Gorky Reservoir- an artificial reservoir created in 1955...57. on the Volga during the construction of the Nizhny Novgorod hydroelectric power station. The Gorky Reservoir is located geographically in the Nizhny Novgorod, Ivanovo, Kostroma, and Yaroslavl regions of Russia. On its banks there are urban settlements: Gorodets, Zavolzhye, Chkalovsk, Puchezh, Yuryevets, Zavolzhsk, Kineshma, Navoloki, Ples, Kostroma, Yaroslavl, Tutaev, Rybinsk.

The reservoir stretches along the Volga bed for 427 km, reaching a width of 16 km in some places. It has an area of ​​1.59 thousand km², a maximum depth of 22 m, an average depth of 3.65 m, and a water volume of 8.71 km³.

The reservoir was created to solve issues of energy and navigation, which is carried out on the right, deeper side. Today the reservoir is also used for fishing and recreation.

Nature of the Gorky Reservoir basin

The map of the Gorky Reservoir clearly shows that it consists of two sections. The first is of the lake type, extending from the hydroelectric station to the confluence of the Unzha River. The second is located higher and is similar to the river type. To the upper reaches of the city of Yuryevets, the reservoir is like a full-flowing river with a water surface width of up to 3 km. Near the dam, water floods the entire Volga valley and looks like a real sea with a width of 11...12 km.

Between the cities of Yuryevets and Zavolzhye, the left bank is low and covered with forest, the right bank is steep, high, and steep. Along the valleys of the tributaries of the Volga River that existed even before the flooding of the Gorky Reservoir, there are shallow bays that protrude deeply into the shores. Their width at the mouth is up to 5 km. The most noticeable of them are at the confluence of the Nemde, Unzhe, Trotse, and Yug rivers.

The ice on the reservoir usually disappears by early May, later than on the rivers. First, the open part of the reach is cleaned, then the bays.

Before the regulation of flow in the Volga, the rivers that fell under the Gorky Reservoir, there were 47 species of fish. The appearance of the dam changed their living conditions, which was followed by a change in the population of certain species and migration to new places.

Today, the reservoir is inhabited by lake-river, lake and river fish species. The former are found everywhere; the latter live in stagnant or low-flow places; still others - only in river sections of the reservoir.

Among the river species in the Gorky Sea there are blackback, stellate sturgeon, beluga, sturgeon, asp, podust, sterlet, etc. Among the lake species there are rudd, lake minnow, loach, tench, crucian carp, etc. There are perch, pike, dace, bream, and pike perch everywhere.

Fishing on the Gorky Reservoir

There is a place to go fishing on the reservoir: its shore line stretches for 1340 km, depths range from 6.4...23 m, 600 rivers and rivulets flow into the reservoir. There are many species of fish: silver bream, burbot, sterlet, roach, ide, pike, bream. Often the catches include asp, perch, pike perch, and less often white-eye and saberfish.

They fish in all areas of the reservoir: near the dam, which looks like a lake due to its shape and size; river-like, having a width of up to 2 km and a length of 345 km; the stretch-like Kostroma Bay, where there is practically no current.

The first catches fish that feel good with little or no current. On the riverine you can catch sterlet, dace, chub, asp, etc. On the Kostroma Bay, the catch is usually roach, bream, perch, and pike.

The fish caught in the reservoir are mostly large and well-fed. The most productive places on the reservoir: the Kostroma Razliv reach, the mouths of rivers and streams, bays, areas near settlements.

Winter fishing on the Gorky Reservoir

There are many wonderful places for fishing in the Gorky Reservoir in winter. One of them is opposite the confluence of the Unzha River into the reservoir, near the town of Yuryevets. The place has been famous since ancient times, when fish for the royal table was supplied from here.

The good thing about this area is that three rivers (Unzha, Nemda, Volga) merge here and the reservoir spreads over a distance of one and a half dozen kilometers. The places are difficult to access, but it is easier to get to them in winter.

The main place for fishing in winter is at the dam that protects Yuryevets from Volga floods. Good areas within the flooded riverbeds of the Nemdy and Unzhi rivers. The presence of a constant current prevents fish from dying; fish are always active here.

The bottom of the dam is dotted with numerous transverse underwater spits. The terrain is rugged, there are many holes. Fishing is simplified by the low current speed. It is the drops from the spits into the depths that are the best that can be found in a reservoir for winter fishing for dense fish, ruff.

They catch fish with reelless baits using “devils” and “nymphs”. Rarely, but they also refuse. Then you can switch to standing jigs, baiting them with bloodworms. Local fishermen use dragonfly larvae for bait.

You can hunt for large perch at the “cross” - a place opposite the city center, on the opposite bank of the riverbed. You just have to position yourself a little to the left, on the flooded channel of the channel. Along with the perch, here, using a jig with a bunch of bloodworms, you can catch a medium-sized burbot. Along the last ice, a large sandbank to the right of the “cross” can be mined.

An interesting place for winter fishing is near the town of Yuryevets, a little higher along the Volga riverbed. Here, on the left bank, behind the edge of the riverbed, there are a lot of perches weighing 200...3000 g. But it is also full of vertically located flooded trees. So the loss of jigs is not uncommon here.

In snarled places you can catch carp on large “devils”. The place above Yuryevets, on a tributary of the Elnati, is especially fortunate for this.

Recreation centers on the Gorky Reservoir

Boarding house "Burevestnik"

The institution (Internet address bvnn.ru) is located in the Novgorod region and is a large year-round recreational center. It is 68 km from the regional center. The territory is located in an ecologically clean resort area on the shore of the Gorky Reservoir. It has been working for a long time and has “managed” to improve the health of more than 1 million people.

There is a unique forest park around the boarding house. Clean air and artesian water from wells make even a short stay in these places effective and, most importantly, enjoyable.

Accommodation for vacationers is organized in a boarding house in two buildings with 370 beds. All rooms have loggias, TVs, and modern amenities. There are rooms of superior categories (more expensive) and affordable ones, affordable for most visitors.

Meals are organized in the boarding house as a buffet. The dishes are prepared by professional chefs who know how to make them refined, beautiful and tasty.

The boarding house has several halls (accommodating 320...10 people), which are used for various celebrations. These are the Yellow Hall (100 seats), the Great Hall (320 seats), the VIP Hall (130 seats), and the restaurant (150 seats). Several VIP rooms (1 person each) for buffets, a cafe (15 people) for tea ceremonies. The large and VIP halls are used for meals for vacationers.

A daily stay in a boarding house is estimated by the administration at 1.4...4.7 thousand rubles. without food and 2.8...6.5 thousand rubles. with meals. The cost of parking is 100 rubles.

Country Club "Good Life"

The recreation center “Good Life” (website goodlifenn.ru) from the Kostroma region, is located in the village of Khorobrovo. Next to it is the mouth of the Nemda River, and around there is a primeval forest. The area is ecologically clean, remote from large settlements, quiet. A protected area begins a few kilometers away.

Good Life is the only base on the reservoir that preaches eco-tourism. The atmosphere here is akin to the comfort of home, surrounded by nature untouched by man, and various opportunities for active and exciting relaxation. Here it is easy to forget about problems, the daily bustle, and get a lot of positive impressions associated with the cleanliness of the river and reservoir, the beauty of nature, and the freshness of the air infused with forest smells.

For tourists to stay at the base there are 4 cottages made of wood. They have all modern conditions: shower, hot water, air conditioning, heating, mosquito nets. There are only 25 rooms that can simultaneously accommodate 60 people. Their interiors are individual, as are the comfortable conditions.

The food at the camp site is special - three vegetarian meals a day, buffet style. Here they promote it, but do not insist on it. Offering only to evaluate its advantages.

The price of the tour includes dinner and breakfast. You can order an additional lunch (for adults – 150 rubles, for children – 100 rubles). The menu includes dishes from fresh vegetables, cereals, potatoes, pasta, dairy products, cheeses, pastries, sweets, nuts, and fruits. There is no additional charge for mineral water and soft drinks.

The price of a tour to the camp site is 490...1450 rubles. per person per day.

Fishing base on the Gorky Reservoir "Guest House "2 Captain"

The fishing base (Internet address 2captain.ru) is located at the confluence of the Mocha River and Gorky Reservoir(north of the Nizhny Novgorod region, outskirts of the village of Yurkino). The place is quiet, surrounded by expanses of water and dense forests. In addition to fishing, you can wander through the forest, picking mushrooms and berries. You can just lie on the shore and sunbathe.

The camp site guarantees successful fishing, which is difficult to find in other places. The mouth of the Mocha River has long been famous among fishermen of the Novgorod region for its catchability and abundance of fish. The catches here often include asp, carp, pike, pike perch, bream, perch, and roach. They fish from the shore, from a boat. Float rods, spinning rods, donks.

For fishermen and vacationers there are 2 modular wooden houses with a “capacity” of 12 people. They have stoves, refrigerators, and not far from the buildings there is a barbecue, a smokehouse, and a Russian bathhouse.

Guest house "2Kapitana" provides accommodation services for everyone who wants to relax in this wonderful place. Two houses can comfortably accommodate up to 12 people; at your service there is a kitchen with a stove, refrigerators for storing food and catch, a grill, a smokehouse, and a real Russian bathhouse.

The summer offer at the base is a floating cottage: a self-propelled, autonomous floating house that can comfortably accommodate 7 people. It has a kitchen, a bathroom, a spacious deck, and a mess room.

During the week the cost of a daily voucher is 700 rubles, on weekends – 800 rubles. per person.

Ecology of the Gorky Reservoir

The condition of the reservoir from the environmental side is assessed by ecologists as satisfactory. The influence of polluting factors from industrial and domestic activities, although intense, is not critical.

The issue of pollution of the reservoir by discharges has always been relevant and was resolved as funds were allocated. Today, due to the adoption of a new law obliging all industrial enterprises to build treatment facilities, there is hope for an improvement in the situation.

The almost annual death of fish in summer is of particular concern. It is caused by the weak flow of the reservoir and the rapid development of blue-green algae. The latter cause “blooming” of water, leading to the release of large amounts of toxicants that are dangerous not only for fish, but also for humans. It is their concentration in some places in the reservoir that leads to the death of fish.

The same result is promoted by the contamination of fish in the reservoir with ligulosis. In the reservoir, it struck en masse (80%...60%) roach, bream, and dace. Warming water contributes to disease outbreaks in spring and summer. Ligulosis is not dangerous for humans, but it simply kills fish.

The fish that feed on animal plankton, i.e., organisms suspended in the water column, were in a better position in the reservoir. But we have only a few such fish: bleak, sabrefish, bluefish, and among the newcomers - vendace, smelt and peled.

Finally, a reservoir is a kind of settling tank in which pollutants from household and industrial wastewater can accumulate.

So running fisheries in reservoirs is not an easy matter. However, science currently has methods and means that will increase their productivity and increase stocks of valuable commercial fish.

Currently, within the Gorky region there are 54 species of fish belonging to 10 orders and 14 families. This is almost the same as it was before the construction of dams on the Volga. But the composition of the fish population has changed significantly.

According to their lifestyle, the fish of our region can be divided into river, lake Andlake-river. They “reacted” differently to human intervention in their lives. The former live mainly only in the river, on the current; the second are inhabitants of stagnant or low-flowing reservoirs, the third are found everywhere - in rivers and lakes.

Of course, this division is very relative, since river fish can be found in a flowing lake and, conversely, lake fish - somewhere in a quiet river backwater. You can also find differences in the population of different types of lakes: karst, watershed, floodplain, but they are, as a rule, insignificant and depend on what kind of fish are found in the nearby body of water with which there is a connection.

River fish, in turn, are divided intoresidential , that is, locals who never leave the river, andcheckpoints , which live in the sea, and for reproduction (spawning) rise into rivers, sometimes making very long migrations. The first include sterlet, podust, asp; to the second - sturgeon, beluga, stellate sturgeon, blackback and others.

Purely lake fish are crucian carp, tench, loach, lake minnow, rudd. They can, however, be found in river backwaters and in the bays of reservoirs, but these species are most typical for standing waters. Pike and perch are found everywhere. These are lake-river, all-water inhabitants. At the same time, current-loving fish such as dace, pike perch, and bream easily adapt to life in large, clean, flowing lakes and reservoirs.

In the Gorky Sea, fish of all the listed categories are found, but if in the lower dam area they are predominantly lacustrine or lake-river, then in the upper reaches, where the current is more or less strong, purely river inhabitants are found, since the conditions here are almost the same as in a river.

The most dramatic changes occurred with the group of river fish. Firstly, almost all checkpoints have practically disappeared. Currently, within the boundaries of the Gorky region, apparently, Caspian lamprey, stellate sturgeon, blackback herring, Volga row herring, bellyfish, Caspian salmon, and white fish are no longer found at all. Essentially only sturgeon and beluga have survived in the Volga. River resident fish, of course, exist all along the Volga from Gorodets to Cheboksary, where the current is still preserved. But after the construction of the Cheboksary hydroelectric power station, they will suffer the fate of the inhabitants of the Gorky Reservoir, i.e., the fish population of the Volga will be reorganized in this area as well. Purely river species that live only on the current will disappear or go into tributaries, lake-river species will become numerous, etc.

Changes in living conditions (deforestation, The shallowing of rivers, especially small ones) led to the fact that we no longer had fish such as grayling, trout, and river minnow, which were found in the clean rivers of the Trans-Volga region, as well as in some places in the Sura basin. Thus, in total, at least 10-11 species must be excluded from the list of fish in the Gorky region.

