catch and release anglers on the species we ply for in our home waters. We all need to be mindful. We all need to be part of the solution because we all contribute impact.
Thanks for the update Owens. Stay warm.
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