Chub Fishing with Crankbaits / Kayaking Trip / Fishmir / Spring Chub / Kalitva River
Hello, fishermen!
I really want to write a long, emotional post about my first rafting and fishing trip this year, but for some reason the inspiration hasn't come. Perhaps I've left all the emotions on the river, or I'm just waiting for the weekend to sit down and edit the footage I captured and immerse myself in that wonderful atmosphere again. Let me try to describe the entire trip with a cooler head.
I've been looking forward to this trip for the last month and a half. There was a lot of work, and there was no fishing at all. My soul was drawn to nature, and the desire to catch fish was overwhelming. How we packed, how we traveled, how we set up camp, how it was 0 degrees outside on the first night, how Lyokha forgot his spinning rods at home—it doesn't matter at all. I'll start right away with our first trip out on the water. It's Saturday, 8 am, cold; the river is like a mirror. Completely calm, and the birds are singing. The beauty and warmth brought a tear to our eyes!) But we had no time for tears, because 30 kilometers of river and fantastic chub bites awaited us. This wasn't our first time on this river, and it wasn't our first time fishing for chub there, but we'd never been to this particular stretch of the river (the upper reaches), and we'd never caught chub so early in the spring. Our previous experience proved almost useless: our red-finned friends were utterly passive, even more cautious than usual, and generally unwilling to attack the lures, as we were accustomed to. For this reason, chub fishing turned into a mere hunt. We walked along the river, there was a current where chub usually hang out and feed, we cast our lures into it – no one; the riffles and backwaters – they were also empty. For the first half day, we didn't get a single bite. We floated in almost complete silence, watching the river. If there was a splash somewhere and the fry scattered, it meant approaching that spot quietly and precisely, gently presenting the bait, and only then would a big-mouthed chub attack it. It was simply "search and destroy" mode! )))!) Fishermen, the water in the river is very clean and clear, the fish were coming to the bait almost under the kayak. You simply can't imagine how much beauty we witnessed: sudden fish attacks, attacks past the bait, attacks immediately after the bait touched the water. I've never seen so many beautiful bites in one trip. The fish are very cautious, a sea of missing strikes and missed bites! Over several days of rafting, in addition to chub, the bycatch included ide, asp, perch, and pike, the fish were active mainly after lunch. Fishermen, that's probably all; you can see more in the video, which I hope to edit over the weekend; I filmed over three hours. Naturally, I want to say a huge thank you to my fellow rafting teammates: Alexey Shumilin and our leader, Tyoma Toporkov. You guys are incredibly smart, and it's incredibly comfortable and fun to hang out with you! And, of course, thank you for introducing me to the world of kayaking and the joys of small rivers.
And thank you too, my dear fisherman, for reading this to the end!
MAY THE FISH BE WITH YOU!