But simultaneously with the loss of a number of fish from the fauna of reservoirs, they were enriched with new inhabitants, which appeared here both as a result of the restructuring of aquatic communities under the influence of hydraulic construction, and as a result of the fish-aquatic acclimatization work widely carried out in our country. Siberian or Baikal sturgeon and whitefish were brought to our region and settled in the Gorky Reservoir; grass carp and silver carp are regularly imported for cultivation in ponds. Belozersk vendace, Caspian sprat, smelt, river eel and even pipefish are spontaneously spreading and penetrating into the water bodies of the Gorky region. It turns out that instead of a dozen species removed from the list of fish in the Gorky region, almost as many new ones need to be included. Only the core of residential river and lake fish, originally from the Upper Volga, remained unchanged, which include: more than 20 species of carp, 4 - perch, 3 - loach, catfish, burbot, pike.

River fish.

Walkthroughs. Before the regulation of the Volga flow, 9 species of Caspian fish entered the Gorky region. The construction of the dams of the Volga hydroelectric power stations did not completely exclude the possibility of their appearance near the city of Gorky, since the dams have locks that operate continuously throughout navigation, and fish lifts. But the likelihood of this is low, because even after overcoming several dams and reservoirs, many migratory species will not be able to reproduce; there are almost no suitable places for spawning left. In addition, the fast spring current aroused the instinct of fish to move up the river, and the calm water of the reservoir extinguishes these impulses, so that in our area the appearance of most migrant fish (travelers) can only be accidental.

Caspian lamprey, The semi-hole, as the Kstov fishermen called it, is an eel-shaped fish, reaching 30-50 cm in length, with a naked, scaleless body, with a suction cup mouth, devoid of both jaws and teeth, - once rose to the Moscow River. Currently not found. It is impossible not to notice this fish if it gets into the gear. It is reluctant to go into fish passages and locks. It has adapted to reproduction in the lower reaches of the Volga, where it is now hunted.

In the Volga and Oka, it was common, although not very numerous, Russian sturgeon This is a large fish, reaching 200 kg in weight and more than 2 m in length. It breeds during high water in deep parts of the river with a rocky and pebble bottom and a strong current. Currently, individual sturgeon are penetrating up the Volga up to the dam of the Gorky Thermal Power Plant, and possibly even higher. Doesn't go to Oka. In the upper sections of the Kuibyshev Reservoir, spawning has been noted.

Smaller and with a less massive body than the sturgeon (weight no more than 30-40 kg),stellate sturgeon and previously it was not often found in our waters, and at present it is not found at all within the Gorky region.

The third species of sturgeon is a giant beluga. In the northern Caspian Sea and Lower Volga, specimens weighing almost 900 kilograms are still caught. The length of such miracle fish is 5-6 m or more. Before the construction of the dam it was rising along the Oka to Murom . Currently it penetrates through locks and fish passages quite high, up to Gorky. In the 60s, this fish was repeatedly caught in our waters near Lyskov and Rabotki. Beluga breeds in the upper reaches of the Kuibyshev Reservoir.

Passage passages were well known to Nizhny Novgorod and especially Vasilsur fishermenCaspian herring. Particularly famous for its taste blackback, or a crease, reaching 1.5 and even 2 kg of weight. Came to the Volga and Oka in the spring to spawn. It went up to Kaluga. Not afraid of fish passage structures. Now it is not in our waters, but the appearance of individual individuals is possible.

Volga row herring, or half-hall, smaller in size than the blackback. It once reached Nizhny Novgorod, but is no longer found. It's even less likely to come hereCaspian belly - a small herring with a saggy belly, which used to also be found in the Upper Volga (up to Yaroslavl).

Old fishermen also remember salmon.

Caspian salmon, a relative of the salmon, which sometimes reached the city of Gorky, is now also not caught here and has generally become rare even in the lower reaches of the Volga. More likely to meetwhitefish. Back in the 50s, it was caught near the city of Gorky, although in small quantities. Just recently I came across it in the fall in Sura and reached Uglich. Like many salmonids, it breeds in the fall. Dams are not an obstacle for this fish, but it does not tolerate water pollution.

All listed fish are protected by law. Due to their great rarity, their extraction in the Volga-Kama basin is prohibited. A fisherman who accidentally catches a sturgeon or beluga while fishing is obliged to release them back into the river, of course, if the fish is alive and undamaged.

Residential fish.

These species love currents and clean, oxygen-rich water. These include brook lamprey, sterlet, trout, grayling, dace, chub, ide, river minnow, asp, podust, gudgeon, bleak, quicksand, sabrefish, silver bream, bream, sopa, blue bream, common catfish, burbot, sculpin, pike perch and bersh . Some of the listed species can be found in clean, spacious lakes and, of course, large reservoirs, for example, dace, bream, sopa, bluefish, pike perch.

Purely freshwater fish that never leaves rivers is small (no more than 15 cm in length)brook lamprey (Fig. 1). Her life is extremely interesting, but not noticeable, so little is known about her. Its existence in the Sanokhta River and its tributaries is reliably known. Probably, it is also found in other clean rivers flowing into the Gorky Reservoir, and in some places in the Volga region. This fish, similar in body shape to a large crawler, spends almost its entire life in the larval state, burrowing in the sand, where it looks for small organisms or particles of organic matter on which it feeds. The transformation occurs in the spring of the 3rd or even 4th year of life. Adult lampreys quickly mature and, without starting to feed, reproduce and die. And from the eggs hatch larvae, which burrow into the sand again for 3-4 years, and everything repeats again.

Surskaya was once famous for its excellent taste. Okskaya sterlet - the smallest of the sturgeons. Rarely does it reach a meter in length and 2-3 kg of weight, usually it is less. This is a river fish that never leaves fresh water. Loves clean rivers, with a smooth, moderately strong current. It feeds at the bottom, eating worms, mollusks, insect larvae, etc. It breeds at considerable depths in rivers with sandy and pebbly soil, in fast water. Fishing for this magnificent fish is prohibited, so its reserves are gradually being restored, despite the fact that it often becomes the prey of poachers. An obstacle to the rapid growth of sterlet numbers is river pollution, to which it reacts very sensitively.

In the Sura basin in the recent past there was brook trout, inhabitant of fast, clean rivers. Currently not found within the region.

In the tributaries of the Unzha Volga and, possibly, in other forest rivers on the border with the Kostroma region, one comes across grayling, often found together with trout. Together with them there is usually another small fish (smaller than the size of a little finger) with a reddish belly and speckled yellow-green sides - river minnow. In the recent past, it was found in Kudma, Vatom and Khmelevka near Vasilsursk. Now it is not there, as it does not tolerate shallowing and river pollution.

Somewhat similar to trout and grayling, almost as fast and fast dace from the carp family. This small fish (length no more than 20-25 cm and weight 300-400 g) is one of the favorite objects of sport fishing, although its meat is not distinguished by high qualities. Catching a fish that disappears like a shadow (the speed at the moment of throwing reaches 170 cm/sec.) is considered a great success. Dace loves a hard or sandy bottom, fast currents and clean water. Numerous in the rivers of the Volga region, found in flowing lakes. There is, of course, it in the Volga, Oka and reservoir. It breeds on flooded floodplains or on sand in April - early May; in summer it often lives on riffles, near dams, and in rapids. It feeds on bottom food, and in the spring it eats the eggs of other fish, which causes harm. There should be no restrictions on its catch.

Nearest relative of the dace - chub, - despite its larger size (weight sometimes up to 4-8 kg, and length up to 80 cm), it is almost not an object of fishing, since it does not form large aggregations. It is usually found in small flocks. It also loves fast, clean water, a hard clay or sandy-pebble bottom. He willingly stands behind riffles, on rapids, under steep ridges with trees hanging over the water, from which insects continually fall into the water - his favorite food. Its lifestyle resembles that of a trout. This strong, beautiful broad-faced fish is the subject of constant hunting by amateurs. It reproduces during high water in small rivers, soon after the roach, when the bird cherry fades. It feeds on all kinds of food: catches small fish, frogs, eats crayfish, worms, insects. In the Volga and Oka, the number of chub has become small, but it still inhabits many tributaries in abundance.

The third of the Yelets - ide - unlike the chub, it is much more numerous everywhere, since it is less demanding on the quality of water. Its most typical habitat is lowland rivers with calm currents and soft soil. It is not afraid of silt and is often found in large quantities in river backwaters, oxbow lakes and flowing lakes.

Ide- commercial fish. In catches, its usual weight is 300-500 g; specimens up to 1.5-2 kg are found. It can even reach 6-8 kg, but such specimens are rare. It differs from its fellows in having a more massive and short body, covered with relatively small scales.

It breeds very early - from the end of April, together with pike and dace. It lays eggs in the floodplain on coastal levees, on rifts, and near crabs. It feeds on animal food, which it searches for at the bottom, but in summer it also likes to eat algae (filamentum, diatoms). It bites on bread and grain baits. A lot of ide are caught by amateur fishermen in the summer in Oka. In the absence of control, the daily production of some of them sometimes exceeds 20 kg. Such intensive fishing, accompanied by illegal feeding, has only one consequence: the almost complete disappearance of fish in those sections of the river where too many of these “athletes” accumulate, and the cessation of commercial fishing.

It can sometimes reach a meter length and weight up to 10-12 kg asp, Its lifestyle is reminiscent of salmon - the same strong, slender, fast fish. Like all cyprinids, it does not have teeth in its jaws, but by nature and feeding habits it is a real predator. He quickly bursts into a school of small fish and beats them with strong blows of his tail, and then, turning sharply, swallows the stunned and stunned fish one after another. The asp does not feed on large prey, since he cannot hold it with his toothless mouth. The “fight” of an asp can be heard from afar, but it is not easy to catch him, since, on top of everything else, he is also very careful.

Asp- a desirable catch for both fishermen and amateurs. Its meat has excellent taste. This is a river fish that loves the current. It occurs in large lakes and reservoirs, but is rare. Avoids standing bodies of water. Often found in holes near rifts. Feeds during the day at the very surface of the water. It breeds in the river on rapids in early May and does not enter the floodplain. The caviar, like that of most carp fish, is bottom-dwelling, sinking, sticky, sticking to pebbles and other underwater objects.

In similar places, often together with dace and chub, as well as near steep yars with hard clay soil. Podust. Outwardly, it looks like a dace, but it is easy to distinguish it by its transverse - in the form of a narrow slit - lower mouth with keratinized edges. With such a mouth, it easily scrapes off the plant film from underwater objects (blocks of soil, piles, etc.), which forms the basis of its nutrition. It also eats worms, insect larvae, and in the spring, fish eggs, which it easily tears off with its mouth from stones or stems of underwater plants. Other fish are usually content with only eggs that have come off the substrate and float with the current.

The length of the podust is rarely more than 20-30 cm, and its weight is 300-400 g. It is not found in large flocks, so its commercial value is not great. But sportsmen find special interest in hunting for it. It is most numerous now in clean small rivers. It does not tolerate pollution, so its catches in the Volga and Oka are falling.

Loves clean flowing water and gudgeon - one of the most common fish in the Upper Volga basin. It is found in almost all rivers and streams where it selects areas with hard ground and fast-moving areas. At the same time, it is numerous in lakes and even heavily silted river-bed ponds, often together with char. This small (no more than 15 cm) lively fish with large dark spots on the sides is readily caught by anglers, especially of school age. It has no commercial significance.

Almost the same assessment should be given to another widespread fish of small size (12-17 cm) with a herring-shaped, laterally compressed body -bleak. She lives in rivers and streams, but is found in clean lakes and even ponds. It stays in flocks near the surface, collecting insects falling into the water. But its main food is planktonic crustaceans. In the spring, like podust and dace, it eats the eggs of other fish. Bleak are especially numerous in deep, quiet water, in backwaters, near rafts and piers. During spawning (May - July) it gathers in large flocks and then can become an object of fishing. The eggs are laid on underwater vegetation in three to four portions with a break of 10-12 days.

A bit like bleak, another fish is very small in size (10-12 cm) -bystryanka . Her body, however, is somewhat shortened and taller. There are sparse specks on the sides, and along the lateral line there is a path of two rows of dark, slightly elongated spots. It is found in the Vetluga basin, as well as in other rivers and streams with a noticeable current.

In all large and medium-sized rivers of the Gorky region, fish with a flat, leopard-like body are common - silver bream. It also lives in large lakes, but in our conditions it is primarily an inhabitant of flowing reservoirs. It is also found in the reservoir, mainly in its upper sections. But everywhere in the rivers it is not numerous, since the conditions for its reproduction after the floods became low have deteriorated greatly." In years with low water, it sometimes does not reproduce at all. It is a schooling fish that moves little along the river. It prefers deep places with a smooth, calm current, however, it also readily lives in backwaters with a silty bottom and near steep banks, where it can feed on worms, insects, etc. washed out of the ground. In terms of value, the silver bream is, of course, inferior to bream, but is a commercial fish.The size of its catches does not exceed 18-22 cm, weight 250-275 g, and only rare individuals reach a kilogram weight.

One of the most valuable fish of the Volga basin is undoubtedly bream, meat with excellent nutritional and taste qualities. He, unlike the silver bream and his relatives the sopa and the blue bream, is a large fish. There are individuals weighing up to 5-6 kg, 70-75 cm long. But such giants are rare. In commercial catches, its usual weight in the Volga ranges from 160 to 1500 g. Bream is similar to silver bream, but all its fins are dark. The usual color is light, although there are also black and silver, and in older ones, the sides and belly have a golden tint.

