Fishing in Siberia is, as a rule, a very productive and exciting activity. Thanks to the many bodies of water and the variety of prey found here, this region is very popular among fans of spinning, trolling, fly fishing and float fishing. And although Siberian rivers are known for their great depths and cold water, underwater hunters can often be found here.
For fishing in Siberia, it is important to prepare the right gear in advance, taking into account the specifics of the region’s reservoirs. All the necessary gear, for example, rods for trolling fishing, can be found in the catalog of the Fishelandia online store.
Siberian reservoirs: species diversity of fish
There are a little more than 40 species of fish in the reservoirs of Siberia. But the largest populations belong to the following families:
- perch - ruff, pike perch, perch;
- salmon - taimen, muksun, omul, broad whitefish, nelma, trout;
- carp - silver bream, bream, tench, carp, roach.
The reservoirs are inhabited by pike and chukuchans, the only representative of this family.
Siberian sturgeon are rarely caught because their numbers have been reduced due to numerous hydraulic structures, poaching and land development.
The most fishy reservoirs
Fish are found in every body of water, but the most populous include the following:
The Lena is the longest Siberian river, with a length of just over 4,400 km. The water is replenished by melting snow, and therefore warms up to low temperatures even in summer.
A large section of the river flows through a permafrost zone. This natural characteristic is reflected in the species diversity of fish.
In Lena there are most representatives of the salmon family: nelma, vendace, grayling, lenok.
The river is rich in trophy specimens of pike, burbot, pike perch, and perch. Crucian carp is found in abundance. The upper reaches of the river are inhabited by sturgeon, whose weight is more than 20 kg and a length of 2 meters.
The Ob is a waterway with a large drainage basin, the area of which is almost 3,000,000 sq. km. There are fish all over the river.
The main catch is salmon: taimen, whitefish, nelma, carp: silver crucian carp, bream, roach, ide, carp, and sterlet.
The Yenisei is a full-flowing river, wide and deep. The composition of the fish changes throughout.
If the upper reaches are inhabited by pike, pike perch, bream, perch, crucian carp, and carp, then in the middle part there are peled, whitefish, whitefish, burbot, taimen, and grayling.
This diversity is explained by the colder current in this river section. There are many tributaries on the Yenisei, but fishermen most often go fishing on the Nizhnyaya or Podkamennaya Tunguska rivers.
There are many fish lakes in Siberia. For example, Baikal, Taimyr.
Imported monsters
Ten species of inhabitants of Siberian rivers usually have a body length exceeding one meter and a body weight of ten kilograms. These are Siberian sturgeon, taimen, nelma, pike and burbot. This is from the locals. The remaining five species are “imported”. Scientists call them “introducers.”
“Introduction is the artificial movement of animals from their natural habitats,” explains Elena Yadrenkina. — For almost a hundred years, Siberian reservoirs have been actively used for growing commercial fish. Thus, despite numerous attempts to populate lakes with different species of whitefish, a positive economic effect was obtained only by raising peled. Until the 70s of the last century, fish farmers were not confident in the advisability of populating Siberian reservoirs with carp. However, today this species is perceived as a typical inhabitant of large lakes.
Many people now do not even suspect that pike perch and bream are European species, and the Amur silver crucian carp, now widespread in Western Siberia, is an inhabitant of the Far East.
All these fish very organically “fit” into the composition of the fish population of the Novosibirsk reservoir, lakes Chany, Khoroshoe, Sartlan and form the basis of commercial catches in the Novosibirsk region.
At the same time, it was fish farming that led to the penetration and widespread distribution of “weed” species - verkhovka and rotan. A resident of the city of Ob caught a unique fish brought to Siberia from China in the 60s of the last century. The man boasted about his catch to his colleagues, but they did not believe him.
Scientists called the catch unexpected. Ichthyologists, after studying the photos, confirmed that they are Aristichthys nobilis, or bighead carp. According to the head of the Tomsk laboratory for raw materials research of the Novosibirsk branch of the Federal State Budgetary Institution "Gosrybtsentr" Elena Interesova, bigheaded carp have been bred in the Ob River several times, but all attempts have been unsuccessful.
Silver carp are sometimes released into a reservoir as an addition to the filtration system, since this fish filters the water with the help of its filtering mouthparts
In recent years, bighead carp of different ages are sometimes caught in the Irtysh, Tobol, Ob, Inya and Tom rivers, where they probably end up from fish farms. There is no information about the natural reproduction of the species in the Ob basin. However, this is not the first time that fishermen have caught silver carp in this river. Last spring, such a fish was caught under the Bugrinsky Bridge.
“I caught a fish I’ve never seen before.” “Afterwards I found out that it was a spotted silver carp,” wrote a fisherman from Novosibirsk, not forgetting to attach a photo of his catch to the message.
According to the specialist, this fish can reach a meter in length and weigh up to 40 kilograms.
Features of summer fishing in Siberia
Summer fishing differs from winter fishing only in the set of fishing gear and fishing location, since the composition of fish in a reservoir depends on natural conditions.
In summer, fishermen use the following gear:
- spinning;
- feeder;
- fishing rod;
- fly fishing;
- zherlitsa.
You can fish in every body of water. At this time of year, pike and more are most active:
- dace;
- ide;
- crucian carp;
- chir;
- sturgeon.
