[papadave]

Thanks to a very generous offer from a fellow Red Xer things lined up this summer for the family to visit my wife's folks in the Motherland(Shu's first trip). Seein's how most of her family, and close family friends, are located around one of the largest rivers on the continent it just made sense to drag along a couple pack rods and try my hand at a little far north fishing. (Some of you may have met her uncle when he visited a couple years ago, he's an avid fisherman and quite a few folks from the gang went out of their way to show him how it's done on this side of the world.)

Well the fishing has been off over there all summer due to rains and unusually cool weather for the season, but Uncle did his best to put us on a few, and to introduce us to his fishing buddies on that side of the world.
We only got in 3 good days of fishing, and the bite wasn't quite on fire, but it was a grand experience seeing the countryside and getting to learn how things are done.

We started with a ferry ride down the Volga to the village where her folks have a small cottage.

The ferry dropped us off on the river bank where a trail leads to the village

After settling in and making an attempt to recover from the jetlag Uncle & I headed off to a "pond" he knew that held some good Northern Pike.

As it turned out the only vessel available had no engine(never saw a trolling motor the entire time except one on a boat store). Fortunately we'd brought along a "guide" who was a fair had at rowing.

Well after a few casts I hooked my first ever little Northern, but in the excitement didn't think to take a pic. We tossed him in the "live well" and after a few more casts with the Mepps and I had a good fish on. Them rascals got an attitude! He took me around the boat a couple times before we realized that we didn't have a net. Hard as we tried there was no puttin that fish in the boat, but at least I got a photo of him on the line.

After that we hooked a couple more small ones, had lunch, and headed for home.

(If you look in the bottom right corner beside the rod butt you can see that first pike's head in the "live well")

Next trip was on the Volga ........ I'll post more later

 

[Fish_Fiend]

Dagone! Yall just havin' a big ol' time jet sett'n bout the world!

And yes Northerns have a good deal of attitude!


Gene Red >X< Asheboro

 

[MOFISH]

I met uncle when he was here and enjoyed meeting him ! Tell him hello for me if you are still there...

 

[Island Man]

Awesome adventure Thanks for sharing

 

[RouseD]

Thanks for sharing your trip Dave.

 

[h2ohhh]

I personally donated a large sample of southern spirits into the Uncle's net on Queens Creek when we ran into you. He reciprocated in kind with some Russian libations.....very cool.

 

[Lucky Doug]

Great trip report PD. glad you were able to make it and good luck on the Volga. Say hey to Uncle for me.

 

[SurfRider]

Thanks for sharing your trip!

 

[BigE818]

That's awesome!!! Thank you for sharing!!

 

[papadave]

Our next chance to fish took us way off the beaten path to a little village on Gorky Reservoir -> https://www.google.com/maps/place/Z...4e7967122aaf:0x82a529ccc7210d35!6m1!1e1?hl=en

Took about 3 hours of hard driving to get there but very worth it! We stayed in a guest house primarily used by fishermen. Pretty decent place being so far out. The proprietor was also our guide for 2 days of fishing the lake.

We trolled for walleye the first morning and caught a couple

Then headed back in for lunch in the dining hall - expertly prepared by the proprietor's wife.

Those two were every bit as jolly and friendly as they look in these photos ... hard to find nicer folks on either side of the ocean!
That afternoon we headed back out and chased the gulls. It was just like looking for feeding fish here, but in this case it was yellow perch under the gulls...........

Along with these guys(Aspius aspius)

Next day was windier and we didn't manage to put any fish in the boat, but the view was worth the ride out!

Here's a few more random pics .......
The "boat ramp" and dock area

(The tractor was used as the launch vehicle)

Some pics from the road in.

All and all a fun trip despite the slow bite. The really cool thing about it was that even though our language was different, once on the lake we worked pretty well together ...... fishing is fishing after all!

 

[Dennis Running Bear]

You would have thought that you could have rented a canoe or kayak over there! You don't need a net to catch those northern wolves, ( Northern Pike ) just pinch the back of the head just behind the eyes is a spot to make them easy to handle. After that grab under the head in the gills not the gill plate very sharp! Love those Photo's, if you didn't know better you would have thought it was America or Canada! Can't wait for more of the postings.

 

[SurfRider]

Looks like a great trip!

 

[papadave]

You would have thought that you could have rented a canoe or kayak over there! You don't need a net to catch those northern wolves, ( Northern Pike ) just pinch the back of the head just behind the eyes is a spot to make them easy to handle. After that grab under the head in the gills not the gill plate very sharp! Love those Photo's, if you didn't know better you would have thought it was America or Canada! Can't wait for more of the postings.

No rentals there of any kind that we saw. Did see a yak once and I'm certain there's some canoes, but we didn't see one. Most folks rely on inflatables due to limited storage space.
That pond would have been absolutely awesome in a yak! The day we were out - in fact the whole trip - was right windy. It made it tough for Zheny(at the oars) to keep the boat positioned for us to cast, but a sit on yak would have been perfect. I'm sure there were more of the toothy critters willing to bite we just couldn't get to them.

 

[papadave]

Looks like a great trip!

It was! Wish we could have spent more time fishing but there were lots of new things to see and catching up to do.
There was a whole mess of eatin done

We did a little pleasure cruzin on the river

(The little guy did snag this one ... by hand!)

Then there was the mushrooms and berries to pick

And of course sights to see

It was a whole lot to pack into 3 weeks!

 

[GreyGhost]

That is one serious spread of food there. Love the pics of the scenery there Dave. Hope you and the family can get back there soon. Where in Russia is the family from.

 

[h2ohhh]

Just awesome!

 

[papadave]

That is one serious spread of food there. Love the pics of the scenery there Dave. Hope you and the family can get back there soon. Where in Russia is the family from.

Kostroma. About 4 hrs North of Moscow as the crow flies.......

 

[papadave]

The best place in all of Russia!

I'm gonna let you guys in on a state secret. (Hope the KGB ain't monitoring this site!)
The unquestionably absolute best place in the entire 9 time zones of the Motherland ..........

And the view from that swing .........

is as serene as it comes.

On a busy day you might hear a rooster crow or someone splitting wood with an axe

The perfect place to do some serious meditation ...... especially after one of those epic meals!