It is found everywhere in large rivers and does not avoid large flowing lakes. Quite numerous in the Gorky Reservoir. Due to the lack of bottom food, in the first 3-4 years of life it feeds on plankton. In rivers it selects the deepest places, usually under the steep right bank, with a smooth flow. It feeds on the bottom, for which it is perfectly adapted: its mouth extends in the form of a tube, with which it sucks mollusks, bloodworms, worms, etc. from the silt and bottom. It breeds in May, on flooded floodplains, gathering in large flocks. A school of spawning bream easily reveals itself, especially in calm weather, as the fish splash and generally behave noisily. Eggs are laid on flooded vegetation. In the reservoir, where shallow waters are unsuitable for this, clutches were found, as we have already said, at depths of 10 and even up to 20 m. They willingly spawn on artificial spawning grounds arranged by fishermen. These simple structures are wooden frames, from which brooms made from branches of coniferous trees, bundles of straw or old netting are hung several stories high.

The number of bream is falling from year to year in both the Volga and Oka, so the stocks of this most valuable commercial fish need to be protected and increased. It is necessary to decisively stop the fishing of undersized, immature juveniles.

In appearance, another representative of this genus resembles a small bream -sopa, orwhite-eye. It is distinguished by a blunt snout, a semi-lower mouth, relatively large eyes and a longer sub-caudal fin. It is much smaller than its fellow - its length is rarely more than 20 cm, and its weight is 200-250 g. In the reservoir, however, you can come across a sopa up to 30 cm long. It prefers a fast current, most often holding on to the rod. Feeds near the bottom. It usually also breeds in the river bed. It is often caught in the seine along with bream and often passes for it. Sometimes it forms large accumulations in the backwaters of the Volga and Oka.

Until recently it was considered a purely river fish. blue, a relative of bream and sop, but with a more chased body of a silvery color with a clear bluish tint. In size and economic value it is close to the white-eye. In the Volga and Oka it is common, but not numerous. In reservoirs where a sufficient amount of planktonic food develops, its reserves increase. We can expect an increase in the amount of blue sinus in the Gorky Sea.

The silver-colored saber-shaped fish belongs to the same category of fish. saberfish. It is numerous not only in the Volga and Oka, but also in some tributaries, for example in the Vetluga. It enters our rivers annually from the Kuibyshev reservoir for spawning. It adheres to deep places with a sandy or dense clay bottom, with fast, clear water. There are quite a lot of saberfish in the Gorky Reservoir, where it grows well. Some specimens reach a kilogram weight. This is explained by the relative abundance of planktonic food on which it feeds. However, she willingly eats insects, juvenile fish, etc. It is curious that here she catches especially many perch fry.

This fish spawns in late May - early June on riffles in the river bed, less often on hollows, but also in strong currents. At the same time, its eggs do not sink, like most river fish, but float in the water column and are carried down by the current. The saberfish overwinters in backwaters. Very sensitive to water pollution. One of the first, and more often together with pike perch and sterlet, to slide under the ice down the Oka River at the first signs of death in February-March. In the Volga it again lingers in the backwaters and stays here until the next spawning run. Chekhon fish are caught in large quantities by fishermen. Fresh or smoked, it is quite a valuable food product. In the spring, during the move, it is caught with a fishing rod.

Lives in river pools among snags common catfish. It is a well-known fish with a naked body and a large head with a pair of long whiskers. Catfish is a predator. It hunts for fish at dawn on the shallows, where it emerges from inhabited holes. However, it eats everything: frogs, crayfish, mollusks, and grabs mice, rats, lizards and even waterfowl that accidentally fall into the water.

Som- one of the largest freshwater fish. In the lower reaches of the Volga it reaches 4-5 m in length. In Oka or Vetluga its usual weight is no more than 10-15 kg. Large specimens (up to 30 kg or more) are kept under the dam of the Gorky hydroelectric station. Catfish is a heat-loving fish. It breeds in pairs on fields in late May - early June, when the water warms up well (20-22°).

Catfish is a valuable commercial fish. But in the Oka and Volga they catch it less and less. It is very picky and does not tolerate water pollution well. As you know, even during summer floods it leaves its pools and holes until the water becomes clearer.

The only representative of cod fish in fresh waters is similar in appearance to catfish -burbot. On the Upper Volga it is found in many rivers, but it does not tolerate water pollution in the same way as catfish, so it has become rare in the Oka and Volga. Its numbers are also falling in the reservoir, since due to the unstable water level in winter, it is deprived of the opportunity to reproduce. Burbot is a cold-loving fish. It spends the summer huddled in holes and recesses on steep banks or under snags, especially near spring outlets. It feeds only at night, and in extreme heat it falls into a stupor similar to hibernation. It becomes active and vital only with the autumn cooling of the water. And after freeze-up, it begins its spawning run. Spawning occurs on sand and pebble shallows with a good current. The caviar, like that of sabrefish, floats. It is carried away by the current in the bottom layers, gets stuck among bottom irregularities, between stones, etc.

In the Gorky Reservoir, laid eggs often dry out when the water level drops or disappear under collapsed ice. For the same reasons, the death of spawning spawners is also possible. In winter, burbot feed intensively from freeze-up to ice break-up. It can attack peaceful fish wintering in pits. In those years when its numbers were higher, it could even cause some damage to fisheries.

Found in rivers and sometimes in clean flowing lakes zander, along with bream, it is the most valuable commercial fish. This is a big fish. Its largest known weight is 20 kg, length 130 cm. In commercial catches, the size of pike perch is no more than 35-50 (Oka) or 45-55 cm (reservoir). Fish weighing up to 9 kg winter under the dam of the Gorky hydroelectric station. Zander- a predator that eats mainly low-value and trash fish. Thus, he reclaims the reservoir. Large pike perch are kept in deep holes, whirlpools, near steep banks with dense soil, and small ones are found in the shallows along with perch. It lays eggs in the first half of May, especially willingly in those places where water washes away the roots of meadow plants, as well as on flooded trees and bushes, often at a depth of 6-10 m. Fluctuations in the water level are not scary for it.

Very similar to pike perch, but much smallerbersh , which on the Volga for some reason is called pike perch, although in fact it is only a relative. It rarely weighs more than 1 kg and 35-40 cm in length. In the Upper Volga there are few bersh, but in the Gorky Reservoir there have been much more of them in recent years than pike perch. This is explained by the fact that for the first few years of his life he eats a wide variety of foods, and gradually switches to the “fish table”. Pike perch from a very early age, already at a size of 14-20 mm, begins to feed on larvae and fry of fish. In those years when there are not enough young peaceful fish at this moment, pike perch die in droves. But it’s not scary for Bersh. Until it finally grows up, it feeds on planktonic crustaceans, worms, etc.

River fish issculpin goby (Fig. 2). This small fish (10-15 cm long), with a wide, flattened head and bulging eyes, is little known to many people, as it leads a very secretive lifestyle. In addition, both in the Oka and in the Volga there are few. Lives at the bottom between stones and blocks of soil. Doesn't like warm water. In summer, it often hangs together with ruff and burbot at the outlet of the springs. It has no economic value. The reproduction biology of the sculpin is interesting. The female lays several hundred eggs in a small burrow or hole somewhere under a stone, and the male stands over the clutch and protects it from enemies, and also refreshes the water with the movement of his fins.

One of our loaches should also be classified as river fish - pinching. Its length is 9-10 cm, under the eye there is a folding spike. This is where its name comes from: it pricks when taken out of the net. Lives well in aquariums, but muddies the water because it likes to burrow into the sand.

Lake and lake-river fish.

All other fish that live in the Upper Volga basin within the Gorky region are found in rivers and lakes. It is impossible to draw a sharp boundary between them, since many river fish live in large flowing lakes, while lake fish thrive in the backwaters and backwaters of the Volga, Oka or Vetluga. However, there are those who clearly prefer the quiet, stagnant warm water of lakes. These are, first of all, tench, crucian carp, carp, rudd, lake minnow, loach and some other species.

Tench has a massive, tall body covered with very small scales. It is always abundantly covered with mucus, and when taken out of the water, it quickly becomes covered with light spots (“sheds”) - hence the name. Tench is a sedentary bottom fish weighing up to 5-7 kg and 60-70 cm in length. Its usual weight is 400-800 g. It is found in all silted and heavily overgrown lakes with aquatic vegetation, as a rule, together with crucian carp and loach. It obtains food by slowly moving along the bottom of the reservoir and digging out mollusks, worms, larvae, mosquitoes, caddis flies, etc. in the mud. It also eats soft parts of underwater plants. It breeds right there in the lake as soon as the water warms up well enough. It lays eggs 2-3 times a summer. It sticks to the stems of plants. Tench has excellent-tasting meat, but it cannot be called a real commercial fish, since it is not found anywhere in large quantities and there is no special fishing for it. In summer it bites on worms and bloodworms, and can be caught with a fishing rod.

Lives in similar conditionscommon crucian carp (yellow) - a well-known inhabitant of warm, stagnant waters, a fish famous for its unpretentiousness and vitality. It lives in river backwaters, oxbow lakes, lakes and even shallow rural ponds. They call it round, lake and even golden, in order to distinguish it from another crucian carp - silver, which sometimes lives in the same reservoirs.

crucian carp the common one grows slowly, sometimes in poorly fed ponds at the age of 9-10 years it is only 7-8 cm long. But under favorable conditions its weight can reach several kilograms. The usual sizes in floodplain and forest lakes are 10-20 cm in length and weight 150-200 g. Crucian carp has been an object of local fishing and sport fishing since ancient times. Its lifestyle resembles that of tench. It also slowly moves around the reservoir and collects from the bottom or digs out various small animals from the soil, eats plant food and even large particles of silt. Breeds from late May to July. It lays eggs in several portions, like some other heat-loving fish. Small crucians - about the size of a nickel - live well in aquariums.

In the same or neighboring lakes and ponds similar in conditions silver, orwhite, crucian carp. It comes from the Far East and is a subspecies of the true goldfish, common in China and Central Asia. It differs from the common crucian carp in its silvery color and slightly more elongated body. It has 39-59 rakers on the first gill arch (the common one has 25-35), so in addition to bottom food, it also eats planktonic organisms. Vitality is not inferior to common crucian carp. It spreads quickly, penetrating from body of water to body of water. It is also very interesting because almost all individuals of this species are females, there are no males. The laid eggs are fertilized by male lake crucian carp, carp or even other fish. At the same time, females hatch again from the eggs. At home, that is, in the Far East, the sex ratio is usually normal.

About 30-40 years ago this species was very rare in the reservoirs of the Gorky region, andat Almost nothing was known about it, but now it is being discovered in all new lakes. This is explained by the fact that in the 40-60s this fish was intensively bred. Now it is available in almost all fish farms in the region. From ponds it easily penetrates into neighboring rivers and lakes. The nutritional and taste qualities of silver crucian carp are the same as those of ordinary crucian carp.

Often found in ponds and lakes carp. The wild carp's name iscarp (Fig. 3). It is found, for example, in the warm, slow-moving waters of Southern Europe. Numerous in the Lower Volga and especially in rivers and delta channels. Insufficiently substantiated attempts were made to settle this fish in the Upper Volga and, in particular, in the Gorky Reservoir, where in the 50s 6,000 breeders of carp and about 1 million carp of different ages (a hybrid of mirror carp with Amur carp) were planted. A decade and a half has passed since then, but the results of this experiment are not visible. There is only information about the capture of single individuals of carp. The living conditions here are too harsh for the heat-loving carp, and even if it takes root, it will not become numerous. And the carp was probably washed into the lower pool, from where it dispersed throughout the floodplain lakes. According to other assumptions, it went into the shallow subsidiary reservoirs of the upper part of the Gorky Sea, but it is not in the reservoir itself.

Carp- is domesticated back inXII- XIII centuries old Danube carp. Currently being bred in ponds

numerous breeds of it. In the Gorky region, they mainly grow a hybrid of Galician mirror carp and Amur carp. From the ponds, eggs, larvae, juveniles, and sometimes adults fall into neighboring reservoirs, and then new fish appear in them, not previously encountered. In lakes and rivers located near pond farms, silver crucian carp and carp are always caught. You just need to keep in mind that in the Volga-Kama basin, fishing for carp and carp is prohibited.

In Central Asia, in the lower reaches of the Volga, in the Kuban and on the Don, two more species of carp fish are bred in the ponds of the middle zone - al-eastern grass carp and silver carp. They are constantly imported into ponds in the Gorky region, and from there they penetrate into natural reservoirs in the same way as carp and silver carp do.

Grass carp (Fig. 4) - a large, strong fish, reaching a length of 120 cm and a weight of up to 32 kg in its homeland - in the Amur River (as well as in the rivers of China). It is remarkable in that it feeds on higher aquatic plants, and in ponds it happily eats beet leaves, meadow grass, etc., with which it is fed. In the USSR, this fish is used as a natural ameliorator, which clears canals and other reservoirs of vegetation. For this purpose, it was launched twice into the Balakhna cooling ponds. In addition, it has excellent meat, not inferior in quality to carp. Currently, there is a natural spread of grass carp from southern reservoirs, where it has taken root well, to the north. Already at the end of the 60s, individual individuals were caught near Saratov, and then near Kuibyshev. It may also appear within the Gorky region.

Catching this fish is also prohibited. Fishermen and amateurs can easily recognize it, although its body structure is a little similar to our chub. A caught carp should be immediately released into the river.

Another Far Easterner -silver carp(Fig. 5) - also bred in pond farms in the Gorky region. Its body structure is similar to that of a tench, but it has a very wide head with low-set eyes. It cannot be confused with any other fish. In the Amur it reaches 5-6 kg in weight and 70 cm in length. It feeds in a very unique way - plant plankton, i.e. microscopic algae suspended in the water column. It is they who, during mass reproduction (“blooming”), make the water bright green or even blue-green. There are no other fish with similar nutrition in our area. Its meat is also tasty. Like cupid, it spreads along the Volga and enters natural bodies of water from ponds. Catching it is prohibited.