Most fishermen's fishermen will definitely have pike perch, a huge perch, in their fish tank. For taimen, sterlet, grayling, fishermen go to the Lena, Yenisei, Baikal, in general, to those reservoirs where the water is clean and cool.
In summer, perch moves to shallow water where there is vegetation, so you can catch it from the shore with a fishing rod.
Equipment for fishing. Fishing in Siberia. Photo
Author
My story of choosing fishing equipment began exactly one season ago, when I twice visited conditions that made me think about quality clothing.
The first story happened back in the summer. These were away competitions in spinning fishing from boats. The weather on the dates of the competition deteriorated, it became noticeably colder and during all three days of being on the water, the precipitation did not stop. In a competition, and even a team one, there is not much choice, there is nowhere to retreat. I was soaked to the skin for three days and, as a result, I had a severe cold.
The second story happened in September. This was a previously planned fishing trip. A four-day trip to a reservoir located seven hundred kilometers from home. As often happens, the weather turned very bad on the dates of the trip. It rained for all four days. The supply of warm and dry clothing ran out in the first half of the first day on the water. There was nowhere to dry out and wait out the bad weather. Fishing, which we had been looking forward to and planning for a month and a half, turned into a real test...
Fishing equipment
These two incidents put an end to thinking about the need to purchase equipment that protects from bad weather.
With the end of the season, there was time in the winter to study the issue in detail and slowly choose clothes that are guaranteed to provide comfort and protection from various bad weather.
Equipment for fishing in Siberia
As it turned out there are a lot of offers on the market, I began to collect information and get acquainted with the offers of manufacturers, and also resorted to reviews from friends.
Based on several recommendations from friends and numerous reviews on the Internet, I chose Finntrail .
From a wide model line, I chose to get acquainted with the membrane equipment, a wading suit in the middle price segment Finntrail WADEMAN SET .
The set includes boots, waders and a jacket. It seemed to me that wading equipment will protect from bad weather and will significantly expand fishing opportunities when fishing on shore.
Lightweight waders with a minimum number of seams on the inside, which is important when used without underlining.
The pants are completely waterproof and very breathable. When fishing for a long time in the wade, I did not feel any problems. The pocket located at the top of the waders is waterproof and usually holds my phone.
The jacket of the suit is made of denser membrane fabric, with increased resistance to wear.
It’s difficult to judge whether this is actually true, because the set only lasted a season, but it’s worth noting that it looks like new.
The jacket is also equipped with two waterproof pockets. The sleeves have adjustable cuffs to prevent water from leaking inside.
In fact, the thing is mega practical; more than once, when fishing in the rain, I remembered how water oozes down my hand on simple clothes, causing a lot of discomfort.
There are drawstrings on the hood and waist that prevent moisture from entering no matter what position I am in.
In general, the cut of the jacket is very comfortable and does not hinder movement at all during active fishing.
After the appearance of this equipment, weather-related fishing restrictions were reduced to a minimum.
When going fishing at any time of the year, I dress according to the season and take a bag with a suit, and that’s it, I’m ready for any challenge and fishing conditions.
Starting from the spring of this year and ending with fishing in deep autumn in sub-zero temperatures, the clothes have never failed.
In the spring, this is fishing in a wade, as the rivers are mostly full of spring water and the flooded bank forces you to go into the water.
In summer, the suit serves as protection from rain. Well, perhaps the biggest load on equipment falls in the fall.
A mixture of wading fishing, fishing from a boat , when you need to go up a considerable distance along the river, and the air is already very cold, fishing in the autumn pouring rain that does not end all day, fishing in a strong icy wind. All this now does not stop or force us to stop fishing. And as you know, the worse the weather, the better the bite!)))
Now I understand that it was very in vain to always push the issue of grammatical clothing into the background. It seemed possible to be patient, wait it out, or come to terms with what was happening.
A whole season of different situations and weather conditions, with the Finntrail WADEMAN SET , they made it clear that in any weather you can feel comfortable and go fishing and not look for options for shelter from sudden elements.
Author
Now there is a question of a competent layer of thermal underwear and a warming layer, in order to achieve even better and more comfortable conditions.
This day is more like a chapter from some good fairy tale. The weather is great, everything around is covered in white fluffy snow, and this handsome taimen!
At night it froze thoroughly and slush drifted down the river. At first they were small pieces of ice, more like snow saturated with water, but very soon full-grown ice arrived. The timeshat bit the jig that was tapping on the bottom and got their hands really cold. The fish at the point were packed like a barrel, fishing was a great pleasure despite the slight minus with a decent wind. The density of slush from five casts made it possible to perform only one retrieve on average. The rest of the time the line plowed through the ice floes, and I had to reel it in very often. The cord, it was a hell of a test for the line. Constant contact with ice. Sometimes the entire length of casting was spent shuffling with a braided line on sharp ice. We fished as a couple that day, and with a noticeable difference who was fishing and who was fishing with viscous tackle. The Mottomo Strong Line PE #0.8 cord wound on my spool withstood the harsh fishing with dignity, and after this fishing it looks quite good. My partner periodically cut the bait on the floating ice and lost fish several times while fishing. With all this, the difference in the cost of cords is almost 4 times.
Review:
Good equipment is a necessary thing. I saw you on a boat going up into the snow against the wind, it was very cold, even on the shore. Good review, I'll take note!
