New Year's Eve spearfishing in Russia

[hyeparis]

Thank you, Slingshaft )))
It is indeed hand-made and custom-designed. I asked the maker - Yuri Kozlotsev - to shorten the barrel a bit so it would be easier to maneuver. It is a very comfy gun to hold - light and manueverable, but it is not precise (swings upward when you shoot) and breaks down regularly - usually o-rings made of rubber - get worn - one has to change them twice a year at least

[hyeparis]

I travelled to a river about 100 km northwest of my place on Saturday only to find water murky after a night of rain. I still went in with a pal of mine. The visibility was about 50-50 cm, and up to 80-1 meter if you look from bottom up. The first sunken tree I came across explode with clouds of mud as I crawled to it. The fish clearly saw/sensed me before I did. Nevertheless after about 40 minutes of exploring it I did stumble into what looked like a decent fish and shot from a close range. The range turned out to be too close - the spear didn't gain enough speed to pierce the fish and it fled. I found another one, or say there was some reflection from the peripheral part of the light produced by my flashlight at about 4 meters in that tree and shot from a longer range. When I got it out - it turned out to be kilo and a half chub, one of the biggest I ever speared. I then tried to find his/her mate as the big ones usually hang out in pairs, but could not - too much mud went up when I was retrievieng the trophy. So I swam downstream to this spot where chubs usually hang out. It is near the middle of the current - a tree sunken at about 5 meters - across half of the river and to the shore where there are also bushes hanging over the water. The trick is crawl along the bottom into the tree and then go up a bit and that's where they hang out. No luck though. I found a similar tree further down the river and in spite of poor visibility got another chub there, some roach fish and a bream. The chub and roachfish were hiding under a sunken woodcase right under the tree while the bream was staying in kelp and sort of bumped into it while crawling to that case - got lucky - the breams are very cautious and flee instantly. Unfortunately, I lost the bream and roachfish - probably as I was trying to get out in a rather thick bush and than had to scale a fence to get back to the road where the car was parked. I went back, but could not find it. See pics here.
moscowhack - СтрелÑ�ем Ð*ыбу Ð’ Мутной Воде

[MCerieiro]

Hey Mate, nice fish indeed! And great story...i really would love to dive in one of those Russian River´s one day

And mate i must say you need big hairy "cojones" to dive with 50 cm visibility in a place with sunken trees and mud everywere!

Cheers,
Marco

[hyeparis]

Thank you, Sir. I would take you to rivers with better visibility. It is just I could no go far so I went to the nearest river where I could find decent fish. However, after diving in the ocean, I still feel like I am watching a black and white movie. You might feel the same initially )))

[hyeparis]

Left Moscow on Thursday evening for a 2-day and a half spearfishing trip. But first I had to endure 2 hours of traffic jams to get home and pick the equipment up. Set out at 11.00 pm, drove for about 2 hours along a two-lange road going North, passing by lorries, - lots of adrenaline, given the quality of the road and lack of roadside lights. Arrived at the spot near the Pleshcheev lake, from which the Nerl river flows, at about 1.00 pm, had some vodka and went to sleep in a tent. It was very humid, but I was in thermal overalls and fleece and slept in a good sleeping bag - that kept me warm and dry – mosquitos were real buggers – lots of them!
Woke up next morning (Friday), went right into the motoboat - the visibility was real good for our area - 3 meters - we could see breams take off as we went up the river to the lake. Speared a few breams as well as pikes and perches before coming back to find that a retired Naval aviation general and an Orthdox priest had already arribed to join our spearfishing/camping group. Both Friday and Saturday we enjoyed great sunny weather while it rained heavily in Moscow. On Saturday morning, my pal and the priest took off early to drive a car to a dam where they got two catfish (7 kilos each) while we stayed in the camp to cook and pack. See bad-quality pics (taken by an old mobile phone camera) of the pike and big bream grilled as well as local scenery here.
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[MCerieiro]

Originally Posted by hyeparis

Set out at 11.00 pm, drove for about 2 hours along a two-lange road going North, passing by lorries, - lots of adrenaline, given the quality of the road and lack of roadside lights.

Well a friend of mine always says that the beauty of this journeys is that we go out in a group of 4 (for example) and we never know how many of us will return

Nice fish's my friend and what a great weekend! what's best than going to the country and spending our days spearfishing with friends !?

That is what life is all about if you ask me!

Cheers,
Marco

[hyeparis]

It is indeed the best time of all - going wild with friends )))!