A typical inhabitant of well-warmed, heavily overgrown lakes, oxbow lakes, and creeks with a silty bottom and a weak current or no current at all isrudd. A very elegant fish, reminiscent of a roach in appearance, but with a brighter coloring of the body and fins. Lives near plant thickets, often together with tench and crucian carp, but does not like close proximity to roach. Where there is a lot of it, there is usually no rudd, and vice versa.

This is a small fish of little value from an economic point of view. Its usual length is 15-20 cm, and its weight is no more than 150-200 g. It is thermophilic. The eggs are laid in thickets of reeds and reeds no earlier than June. Unlike our other fish, a significant portion of its diet consists of plant food. However, in the spring it eats eggs and also hunts for the fry of other fish. In the 50s it was quite numerous in the Gorky Reservoir. Now it is quite rare there.

In a community with crucian carp and other inhabitants of lakes there are also minnow lake, orsoft, - a small fish (5-10 cm) with a fleshy body of a yellowish-brown color, with dark specks on the sides. It is especially numerous in the peat quarries of the Trans-Volga region and in karst lakes along the Serezha River. His meat is delicious. It feeds on all kinds of small animals and eats fish eggs. In closed small reservoirs it can completely exterminate crucian carp. The minnow is a pioneer fish. As a rule, it is the first to settle in a newly formed body of water. In peat quarries that have recently filled with water, only one of them often lives. Other fish appear here later, when conditions become suitable for them.

Common in floodplain lakes and river backwaters Verkhovka, or oatmeal, - one of our smallest fish. Its length is no more than 4-8 cm. A frightened school of these fish, quickly leaving the surface, scatters to the sides, as if a handful of oats were thrown into the water. It looks like a small bleak, but shorter, and its lower jaw is sharply turned upward. Sometimes it is found in large quantities in fish ponds and then causes harm by destroying the food on which the carp feeds. In the Sura basin it is caught in floodplain lakes and used for food. It is also used as bait when fishing for perch.

In the creeks and tributaries of the Sura, and also, possibly, in some backwaters between Gorky and Cheboksary, in slowly flowing water you can observe a small fish that looks like a tiny bream, but with a greenish back. Thisbitter It is curious in that it lays its eggs using a long ovipositor into the mantle cavity of the bivalve mollusks, toothless and pearl barley.

Common in lakes loach - a representative of the loach family, whose mouth is equipped with 6-8 antennae. This is a fairly large (up to 32-33 cm) eel-like fish, yellow-brown in color with dark longitudinal stripes. Lives in lakes, oxbow lakes, even heavily silted and overgrown ones. Very tenacious. Capable of crawling through dew from pond to pond. When there is a lack of oxygen in the water, when other fish leave or die, it rises to the surface, swallows atmospheric air and breathes, passing it through the intestines. The loach is edible, but not everywhere it is eaten because of an incomprehensible prejudice - “because it squeaks.”

A relative of the loach lives in small rivers, ditches, and ponds - loach. This is a small fish no more than 12-15 cm long, not inferior to it in vitality. It has no economic value. Used as live bait. Often numerous in carp ponds, where it is a trash fish.

Typical lake and river species are the well-known pike, roach, perch and ruff.

Pike has an elongated, laterally compressed body and dorsal and subcaudal fins set far back (like the plumage of an arrow). It ambushes passing fish, but hardly pursues it if the prey escapes. Very interesting is the ability of pike (like the flounder that became famous for this) to very quickly change color to match the color of the surrounding background. A hidden pike is almost invisible among vegetation or the branches of a sunken tree. Found in all types of reservoirs. It is all-water, but in rivers it sticks to backwaters, oxbow lakes and shallow waters. In lakes, its favorite habitat is grassy thickets and snags.

It breeds very early in the spring, one of the first, as soon as the water warms up to 3-4°. Experiments have established that its eggs develop normally within a wide temperature range - from 2 to 23°. This is also a very useful adaptation, since pike can thus reproduce in any weather possible at that time. She is not afraid of either heat or cold. Early reproduction is very important because its fry appear earlier than peaceful fish, they are larger and, when the time comes, they begin to feed on their peers.

Pike are growing quickly. By the end of the first year of life it reaches 15-20 cm, and sometimes more. This is also an adaptation to a predatory lifestyle. Its peers - roach, dace, perch, ruff - are already two to four times smaller by the end of summer. In the backwaters of the Volga and Oka, meter-long and even larger fish weighing up to 15-20 kg are not uncommon.

Adult pike - predator, eating everything it can overcome, even prickly ruffs and perches and its own young. Like catfish, they also catch lizards, mice, etc. that accidentally fall into the water. However, it would be a mistake to consider it harmful. Quite the contrary. By destroying low-value and trash fish, it frees up food for more valuable species. Pike is a land reclamation agent. She is also an orderly, since her victims are primarily sick, weakened, and inferior individuals. In fish farms, pike are specially grown to combat weed fish and harmful invertebrate animals. And in itself it is an important commercial fish. Therefore, unlimited and sometimes reckless destruction of this fish is unacceptable.

It breeds on flooded floodplains, where it sometimes gathers in large quantities, sometimes in a small area with very little depth, and often becomes a victim of poachers. The extermination of spawners at spawning sites is a serious crime against nature. It damages the national economy. In general, pike, like other valuable fish, must be caught with care so as not to undermine their reserves.

Found everywhere in lakes, reservoirs, rivers and even ponds roach. It is small in size: the usual length is 15-20 cm and weight is about 200 g. In terms of catch, roach occupies one of the first places, so it acquires a certain economic importance. In some Oka backwaters, larger roach are also caught - up to 800 g. They prefer shallow, overgrown and well-warmed reservoirs, and avoid strong currents. It feeds on a variety of small animals, which it finds at the bottom of reservoirs, planktonic crustaceans, and algae. Usually it feeds on what is available in the greatest quantity and easily switches from one food to another. Roaches reproduce in fields when bird cherry blossoms.

No less widespread in lakes, rivers, reservoirs and even pondsperch. It is found everywhere, but is most numerous in lakes and reservoirs. In rivers, the favorite habitat of perch is backwaters and backwaters, oxbow lakes. The small ones live in flocks, the large ones - in small groups or alone. An adult perch is a predator, but, unlike pike, it pursues its prey. It is very characteristic that young perch, sometimes up to 5-7 years and longer, feeds like a peaceful fish: it willingly eats small bottom animals, catches planktonic crustaceans, etc. In the Gorky Reservoir, for example, during the first few years of its life it feeds on plankton. Fish begins to enter its diet quite early, but only in the oldest and largest perches does it clearly predominate in the food. Its unpretentiousness and ability to feed on a variety of foods have made perch an almost indestructible fish. It is hunted by professional fishermen, and amateur fishermen fish all year round. The white dense meat of this fish, devoid of intermuscular bones, tastes great. Perch breeds in late April - early May in floodplains filled with hollow water. The eggs are deposited in slimy ribbons on underwater vegetation.

Common everywhere - in rivers, lakes, oxbow lakes, reservoirs and even ponds - ruff. There is especially a lot of it in river backwaters. In the summer, in the heat, it stays in deep places, at the outlet of springs, often together with sculpin and burbot. It feeds on various animal organisms, hunts for their larvae, and eats fish eggs. It reproduces in a variety of conditions: in the river, in fields, in reservoirs and at depth. It is abundant everywhere and therefore competes in the diet of many benth-eating fish. Destroys many food organisms. Ruff should be considered not only a weed, but also a harmful fish. It is of no value in itself due to its small size. The catch of ruffe should not be limited. It is even possible to organize special catching with a seine in those places where it forms mass accumulations, for example during spawning. Like perch, it can be caught all year round using a fishing rod.

When describing the indigenous Upper Volga lake-river fishes, two Far Eastern species were mentioned - carp and silver carp, but, besides them, at least six more species new to our water bodies, two of which were introduced (Baikal sturgeon and peled), and four appeared as a result of spontaneous settlement (sprat, smelt, vendace, eel).

Even at the time when the construction of the Gorky hydroelectric station was being planned, it was clear that migratory fish would disappear from the Upper Volga in this area, and many purely river fish would become scarce. Therefore, in order to increase the reserves of valuable commercial fish, a significant amount of fish of different species was released first into the Volga and then into the resulting sea. So, in 1952-1959, 18.5 thousand breeders (i.e., mature individuals) of bream, about 20 thousand pike perch, the already mentioned 6000 carp, more than 1 million were brought and released into the river, on the site of the future reservoir. carp fry and 5 million larvae of Ladoga vendace (ripus) and Peipus whitefish. From 1962 to 1965, 12 thousand sterlets of different ages were transplanted from the lower pool into the reservoir. In addition, larvae and fry of Baikal sturgeon and peled were released over the course of 3 years. In total, more than 4 million individuals of these two species were planted. Not all settlers took root in the Gorky Sea. Nothing is known, for example, about the existence of whitefish, ripus, and carp in the reservoir. Only a few specimens of Baikal sturgeon and carp are occasionally caught by fishermen. Apparently, only the peled is doing well so far. It has taken root, its numbers are gradually increasing, although there are still few of it in commercial catches. Fishermen, however, already know this fish well and value it for its tasty meat.

Siberian sturgeon, or Baikal, widespread throughout Siberia, from the Ob to the Kolyma. In Baikal, it became a purely lake fish, never leaving fresh waters. This quality allowed it to be distributed in many reservoirs. It could be assumed that if it takes root in Gorkovsky, it will significantly replenish the stock of residential sturgeon. In reality it didn't work out that way. The amount of bottom food turned out to be much lower than predicted; even local fish lack it. Therefore, the number of sturgeon is still insignificant.

To improve the food supply, in 1962-1964, 7.5 million large crustaceans - Baikal gammarids - were released into the reservoir. They took root and settled throughout the sea. In June 1969, more than 1 million more Baikal gammarids were released at the mouth of Sanokhta, and in July, more than 0.5 million crustaceans - mysids, similar to miniature shrimps - were released at the mouth of Belaya. To some extent, these measures will improve the living conditions of many fish and thus accelerate their growth and increase the fish productivity of the reservoir.

The whitefish found itself in a different position - peled, also very common along the rivers and lakes of the North of the USSR. This is an extremely unpretentious and viable fish: it is easily bred even in ponds along with carp. It feeds on planktonic organisms, and the Gorky Reservoir is quite rich in this food. Peled is a large fish; in its native habitats it reaches 40-50 cm in length and 2-3 kg in weight. In the Volga we have not yet come across such large whitefish.

Vendace is also found in the reservoir, but not the Ladoga ripus brought here, butBelozerskaya vendace. This is a Siberian subspecies that lives in the north of the European part of the Union, including in Beloozero (the Upper Volga basin), from where it first penetrated along the Sheksna into the Rybinsk reservoir, in the 50s it appeared in the Gorky reservoir, and in the 60s it descended into the Kuibyshev reservoir sea. This species is the smallest of the whitefish, a relative of the peled and ripus. Its length in the Volga does not exceed 17-18 cm. If the Belozersk vendace turns out to be quite numerous here, it can become an object of economic use.

Smelt and sprat also spread spontaneously along the Volga.

Smelt is a type of anadromous Baltic smelt, common in the north-west of the European part of the USSR. This small fish (6-10 cm) is very numerous in many lakes, for example in the already mentioned Beloozero. There, sometimes several tens of thousands of centners of it are caught per year. Used dried. In the same way as vendace, smelt got into the Rybinsk reservoir back in the 40s, where it became very numerous, and from there it moved to the Gorky reservoir (50s), and then to the Kuibyshev reservoir. In 1961, it was discovered in the downstream of the Volzhskaya Hydroelectric Power Station named after V.I. Lenin, and in 1967 - in the Kama. Found mainly in backwaters. It is not yet found on the Volga, although it has become larger here.

Differs in other qualities sprat. It was always found as single individuals in the Lower Volga, Dnieper and other southern rivers. With the advent of reservoirs, it not only settled in them, but in some of them multiplied very strongly. In the 60s it was recorded in the Volga within the Gorky region, and now it is found in such numbers that it sometimes completely clogs the wings of seines during fishing. This small fish (7-8 cm) is not yet used, but it causes significant harm, as it destroys the food on which more valuable fish feed. It is still difficult to foresee what the settlement and mass reproduction in the Volga and reservoirs of such uninvited guests as smelt, sprat and vendace will lead to, but now we can say that the food supply of predatory fish (pike perch, asp, pike and others) has undoubtedly improved.

Finally, the last of the “aliens” - river eel. It is common in rivers of the Baltic, North and Mediterranean seas. This is an anadromous fish, but it makes its migrations the other way around: it lives in rivers and goes to the tropical Atlantic to reproduce. Eel is a large (up to 2 m in length and 4-6 kg in weight), very valuable commercial fish. For some time now they began to breed it in the USSR. Fry (so-called glass eels) are bought in Western European countries, where they are caught in large quantities, for example, off the coast of France. The brought fry are released into the lakes of Belarus, the Upper Volga and other places. From 1960 to 1967, more than 4.5 million eels were released into the Lake Seliger system. From there, this fish penetrates into the Volga, where already grown eels up to 50-90 cm long are systematically caught in various fishing gear and even hooked along the entire Volga, right up to Astrakhan. This fish is constantly caught near the city of Gorky. It could be included in the list of fish of our region, but as a temporary inhabitant that will be found here only as long as fish farming work is carried out.

Fisheries.

The fishery fund within the administrative boundaries of the Gorky region is, excluding small rivers (in thousand hectares): Volga -19.5, Oka -8.3, Vetluga - 5.7, Piana - 2.3, Sura - 2.0, Gorkovskoye reservoir - 17.4. In addition, lakes are at least 11.5.

Meanwhile, the fish catch is not large and is also declining. The production of lake and river fish in the 70s fell by more than 2 times compared to pre-war times. According to the Gorky Fish Processing Plant, the fish catch in different years was (in centners): in 1938 - 7693, V 1941-1945 -5847, 1956-1960 -5051, 1966-1970 -4241 and 1972 -3721. At the same time, the share of the main fishing grounds (Volga, Oka, reservoir) over the past 8 years, according to the state fish inspection, is as follows:

	Volga		Oka		Gorky Reservoir		General
Year							catch, c
	centners
1965	2241	45,9	2112	43,3	521	10,8	4874
1968	1704	40,0	2118	49,5	435	10,5	4257
1972	1838	50,4	1307	35,8	499	13,8	3644

From the table above it can be seen that about half of the fish production in the last 8 years comes from the Volga, Oka - 35-40%, Gorky Reservoir - about 10-15%. An increase in the reservoir's share is possible in the coming years as its biological productivity appears to be gradually increasing. The acclimatization of valuable species of fish and food invertebrates will bear fruit, if, of course, measures are taken to rationalize fisheries (reducing the catch of immature fish, intensive removal of low-value weed species, etc.).

Catches in rivers are likely to continue to decline, at least until poaching stops completely. The fish productivity of the Volga and Oka is decreasing: in 1938-1940 it was (including Piana, Sura and Vetluga) -20.5, and in 1972 (without the reservoir) it did not exceed 11.2 kilograms per hectare.

It is characteristic that in the first years of the reservoir’s existence, when the usual outbreak of life for reservoirs of this type was observed there, the catches were higher. At first, fishermen were just getting used to the new conditions for them and caught little. Then production began to increase sharply and in 1963 reached a record figure of 1138 cwt. But already in 1964, only 561 quintals of fish were handed over to trading organizations. Subsequently, catches stabilized.

The 8-year average from 1965 to 1972 is 474.4 cwt.

It was suggested above that the biological productivity of the Gorky Reservoir will gradually increase, but since its food supply is still low, and the breeding conditions for many fish in the reservoir continue to remain unfavorable, this process will undoubtedly be lengthy.

In the Volga and Oka, a further decline in catches is possible. Among the many reasons for this is low flood water levels. The Volga overflows weakly. Fish that spawn in the floodplain have a bad time: not every year there are conditions necessary for spawning. This will apparently be the case until the Cheboksary Reservoir appears.

One of the reasons for the decline in commercial fish stocks is excessive and almost unlimited recreational fishing. Fishing sport is an excellent way to improve people's health. Every year it becomes more and more popular. According to the most conservative estimates, within the Gorky region, in addition to those organized in the Society of Fishermen and Hunters (2,500 people), there are currently at least 120 thousand fishing enthusiasts.

It is generally accepted that properly organized sport fishing (i.e., with full and precise adherence to the established rules) does not lead to disruption of commercial fish stocks; on the contrary, it is beneficial, since by catching low-value and weedy fish such as ruffe, gudgeon, dace, bleak , small roach and perch, hobbyists free up food for more valuable fish. However, one cannot help but keep in mind that the influence of an army of fishermen on the fish population of water bodies is very significant. In 1971 and 1972, the Srednevolzhrybvod twice conducted a questionnaire survey of amateur fishermen living in the Kuibyshev, Penza and Ulyanovsk regions, the Mari, Mordovian, Tatar and Chuvash republics, and established the following. An amateur fisherman in the Middle Volga goes fishing on average 36 times during the year. The average catch per trip is 2.8 kg. Consequently, the annual catch per person is about 100 kg. If we assume that the Gorky fisherman is less fortunate and catches 4 times less (25 kg), then in this case the total catch will be at least 30 thousand centners, which is 8 times more than the amount that the Gorky Fish Factory receives per year. Thus, non-professional fishermen remove more fish from water bodies than commercial fishermen. The view of amateur fishing as a harmless activity must be abandoned. Moreover, if the activities of fishing crews are regulated, and they, for example, do not have the right to catch fish that have not reached the commercial limit, then amateurs take everything they hook. This is especially true for those types of fish that are most accessible to persons armed with hook gear - pike perch, catfish, pike, burbot, asp, as well as ide, chub, bream and others. There is a need to regulate and limit recreational fishing, at least in the main fishing areas. It can be considered rational to designate special reservoirs for fishing sports with their complete exclusion from economic use.

The situation is complicated by the fact that among the real amateurs who go to rivers and lakes for the sake of communicating with living nature, there are also many who turn sport into a trade. The harm caused by such “athletes” is especially great because they catch during prohibited periods or with unauthorized methods and tools and, as a rule, in prohibited quantities. They exterminate producers locally spawning, destroy rare valuable commercial species, the number of which is already small.

The function of protection and control, as is known, is assigned to the state inspection of Glavrybvod, but it is difficult for the small staff of this organization to exercise control when tens of thousands of fishermen spread over hundreds of rivers, rivers, lakes and reservoirs in the region on weekends. Here we need the help and watchful eye of the public, primarily the organization of amateur fishermen themselves. Such an organization, which gives certain rights, but also imposes precisely established responsibilities on its members, can do a lot if it covers all or at least the majority of fishing enthusiasts in cities and villages, factories, collective farms and state farms in the region. It would not only make poaching impossible, but could generally organize effective conservation of nature. This would have an immediate and very beneficial effect on the stock status of many valuable fish species, the numbers of which continue to decline. Thus, sterlet, which accounted for almost 2% of the catch 20 years ago, is now not included in the number of fish caught. Catching it is prohibited. Over the same period, catches of ide decreased by 6 times, asp by 18 times, pike perch by 3 times, silver bream by 4.5 times, and pike by 4 times. The share of these fish in the total catch was 22%, and by 1972 it had decreased to 7.2%.

Great efforts are needed to ensure that their reserves are restored.

On the other hand, the importance of sabrefish in the fishery is significantly increasing, the catch of which increased by 3 times by 1972 (the share increased from 13.1 to 18.6%), as well as roach, the share of which in the total catch more than doubled - from 22. 8 to 49.4%.

In the reservoir, from 1965 to 1972, pike production decreased from 7.3 to 0.4% (18 times), asp and burbot disappeared from the lists of commercial fish, and very little pike perch disappeared. But the number of bream is increasing: its share in catches has increased from 34.6 to 49.9%.

Of course, analysis of the species composition of fish arriving at procurement points does not provide a complete picture of the state of stocks of even the most valuable species due to a number of reasons: selectivity of fishing gear, uneven distribution of fish throughout the basin, etc. In the Gorky Reservoir, for example, in recent years Over the years, the number of blue bream and bluefish has noticeably increased, in the Volga and Oka the sopa (white-eye) has become common, and official statistics do not reflect such shifts, so fishermen are not switching to catching these fish.

One of the effective means of increasing fish stocks in the region is pond fish farming. Several state farms are engaged in breeding fish in ponds (Bortsovskoye, Urazovskoye, Veletminskoye, Ilevskoye, Polderevsky fish hatchery). The area of ​​1046 hectares of feeding ponds currently produces 3500 quintals of carp, as well as silver crucian carp and some Far Eastern herbivorous fish.

The amount of commercial fish produced is growing, but slowly. According to the Gorky Fish Processing Plant, pond fish was produced in 1938-1940 - 766 quintals, in 1951-1960 - 1301 quintals, in 1972 - 3505 quintals.

The average fish productivity of ponds does not exceed 3.5 centners per hectare. Meanwhile, the experience of the advanced teams of the fish farms listed above shows that even in the rather harsh natural conditions of the Gorky region it is possible to obtain fish up to 10 and even 20 quintals per hectare.

Some state and collective farms in the region are also engaged in growing pond fish. In 1972, there were six such farms: five state farms and one collective farm in the village. Vache. The pond area of ​​these farms, which produces marketable fish, in 1972 did not exceed 450 hectares. The total amount of fish grown from this area, according to the regional fish reclamation station, in 1970 was 470 c, in 1971 -380 and in 1972 -640 c.

The low (1.5 centners per hectare) productivity of collective farm reservoirs is explained by the fact that the fish were not fed with artificial feed.

The reasons for the low productivity of fish farms are poor farming standards, inaccurate adherence to fish farming biotechniques, and a lack of qualified fish farmers. Despite these shortcomings, the prospects for pond farming and fish farming in general are practically unlimited. This is especially true for collective and state farm fish farming. It has been theoretically and practically proven that any body of water can be adapted for growing fish - small rivers, lakes, ponds, and reservoirs. If there is a source of water supply, then even waste and unproductive lands: damp hollows, dry lands, quarries, peat workings. The widespread development of collective and state farm fish farming will create an abundance of various fish products in cities and villages. Currently, methods and techniques have been developed for breeding in artificial reservoirs not only carp and crucian carp, but also such valuable fish as bream, pike perch, pike, tench, catfish, peled and many others.

Conditions for fish farming are expanding even more due to the ongoing work on reclamation and irrigation of fields and natural pastures, which requires the creation of water reserves.

These reservoirs can also be adapted for fish farming.

The above gives some idea of ​​the processes occurring in natural and artificial reservoirs under the influence of human economic activity (hydraulic construction, fish farming, acclimatization, pollution). We are witnessing the breaking and restructuring of connections and relationships that have developed in nature over thousands of years. Some of them lead to an increase in natural resources, others lead to their destruction. The consequences of neither one nor the other cannot yet be predicted. Only one thing is becoming more and more obvious: human intervention in the affairs of nature must be extremely careful and thoughtful. The use of natural resources must be treated with care and prudent management.

One of the most important environmental measures in relation to fish resources is undoubtedly the protection of water bodies from pollution by wastewater. Without this, any other measures aimed at increasing the productivity of rivers and lakes will not be sufficiently effective and fully useful.

It is very important to take care of increasing the productivity of large reservoirs. One of them has existed within our region for a decade and a half - this is Gorky.

Other - Cheboksary - will appear in the coming years, its water area within the boundaries of the region will be equal to 87.8 thousand hectares.

To improve the food supply of the Gorky Sea, it is necessary to continue work on the acclimatization of food invertebrates in it, and to increase the removal of weeds and low-value fish.

To improve the conditions for fish reproduction, a stable level is required during spawning periods. It is necessary to achieve the maximum possible coordination of the interests of the energy and fisheries sectors. For the same purpose, it is necessary to create spawning and rearing farms in which valuable fish species would reproduce under human control and protection.

Stopping the erosion of the banks in the Gorky reservoir is currently a very difficult task, but it is possible to weaken this process in the Cheboksary reservoir through timely afforestation of future banks. In the Gorky Reservoir within the region there are almost no shallow areas suitable for fish breeding. In Cheboksary they will be in abundance. By diking them and creating simple hydraulic structures, thousands of hectares of water surface can be used for breeding pond fish.

The experience of acclimatization and introduction of new species in the Gorky Reservoir convinces us that if the processes of life formation in the Cheboksary Reservoir follow a similar path, we should focus primarily on the import of planktivorous fish rather than benthivorous fish.

But, most importantly, to prevent clogging of it with low-value fish, it is necessary to immediately create conditions for the reproduction and existence of a sufficient number of natural reclamation agents - pike perch and, perhaps, pike. This can be done with the help of spawning and nursery farms being built, through artificial reproduction, construction of spawning grounds and strictly regulated catching of valuable fish. Without this, it is impossible to create a sufficiently powerful herd of bream and pike perch in the reservoir, since it is impossible to limit the number of weed and low-value fish by technical means alone (for example, fishing).

Should not be brought into the created Cheboksary Sea bream, sterlet, carp, pike perch, carp, etc., since almost all of these fish are found here. Their numbers can be increased if care is taken to create the necessary conditions for reproduction and nutrition.

Also important is the reclamation of lakes and small rivers in the region, as well as the cultivation of pond fish in them.

Material provided by V.V. Astakhov "Nature of the Gorky region."

Flashing. Catch: 1-3 kilograms (perch 300 gr)

Weather: Various

Tackle: Winter fishing rods

Bait/attachment: Tulka

Happy departed everyone! Starting in December, we roamed the Puchezh expanses, first on foot, then on a motorized towing vehicle. But the presence of equipment, cameras, echo sounders and points in Susanino did not bring decent catches, since fish were simply not found in quantity. And we decided to move up the reservoir. On December 30, there was a reconnaissance trip to Novlenskoye, but nothing outstanding was found there either. Since there was a long weekend ahead, it was necessary to choose a potentially fishing place to search. The choice fell on Yuryevets, since there is housing there and not far from the bersh, and it is so far the most stable fish this season. There were also hopes to get to the powerful tributaries of the Nemda and Unzha, as well as to visit the snags on the Nizhny Novgorod side. We left for our mini expedition on January 3 in the evening. The dog was brought into the parking lot and moved into a warm house with all the amenities.
Day one: at 6 am we get up, have breakfast, and get ready to at least start off from something in the evening, we agreed with a local fisherman named Igor Ovechenkov. He agreed to show us the perch place, and we were charged with delivery by vehicle. Upon arrival on the shore we met with Igor. And for the first time in 3 seasons, Brasik refused to start. Moreover, at home it was thawed and dried after the 30th, when snow poured into the carburetor and everything froze there. By the way, after this day I had to make a protective cover for the engine, which covered the weight of the dog’s right side from the snow swirls. After spending about 30 minutes rebuilding and warming up the carburetor, the dog came to life and took the four of us to meet the fish. Igor sat on horseback and showed the way, and also, since the snow was piled up to the half of his boot, his weight added to the cross-country ability. In fact, with a person on horseback, there was never a place where we would not have passed, especially that year became indicative when there was a lot of snow and we calmly rode 25 km a day to the exit of Unzhi. The only exception is snow with water, in this mess the torment begins.
Time 9 we are on the holes, or rather on the spot, since there was no specific reference, just an area with hungry rare perches and clouds of just millions of ruff (I caught it on camera and will post it later). Only ruffs ran around with a camera in the lens. We ended up searching with a balance beam, since Igor had already caught a couple of perches. They settled down not far from each other and the first bites began on the balancers, and they were all so greedy that they had to remove them from two hooks and such an adult took the bait. But the happiness did not last long and not because they drilled, no. There was simply no one to drill, since several dozen people could be seen all along the river and they were sitting on the long-distance and mostly on the bersha. And then the snow covered us from everyone, but after catching 4-5-6 perches, there was silence. And we went to check last year’s points, but there were only shells, sometimes with rare ruffs. So we got to the bershov bazaars. And we decided to return to the morning lenkas and drill there wider, maybe we’ll find something else. Igor, meanwhile, was probably already drilling the 50th hole and had 7 or 8 perches in his catch. And before dark we caught one more for all of us. When it began to get dark, we went ashore, Igor went home, and we had dinner (we even had to send a photo to our wives that we were eating well, so that they would not worry) and spend the night. We had a long dinner with conversations and goodies.
Day two: at 6 am we get up, after eating we go to the parking lot to pick up the towing vehicle and straight from the parking lot I take my people to the bersha to the cross, and I went to one to check the points near the skeletons and behind the islands and closer to Selyantsevo. At the first point I immediately came across a ruff and perch and forgot the balancer in the car))) At the 15th hole I found a lone roach near a stump and started trying. It doesn’t take me 10 minutes to shake, I lower the camera, there are no fish) I drill another hole, I see 2 roaches in the camera. I shake the main rod for 0.75 minutes, after five minutes there is a powerful bite, give the rod back and I feel the resistance of the roach on the other side of the tackle. Then there’s this picture: you drill a hole, there are 1-2 fish, you stick a jig in, you shake it, there’s silence. You lower the camera and there are no fish in 5 holes. Afterwards I came to the conclusion that the water that was under the snow when you trampled it with your feet made light, because where you walked everything was visible as if it were on first ice, where there was no trampling there, it was dark. It looked like the fish was moving away from the light. Then I went to check the points in the Nizhny Novgorod region. There, of all places, I saw three perches in the hole of one local man on a dog. I didn’t bother him, I went on to mix the snow with water, even on my own this is quite an adventure. Slowly the caterpillar began to slip. since the drive gears are already quite frozen. After checking the points, I went to get my bershatniks. They have several bites per day - 2 and 3 pieces. edible, plus 3 small ones were released. At sunset we drove into the city and decided to stop at the dam, since there were so many people sitting there. We checked the holes fed by someone with a camera, there are roaches, we persuaded one thing to GSh 0.6. Moreover, there were more fish near the dam than on the other side. On the 3rd day all thoughts are about roach. I decided to try fishing with food. We stopped at the store, picked up 1 kg of winter feed and a dump truck. Back for a beer and an overnight stay.
Day three: get up at 6 am, get ready for breakfast and go to the ice. He took his people to the bersh holes and returned to the dam himself. The tent campers are all already in place. Based on yesterday's holes with a camera, there are fish, but only in small quantities. I feed the holes with 2 dump trucks 15 apart from each other. And I begin to persuade. They used GS from 0.6-0.75g and bright jigs. different cubes. Everything is in vain. The turn has come to the chameleon cube and on the very first retrieve I catch a roach. And all this was the last fish of the day))) It seems that the frost of -15 and the lack of current turned off the roach. Even the tent campers ran from place to place. At 2 p.m. I went to check the snags near the islands, but there was desert there. I returned for my own people, they again brought bershas and caught several of them. We decided to go to the shore and then the moment came when the dog drove 10m and the goose was tightly jammed by a combination of snow and ice. For 1.5 hours, the three of us, like Papa Carlo, freed her from the icy captivity with screwdrivers, mallets and a spoon. Thanks to this, we saw Yuryevets at night from the ice)))) Having wedged the goose, a second problem came to us, namely, the frozen gears were completely out of gear. Somehow we made it to the path, and then slowly reached the parking lot. Upon arrival, we cleaned everything as best we could, but not completely, but we were good to go. During the dinner.
Day four: rise at 7, breakfast, complete packing. On this day, everyone decided to go for a bersh, since 3 roaches in two days didn’t make me very happy and the coverage at -17 would have guaranteed to catch our dog in ice captivity again. Thanks to the night frost, our path to the bersh holes was dry and hard. Deviation from the trail led to a guaranteed mix of snow and water porridge. We arrived at the holes at 9 am and after 15 minutes the first chews began, which by 11 o’clock turned into confident hits in the hand. In total, I had about a dozen bites on sprat, of which I took 3, shook off two small ones, dropped one good one, missed the rest, and all this from one hole until lunch. Mine saw bites in other holes, no matter how much I drilled, there was silence everywhere. Result of the day 3-5-1. We got to the car quickly and easily. According to tradition, we stopped in Kineshma for shawarma.

P.S. On this trip, we tested analog knives for the Mora Nova System 110mm drill from the Titan company, they drill very well. Their price is 450 rubles.
I also got myself a gearbox, with which now the screwdriver does not twist his arms and drills with it easily and naturally, and theoretically, the batteries will be enough for a larger number of holes.
I also switched to a homemade 7" camera with manual illumination, just plasma compared to 4.3 inches)))
The guys, sitting at home, came up with heated gloves, they are in the photo 👇🏻
Everything went well, no fish were found, we will continue searching...

Report for two days off.
Actually, I don’t like two-day fishing on weekends, since there is no time left for my family, but there was already an agreement here, and since I promised, I have to go.
During the week, information on the condition of the ice was not very encouraging. People were swimming. I don’t like dark ice, well, I don’t feel comfortable fishing on it, so when choosing a place for the first day of fishing, I suggested going to Yachmen to “slowly go down the mountain” and then everyone knows everything. But the fishing of previous seasons did not allow a very significant part of our crew to sit quietly on reliable ice, and accordingly it was decided to go to Segot for hefty perches and no less hefty roach.
At the approach to the shore, the road skidded a little, the road was not cleared and is unlikely to be cleared in winter. We were on the shore at 8 am. There were already people on the ice - the crew of the UAZ Bukhanka, who had arrived before us. With a brisk step, testing the ice with an ice pick, we moved “for the fish!” We walked a little, 150 meters, and the ice pick broke through the ice with the first blow. “Wow,” we thought. But there were already people further away, so using the “art of easy steps” we crossed the dangerous place. Further on there was about 10 centimeters of ice, but again not far. In general, two crews began to look for fish. We didn’t really succeed in searching, since the ice was very bad in places. There were cracks, the edges of which went up and down, there were sections of ice that were broken through by an ice pick with one blow, but there were no fish in the camera, echo sounders, or fishing rods. Or rather, no, I personally saw two perches caught on balance beams, I saw another one frozen in a sled, and I heard about one from a reliable source. Well, that's all with fish in this place. We decide to go to the hotel in Puchezh at 13-30, and at the same time see what’s going on with the ice.
We arrived ashore. In appearance, the ice is no better than in Segoti, but we are delighted to see a local fisherman walking ashore from the area of ​​the first spit. He really walked in zigzags, testing the ice with an ice pick. We went to intercept the aborigine. From questioning, they found out that “the ice is excellent, go wherever you want” (it was not for nothing that he zigzagged like a hare), the fish were not biting and he had only one perch in his “asset”, albeit a good “perch”. We decide to try. In the first hole I had a varying bite and a 30 gram perch on the ice. I wanted to let him go, but the dogma “about the first fish” plus the active support of most of the crew - I had to take the catch. We walk carefully further, to familiar points, it’s not far to go, but all movements are only with an ice pick. At the point there are fish faces poking at the camera! Here she is! Jigs into the water and here they are, the first fish of the Volga catch of the winter season. The fish were actively biting on all baits, especially on the devil. But there was already a lot of time, it was not possible to fish, since it was getting dark, so, as they say, “curled up” - the main thing is that we saw the fish, it’s here!
In the morning (Sunday) we went to the evening point and further away. There were many more fishermen. Apparently it was biting. We slowly, trying not to disturb each other, “hilled up our beds.” The fish was more capricious today, to hell with just the hits, all the bites were on a small nail cube. Moving on the ice and active drilling was very stressful for the fish. In principle, the fish were biting all day, and if you did everything carefully, without scaring it, you could catch it in one place. But not everything happens as you want, they made some noise, and there was a current and the fish left one of the points, they caught it at the second. I pecked mainly on a slightly lively retrieve, but occasionally on an active “kick”. At the bottom and up to 20 centimeters, the larger ones are higher, smaller but bolder. Steamboats hung themselves a couple of times, one of them almost dragged his fishing rod into the hole when he missed the fishing line during an interception. The steamers turned out to be roaches weighing about 300 grams. The fish varied in size, but without outright small things, roach and perch were in approximately the same proportions. By evening the bite subsided.
By jigs. The favorites of the previous two seasons were confirmed (see photo). And it was caught the same way. At dusk there is a vigorous eye, then if the bite is good then it’s damn, if it’s bad then it’s a nail cube.
Tested the author's nods. A nod from the online store “beznasadka.ru” with a medium load capacity could not handle the 0.35 g jig. It snotted so much that it was impossible to do the wiring, but the nod from “Ivan-Motor”, the softest snot was correct, I caught it all Sunday, the seat of the nod just needs to be modified, adjusted to the whip.
Preparing for thin ice, I looked for “life savers” at home, but couldn’t find them; I had to urgently make them from available materials: two 140 mm roofing screws, two laces, two drops of glue for the knots. Rescue ropes on a free noose were attached to the wrists and tucked into the sleeves of the jacket. They did not interfere, and during field tests they were quickly removed and tested on the ice. The cost is cheap, and the reliability is higher than factory ones, which they say shatter into pieces when they hit the ice, and this is when you need to get out of the hole.
About the overnight stay. For the first time I spent the night at a fishing hotel in Puchezh. Well, what can I say, anyone who has seen the dorms of the 80-90s will imagine this harsh life. Nothing extra, but it’s enough to relax and sleep, and the price is reasonable: 300-400 rubles. Additional amenities include an electric kettle on the floor, a microwave, a two-burner electric stove and even hot water! which made me very happy. One small nuance, the drinking water in Puchezh apparently contains a high iron content; for those who are not accustomed to this taste, it is better to buy water in a store or bring it with them. Yes, it doesn’t hurt to have your own electric kettle, so we don’t have to languish in line :)
About the catch. On the first day, 2 roaches and 5+1 perch (+1 is the first runt), total weight 800 grams. On the second day 8.8 kg. Total weight 9.6 kg. The total number is 42 roach and 42 perch. The average weight of one fish is 114 grams. The very best are 3 roach weighing 300 grams and a perch weighing 250 grams.

Water: Volga (Gorky Reservoir)

Detailed description of the place: below the confluence of the Segot River and in Puchezh

Weather, reservoir condition: Both days are cloudy, strong south wind, -7 degrees, normal pressure, waning moon, varying degrees of ice from 2 to 10 cm, current everywhere.

Fishing method: Mormyshka

My tackle: fishing line 0.084, 0.104, 0.14

My lures: reelless jigs and devils

Nozzle, bait: didn't use

What kind of fish did you catch: perch, roach

My catch: 5-10 kilograms

Biggest fish: roach, 300 gr.

How long has it been since you had a really BIG CATCH?

When was the last time you caught dozens of HUGE pike/carp/bream?

We always want to get results from fishing - to catch not three perch, but ten kilogram pikes - what a catch! Each of us dreams of this, but not everyone can do it.

A good catch can be achieved (and we know this) thanks to good bait.

It can be prepared at home or bought in fishing stores. But stores are expensive, and to prepare bait at home, you need to spend a lot of time, and, to be fair, homemade bait does not always work well.

You know that disappointment when you buy bait or prepare it at home and only catch three or four bass?

So maybe it’s time to use a truly working product, the effectiveness of which has been proven both scientifically and in practice on the rivers and ponds of Russia?

Fish Megabomb gives the same result that we cannot achieve on our own, especially since it is cheap, which distinguishes it from other means and there is no need to spend time on production - you order it, it’s delivered and you’re good to go!

Of course, it is better to try once than to hear a thousand times. Moreover, now is the season! A 50% discount on your order is a great bonus!

Find out more about the bait!

tempting news

The decision to spend a vacation on the shores of the Gorky Sea did not arise immediately. Having become accustomed to fishing with a spinning rod on small rivers and lakes, I was dubious about fishing on large bodies of water, especially recently created ones.

The vast expanses of water and the almost complete absence of aquatic vegetation on the newly formed bottom of the new reservoir were confusing. Where can fish live in such conditions, where should one look for it?

However, already in the spring and summer of 1957, i.e. in the second year of the sea’s existence, rumors quickly spread among fishermen about large catches of pike and perch in the area of ​​Chkalovsk and Katunki. Despite some inconsistency in these stories, one thing was clear: there are a great many pikes and perches in the new reservoir, they take any lure and in any weather, but mostly small fish are caught.

And this coming Sunday I am on the left bank of the sea, about fifteen kilometers from the hydroelectric dam. Needless to say, the three little bees I caught in a day did not evoke much enthusiasm. However, other fellow spinners fishing in the same area had approximately the same success.

The puppies were all of the same size and weight - 250-300 grams. Trying to unravel the reasons for the failure, I got into a conversation with the boatman who was transporting me through one of the bays of the sea. And that’s when I first heard the mysterious word: “Maura.”

If you want to catch pike, go to Maura,” said the ferryman, “there are a lot of fish on Maura!” Fishing is excellent with spinning rods and on the track!

From further conversation it became clear that Maura is a bay formed on the site of a former swamp, that it is located on the left shore of the sea just above Katunki and that it is necessary to fish there from a boat. In addition, you need a certain amount of time for travel, since without your own transport you probably won’t be able to manage it in one day.

I heard about Maura several more times that fall, but never had the opportunity to go there to fish. The spring of 1958 brought fresh data about the reservoir. In the stories of tireless nature scouts, fishermen and hunters, unusual names of new rich fishing places began to appear more and more. Most often these were sea bays formed along the floodplains of the Volga tributaries.

Interested in the next story, I carefully study the map of the Gorky Reservoir, examining the bizarre outlines of its numerous bays. Some of them go several kilometers deep into the coast. It would be interesting to know what was here before the flooding, what is hidden under the water?
I take out an old map of the Gorky region and find places that are now flooded by the waters of the sea. Here, under water, there were fields and meadows, there were swamps, here there were bushes and forests.

Well, what kind of swamp is this almost opposite Katunki? Why, this is the famous Maura! Now she's all under water.
Where to look for fish? Well, of course, in bays, in places where flooded meadows, swamps, bushes, etc. are flooded, that is, where there is a suitable environment for fish to live. The catches on the Maura and in the bays of the Trotsa, Yuga, Yachmenka, Michi, Laimpna and other tributaries of the Volga are not accidental.

All that remained was to choose a fishing area for the holidays. After some thought, the choice was made: these are the bays of the Michi and Shirmoksha rivers on the left bank of the reservoir. Judging by the map, it’s not far from here to Maura.

And now - vacation. Two days to get ready, half a day to travel. July 10 is the first day of fishing. The object of my study is the bay along the Miche River.

LOOKING FOR PLACES

On an unfamiliar body of water, everything is interesting: the nature of its banks, the fishing spots, and, of course, the fish that you expect to catch.

On that memorable day, July 10, the weather was favorable for fishing from the very morning. It was a gray, moderately warm day; A light westerly breeze was blowing from the direction of the temple. A quarter of an hour's journey along a narrow forest path - and I am on a high, steep bank of the bay.

Directly in front of me lies a wide expanse of the bay, on the opposite side of which a dense forest can be seen. On the right, about half a kilometer away, the waters of the bay meet the sea. In this direction, in my opinion, there is nothing to do: the coastline is too monotonous, there is too much water.

All that remains is to turn left and explore the shore of the bay until the Michi River flows into it.

Behind the small village of Vyazoviki, the picture of the reservoir changes: the shore becomes low and the bay becomes shallower. Vegetation is visible in places in the water. Fish splashing. I make test casts. They bring disappointment: the spoon clings either to the grass or to invisible, flooded bushes. Too small. With great difficulty I save the spoon and move on. A large island overgrown with dense greenery is visible ahead; it stretches across almost the entire bay, leaving only narrow straits near the coast.

The island attracts with its overly bright, unnaturally green vegetation. I carefully examine its base and clearly see how the island... sways on the waves. Now it is clear that this is a “wandering island”, or “otter”, as they are called here.

Otters are formed from the upper plant layer of former peat bogs - they are lifted, as if “pulled out” to the surface of the water after flooding. Their sizes vary: from a “patch” of several square meters to large ones, measured in hectares.

Under the influence of the wind, light otters constantly move around the reservoir and can interfere with navigation. Therefore, the largest of them are taken by boats into the depths of numerous bays. I try to fish in the strait, but even here the hook follows the hook. Having lost two spinners, I come to a very important conclusion: you need to fish from a boat, otherwise in a week you will be left without spinners.

I approach a small bay that cuts far into the land. Stumps, branches of flooded bushes, bunches of marsh grasses and algae are visible in the water. The middle of the bay is clean and, it seems to me, deep. Along the edges of this “window”, in the water thickets, splashes of small predators are heard every now and then. Having climbed onto a large stump, I cast. The spoon falls in the center of the “window”. I lead her close to the surface of the water, avoiding visible obstacles. I pull out a 500 gram pike. The job is done!

I carefully fish the “window” and its outskirts in all directions - and after half an hour I have two more pike and two good perch.

A collective farm herd appears on the shore. The teenage shepherds, about thirteen to fifteen years old, watch my actions with interest. Then one of them, a lively blue-eyed boy, with a face peeling from the sun and wind, advises:

You, uncle, should go to the other side. What kind of perches are caught there! - and shows with his hands the size of the “perches”, the size of which a good pig would envy. Another, smaller one, adds:
- And it would be best from a boat. They shine from our boats.
- And it hits? - I ask.
- Still would! Only more often pike.
- And big ones?
- All sorts of things.
- Where do they catch them?
- Yes, everywhere. But more on that shore, in the Zarechny meadow; Do you see the bay in the forest?

Yes, the opposite shore is indeed tempting. From here you can see its bays and forest, in some places descending directly into the water. But there - tomorrow. Today I am interested in this small bay. What was here before, before the flooding? It turns out to be a small but never-drying swamp, in which, “except for frogs, there were no fish,” as one of my “fans” explains.

The next day I continue “coastal reconnaissance”, this time along the other, forested shore of the bay. First I try to fish in deep places that are clear of debris and vegetation. But fishing turns out to be fruitless. For some reason, the “perches” promised by yesterday’s acquaintances do not manifest themselves. Behind the reliable wall of the forest in the bay there is no wind at all felt.

The mirror-like surface of the water is illuminated by the bright July sun. The algae that has grown throughout the bay is clearly visible. In shallow places they have already reached the surface, in deeper places they are a quarter away from it. The only solution in these conditions is to quickly move the spoon over the top.

The very first cast gives a bite. But then a gathering follows. Then, within ten minutes, something extraordinary happens: almost no idle casts and... not a single fish caught. This enchanted circle looked like this: cast - grab - fight with the fish for a second - escape.

I examine Trofimovskaya with surprise: the tee is in order. So, the reason for the disappearances is due to the too fast movement of the spoon and the nature of the vegetation of the bay. Hiding in the thick grass, the pike notices the fast-moving spoon too late, is late with the throw, clings to the tee somehow and then, passing through solid algae, easily gets off.

I try to move the spoon more slowly, but it immediately lands on the grass. Without hoping for success, I still continue to “catch” with fast retrieval. After several departures, with the next grip, I finally feel that the pike has “sat down” firmly. I am amazed by the unusual strength of her resistance, sharp throws to the side and some special tenacity when being pulled to the shore. The thought of a big fish involuntarily arises. I double my caution and... I pull out a small pike weighing half a kilo, with a tee stuck in its belly. Such a “bite” only confirms the idea about the reason for the derailments.

Having said goodbye to the bay of “cunning squinters” for today, I move on. It’s already five o’clock, and there are still many new places ahead. About ten minutes later I’m on a small cape, to the left and right of which shallow, heavily overgrown bays jut into the shore. At their bottom you can see many stumps. Since hooks are inevitable, and getting the spinners in this place clearly doesn’t suit me, I put in a very soft, weakly hardened tee.

True, if even an average fish grabs such a tee, such a tee will immediately straighten out, but frankly speaking, I don’t believe in the possibility of such a bite. I put the spoon “Trofimovskaya”, two-color. Thanks to the soft tee, I can cast to the most “unfortunate” places. It brings results. We caught two perches and four small beetles, 250-300 grams each.

They go by on a boat with a path. I ask about successes. They are not brilliant - up to a dozen of them squint.
The time is approaching seven o'clock. Suddenly - an unexpected and very beautiful grip. About five or six meters from the shore of the forest, she sharply went to the right and forward, towards a huge stump that was visible under the water. It is curious that this movement of the line was not transmitted at all to the reel and fingers.

Nevertheless, I made the hook and, without wasting time (mindful of the weak tee), I pulled out the pike, picking it up with my hands right in the water. The spoon was grabbed by the fish in the throat, and the tee with all its hooks dug into the gills - obviously, that’s the only reason it didn’t straighten up. The pike contained about a kilogram.

Returning home that evening, I try to summarize my first impressions of spinning fishing on a new body of water and am thinking about going to a hunting supply store and buying a backpack, because mine is completely worn out. The first and most important conclusion was that there are a lot of predatory fish here, but they do not live everywhere, but only in certain places where the most favorable living conditions have been created for them: an abundance of fry, aquatic vegetation, etc. Naturally, that on the new reservoir such places will be: former river beds and oxbow lakes, their floodplains, former lakes and swamps, etc., i.e. places that had typically aquatic flora and fauna even before the formation of the sea.

But in order to fish all these places, hidden under water and sometimes located at a considerable distance from land, you must, of course, have a boat. When using a soft tee that saves lures, large fish can only be caught by accident. As for special spinners for fishing in snags, I didn’t have them. So, we need to get a boat!

FISHING FROM A BOAT. MAURA

The next day I relatively quickly found a light, stable and relatively strong boat. Its owner, handing me the keys to the oars, simultaneously supplies me with a voluminous ladle and tow (just in case!). The boat will be at my complete disposal for the entire vacation.

For several days in a row I have been fishing in the bays of Zarechny Meadow, inaccessible from the shore. They are small, shallow and heavily cluttered. Hooks are frequent, but there are no losses of spinners (the boat and the shallow depth help out).
The bays are almost overgrown with grass: after a week there was nothing to do here. Mostly squints weighing up to 500 grams are caught; almost no perches are caught. The bite can be different: sometimes very active, sometimes sluggish - depending on the weather and time of day. Gatherings are quite common. The average catch for six to eight hours of fishing ranges from 4-5 kilograms.

The bay of the “sly little ones” quickly became overgrown, but the bites and gatherings continued. Still, every day I managed to take two or three squinting pups here.

In these early days of boat fishing, I tried to find the most efficient and active techniques for it. In small, heavily cluttered and shallow bays, where predators are everywhere, the method of “drifting” the boat with the wind turned out to be the most productive method for prey. This method turned out to be especially effective in light winds, when the slow movement of the boat makes it possible to thoroughly “sweep” all places suspicious of fish. The duration of the drift is 5-20 minutes (depending on the wind strength, the length of the bay, the number of bites and hooks).

Then you row again against the wind, and everything starts to roll.

With a good bite in the bay near the clearing and the Long Bay, I sometimes made up to ten drifts in a row, pulling out an average of two or three squints per trip. The drift was very pleasant on other days, with winds of varying directions, when active fishing was carried out almost without interruption.

Drift performance decreased sharply in strong winds in open areas. (The drift speed increases, the time and effort required to lift the boat against the wind increases, hooks in strong winds are more dangerous.) In such cases, it was necessary to either climb into a remote bay, protected from the wind by a forest, or anchor the boat and fish from the spot.

I did not forget to fish from the shore, where it was possible and sometimes advisable. This combination of techniques introduced variety and increased the yield of fishing.

Still, the sporting results of fishing do not satisfy me. Large fish are not caught. Road workers plying the bay of the Michi River in all directions also miss the mark. Many of them advise me to go to Maura.

Oka again, this mysterious Maura! I remember the semi-fantastic stories that circulated among Gorky fishermen, in which “pound-sized” pikes, “gray-haired” perches and... tattered gear appeared. I find out from local fishermen that Maura, or Giblaikha (the second name is less attractive, but, as we will see, is more true), in the past it was a large peat bog, now it is a bay of the Gorky Sea.

It stretches for about twelve kilometers along the left bank of the reservoir and with its southern edge reaches a point almost opposite Katunki. From the bay of the Michi River to Maura there are five to seven kilometers of water, no more.
On the next calm day we are going to Maura. With me is a whole group of vacationers who have gathered to pick strawberries. The road passes cheerfully and unnoticed. After about an hour, the first otters are seen - signs of Maura's proximity.

This area is called Urog. Before the formation of the sea there were floodplain meadows. I could start fishing already, but my berry pickers are in a hurry, and I don’t risk delaying them. Half an hour passes and we are in Maura.

She greets us with an abundance of otters of various sizes and colors. Some of them amaze with their bright and lush greenery, others with the lifelessness of intricately intertwined blackish-brown roots and stumps. Some of them stand still, others constantly move under the influence of the wind. The boat enters the maze of these floating islands.

We are not alone. At different ends of Maura you can see fishing boats, mostly with motors. Many of them, judging by the characteristic poses and movements, are spinners. Okie is what interests me.

We climb into the depths of the bay. And here is the first disappointment. The water in Maura is blooming! (The water bloom in the bay of the Michi River began 7-8 days later, and the bloom never reached such strength as here.) Having landed the berry pickers and agreed with them on the meeting place, I still started fishing. The day is very hot, cloudless and windless.

I hide from the scorching rays of the sun in the shade of huge trees that surround the shores of the bay on all sides. The boat drifts quietly. I carefully study the situation. The nature of the reservoir, its vegetation, flooded bushes and stumps, “outs”, trees that stepped straight into the water - all this is surprisingly reminiscent of the Trans-Rechny Meadow. Only it's darker here. The thought flashes that Trans-Rechny Meadow is “Little Maura”.

A boat comes across with three fishermen from Sormovich. Two of them have spinning rods. I ask about the results.

Yesterday we fished well. Today he doesn't take anything.

With the same success, a second boat comes across, a third...

Still I continue to drift. I set up my tinned iron crown spoon of the “Trofimovskaya” type and carefully “tangle” every stump, every snag. By six o'clock in the evening I have a dozen black and flexible, like a viper, squinting fish and one perch (the entire catch is no more than 3 kilograms).

I'm heading back. Here comes Urog. The berries have not arrived yet, and I direct the boat to the nearest “otters”. Near the islands you can hear the characteristic “clattering” of perches.

I throw down the oars and start drifting. There are no bites. The boat passes very close to an otter, between the roots of which a mass of scurrying fry is visible. This means the predator is somewhere nearby. Now I throw the spoon directly to the island and lead it along its edge. After several casts I hook a small pike.

During the next cast, the tee caught on the leash. The spinner does not “play”. I pull her towards the boat. And here, before my eyes, a hefty striped bass pokes its nose several times into the “non-playing” spoon. My passions flare up, and I repeat the cast another time, a third - but all in vain.

Meanwhile my companions arrive. Their “catch” is richer than mine: full baskets of fragrant, ripe berries.

OUTERTS OF ZARECHNY LUG

Several days pass. The weather is hot and sunny, and the water is blooming. Every day the fishing gets noticeably worse. Small bays become overgrown with grass and algae, and it becomes impossible to fish in them. Only Long Bay is accessible, but the bite here is inconsistent.

I try to fish in new places, I travel around almost the entire bay, but the results are not encouraging: I only take small things, and even then rarely. I try to fish early in the morning and late in the evening, at dawn - the result is the same. I put on different spinners, change the depth and tempo of the retrieve - still no success. Due to the deterioration of fishing, the number of road fishermen is also decreasing. Despite the failures, I still stubbornly continue to look for fish; She must eat something, somewhere and sometime...

Meanwhile, in Zarechny Meadow, on the site of a flooded swamp, interesting processes are taking place. Even in the first days, I noticed several small otters here. They were ordinary, unattractive-looking, black-brown, “mud” islands. I believed that they were brought here from the reservoir. Imagine my surprise when these islands sharply increased their area over the past 24 hours.

Interested in this discovery, I drove around and carefully examined the largest of them. Well it is! This islet is of local origin; This is evidenced by its western shores, which gently extend into the water and are closely connected by a complex root system to the bottom of the reservoir. In other words, the surface of the island was a continuation of the surface layer of the bay bottom, and the root system was a kind of anchor that held the island in place.

The formation of the otters was apparently accelerated by the strong winds that had recently blown and caused great disturbances throughout the bay, which contributed to the detachment of the top layer of peat bog and its rise to the surface of the water. It should be noted that the outlines of the otters changed very quickly, and their sizes increased just as quickly. Later, new islands appeared, and the three first otters merged into a single island.

Remembering fishing for otters on Urog, I decided to check out a new place. The very first cast between the two islands brought a small puppy. A few minutes later, while moving the spoon along the edge of the island, a pike of 700 grams “sat down” and on the next cast, a small perch. Then came two gatherings in a row.

The start was promising. I extremely regretted that I got here only in the evening. It was necessary to find the most rational way of fishing. Drifting was clearly not suitable here: the fish stayed near the islands and under them; In addition, the boat was carried away very quickly, so it was impossible to make more than three casts per trip.

The method of consistent, systematic fishing with securing the boat in place suggested itself. This was not difficult to do: I simply drove onto the island and carefully fished the surrounding area. The fishing was really “fun”, although there were no large fish caught. There was pike weighing up to 500 grams.

The next day turned out to be cloudy, with heavy short-term “mushroom” rains. The weak breeze changed direction frequently. At twelve o'clock in the afternoon I was at the islands. I fished with short breaks until eight o'clock in the evening. On this day, the pike and perch were larger (pike up to 1.2 kilograms), but the bites were less frequent.

In the following days, the area around the islands becomes “crowded”: road workers appear again. Several boats circle around the islands - and not without success. Acquaintances from Sormovich, whom I met on Maura, also arrive. They adapted their spinning rods for fishing as a track. One on the oars - two fishing. Then they change roles.

We compete in the number of “heads” caught. If they manage to overtake me, they reassure: - After all, we have 2 spinners.

My “sedentary” way of life on the islands is complemented by another fisherman who comes by motorboat from Puchezh. He quite successfully catches perch in the “windows” of the islands using... winter lures.

This goes on for about a week. Then the bite slowly but surely begins to weaken. This is especially noticeable in the boats of trackers: often they completely disappear from sight, fishing in distant places. Meanwhile, new otters appear nearby. I immediately move there - and again there is good, “fun” fishing for several days.

And then - again attenuation. I'm trying to understand what's happening. The following explanation suggests itself. When a new otter is formed, the normal living conditions of the flora and fauna in this area of ​​the reservoir are disrupted. There is no doubt that, together with the plant layer, a significant part of the plankton rises to the surface of the water, on which the juvenile fish feed.

It is no coincidence that around young otters there is a huge concentration of fry, which, in turn, attract predators. Therefore, at the moment of otter formation, the most intense pecking is observed. But some time passes. The otter formation process ends. Everything gradually calms down, balance sets in. The fish disperse and go to other places. The bite is dying down.

FISHING IN AUGUST

The weather in August was extremely unstable. A few warm, fine days were followed by stormy and cool weather, with rain and strong winds. Fishing conditions have worsened.

Particularly harmful were the strong southwestern and western winds, which drove a large wave from the direction of the reservoir. On such days, the fishing area was strictly limited to quiet areas. But the same western and southwestern winds, obviously, drove Volga fish into the bay along with the water.

In August, we often came across pike coming from the sea, which were lighter in color than the local ones. Of course, pike perch and even asp came from the reservoir, small specimens of which were sometimes caught on a lure.

In general, in August the bite was more sluggish, but larger fish took it. Pike weighing 1-1.2 kilograms were caught almost every day. The number of perch bites (and especially large ones) has increased.
The fishing spots also changed: the fish continued to move. I remember the last days. On the twelfth of August, having already finished the rather boring fishing that day, I slowly drove up to the boat parking area.

Among the coastal bushes flooded with water, I noticed a small raft connected from five or six logs and on it the figure of a fisherman. It was a boy of ten or twelve years old. He caught it with a spoon, throwing it directly from his hand. After several casts, the young angler pulled out a small bee, followed by a perch. I was not so much interested in the fishing method (it is common here) as in the place itself. I carefully checked it in July and did not give a single bite then. I moved closer. On the fisherman's raft there were about a dozen squints and two perches.

Do they take large ones here? - I asked.
“They take it, but they all fail,” the boy answered.

In the following days, using the drift method, I fished the entire area adjacent to the flooded bushes. Among the bushes (where the boy was fishing) there are the grips of small squints and perches. Further from the shore, in deeper places, pike weighing 500-600 grams, and sometimes more than a kilogram, are found. Gatherings are very rare. Fishing became “fun” again. The sudden appearance of a large number of predators in the area is apparently due to the wanderings of a large green otter.

Just these days, under the influence of the eastern wind, the otter was moved from its home and migrated to Vyazoviki. The otter's wanderings caused the fry to move, and a predatory fish followed the fry.

CONCLUSION

Having stayed at the reservoir for more than a month and devoting at least six to eight hours every day to my favorite pastime, I had the opportunity to thoroughly study the reservoir, which allows me to draw certain conclusions:

1. The decisive moment of successful fishing was the choice of location. As experience has shown, the concentration of the predator was observed only in certain areas of the bay (areas of former swamps, lakes, rivers, oxbow lakes, water meadows, flooded bushes, otters, etc.), i.e., where immediately after the formation of the sea for fish its own, related environment was created. In the neighboring bay, formed along the Shirmoksha River, there are almost no such places (here, mainly fields and vegetable gardens were under water), as a result of which fishing in it was unsuccessful.

The depth of the reservoir in the fishing area was generally small. Still, most of the grips were observed in small places (1-2 meters). Frequent snags were a significant hindrance when fishing, but the loss of spinners was minimal, since the shallow depth made it possible to get them out using the simplest means.

2. When fishing in a good place, the weather did not have a noticeable effect on the bite. Fish were caught in any weather. Better - on sunny, with cumulus clouds, moderately warm days. Somewhat worse - in heat and bad weather. Wind direction didn't matter much either.

The prevailing winds were the winds from the western quarter, from the direction of the reservoir. Fishing was usually done with them. But even with directly opposite, eastern winds, there were good catches. The strength of the wind played a big role.

With strong winds from any direction, the fishing situation became dramatically more difficult. A large wave rose on the reservoir, which, even with a good bite, forced us to abandon a good place and look for calm. The bizarre shape of the bay, as well as the wooded shores, made it possible to find such a quiet place in any wind.
Most often these were small bays of Zarechny Meadow.

Fishing improved significantly before the storm. It happened that the fish grabbed almost every cast. The intensity of the bite clearly depended on the time of day. In the morning the fishing was very sluggish. The pike really started catching only from eleven o'clock.

The number of bites continuously increased until seven o'clock in the evening, after which a decline began.
The hours of the most productive fishing (with the maximum number of bites) are from five to seven in the evening. The largest specimens were also caught at this time.

3. A large supply of time allowed me to try out the entire set of spinners I had. The most productive bait turned out to be a homemade spoon of the “Trofimovskaya” type, made of tinned iron. The relatively wide stroke and pale golden color of this spoon probably made it look like crucian carp, which is quite common here.

I remember the evening of July 30th. I fish in the area of ​​the former oxbow river Michi. There are no bites. I put on the Trofimovskaya and go drifting. Immediately the gripping begins. In just forty minutes I pull out five pike (from 500 grams to 1 kilogram) and two good perches. Travelers traveling on a parallel course in two boats fish with silver and nickel-plated spoons and do not get a single bite.

True, on some days the fish began to “be capricious” and took better on various white spoons. As for the speed at which the spoon was retrieved, it varied depending on the nature of the bottom and the level of vegetation in the reservoir.

The direction of casts as the boat drifted was also varied. However, flank casts had an advantage; casts to the rear were used less frequently. Casting forward, along the course of the boat, was practiced even less often, since with a strong drift it always led to snags.

4. I have already repeatedly pointed out that mainly small pike were caught with spinning rods and on the track. This, of course, does not mean that there are no big fish here. It must be taken into account that the fishing was carried out in the most “non-pike” time (July and the first half of August), during the period of the hottest weather and blooming water. And yet the fish were caught! In spring and autumn, according to local fishermen, large pike are not so rare. I personally twice had to observe large pikes in the bay of the Michi River.

The first time, it was at the end of July, I fished in the area of ​​young otters. After the next cast, I dragged a small pike to the boat. To my surprise, she was accompanied by a large pike, at least a meter long. Not paying any attention to me, the predator tried to grab “my” pike. But she did it somehow reluctantly, slowly, without excitement, which allowed the pike to avoid her terrible mouth.

Amazed by the impudence of the fish, I immediately stopped reeling and let “my” pike go deeper, naively believing that it would be immediately swallowed by a large pike. After waiting a few minutes, I resumed reeling. The picture was completely repeated. And at that moment a crazy thought came into my head: to catch the robber with a landing net.^ Having shortened the line to the limit, I continued to pull my prey to the boat with the help of a rod. A large pike followed her as if enchanted. Grabbing the landing net in your right hand, lowering it into the water and bringing it under the fish - it was a matter of one second.

I make a lightning-fast movement with the landing net, and... the large body of the fish easily slips out of it. The landing net turned out to be too small: it only captured the tail. Dissatisfied with this technique, the pike again reluctantly goes into the depths, but this time forever. I look after her in confusion. Taking advantage of the turmoil, “my” pike safely leaves the tee and leaves after its “savior”. As they say, you're chasing two birds with one stone...

Another incident occurred a few days later - in early August. The weather was hot and sultry, foretelling the approach of a thunderstorm. The boat slowly drifted towards a large green otter. There were no bites. The stuffy, heavy air, the steady rocking of the boat, the lack of a bite - and I began to feel sleepy.

Overcoming drowsiness, I cast out of habit and mechanically reeled in the line, literally falling asleep in moments.

Suddenly the forest stopped. “Hook,” I thought and opened my eyes. Carefully (so as not to land the lure) I twitched the tip of the rod. And only then did I realize my mistake. A huge body of a pike darted from the depths to the surface. Illuminated by the rays of the sun in clear water, it seemed to me unusually large and... beautiful.

The pike shook its head and the spoon flew out of its mouth. She didn't show up again.

What would have happened if I had hooked it?

In conclusion, I would like to say a few words about the protection of the fish resources of the new reservoir.

I have already spoken about the enormous damage that was caused to the fisheries of the sea by an unexpected drop in water level in the winter and early spring of 1958, when massive fish kills occurred under the ice in the bays. I am not an expert, but it seems to me that such phenomena can be avoided by coordinated (between the Gorky and Rybinsk hydroelectric power stations) regulation of water levels in winter.

Finally about poachers. These grabbers are currently showing their highest “activity” on the Volga, below the Gorky hydroelectric station, where there is a large concentration of various fish. They “catch” from motor boats equipped with the latest poaching technology with mechanical “lifts” with a fine-mesh net (“spiders”, “wobbles”, “parachutes”, etc.).

On some days, below the hydroelectric power station, we saw dozens of boats of these predators, even climbing into the restricted area of ​​the station itself. They literally scoop out the fry of perch, pike perch, ide and other fish. Their “catch” amounts to bags and is used to fatten livestock. They say that some of the most “enterprising” poachers from Gorodets and surrounding villages have already made entire houses from fish.

And all this is being done despite the strict ban on fishing 1500 meters below the hydroelectric dam with any fishing gear (including sports gear) throughout the year. Sports fishermen carry out this order, but poachers act according to the principle “And Vaska listens and eats!” The question is, where is the State Fisheries Inspectorate?

It cannot be said that she does not carry out any fight against predators; her boat is often seen in the area of ​​the hydroelectric power station. But poachers also have boats with motors. Try and catch up! In our opinion, the only way out is to involve a wide mass of amateur fishermen in the protection of fish stocks, and to establish permanent posts in the area of ​​the hydroelectric power station to combat the predatory extermination of fish.