Mil-Mugan Collector (locally known as Shagay)

The idea of heading south came up ages ago, but actually doing it always got put off. Paradoxically, what made it happen was our failures. More precisely, our failed outings around Baku. One day everyone just got sick of getting up at 4 in the morning and driving to various "fishy" spots, only to come home at the end of the day, tired and fed up, with nothing but the hole in the doughnut. The regular local fishermen had all sorts of reasons and explanations: either someone, for some reason, had dumped chemical waste into the water somewhere (the Caspian), or a couple of days before us poachers with electric landing nets had wandered in (the lake behind the brick factory), or it was simply a bad day. In short, it killed any desire to go fishing, and we were losing all taste for the whole thing.

So the trip to the Mil-Mugan Collector turned out to be a real breath of fresh air. Colleagues who work in that area had long been inviting us to go fishing, promising a good rest and plenty of fish.

We left Baku at 3 a.m. The road was almost empty and easy to drive. Hardly any potholes and none at all of our smaller brethren hiding behind big trucks on the roadside. You just need to slow down when passing the "birdhouses" and try not to crash into the livestock traders who haul themselves and their animals to the "mal bazari" on trailers (on principle, without any lights or even reflectors). So we made it to Sabirabad in just a couple of hours. Then we drove exactly 66 kilometers (towards Salyan and then left, parallel to the canal), making a small detour, to that cherished spot. It was completely dark and really cold. We quickly lit a fire and brewed samovar tea. As soon as it started getting light, we got down to business. What we caught was mostly small roach and big bleak (which the locals call shamayka). According to the guys and by every sign, there are also pike, catfish and carp there. Unfortunately, we didn't bring a boat, so we had no chance to cast spoons parallel to the reeds. And after I snagged and lost one of my favorite pike spoons, I decided to focus entirely on float fishing. Honestly, we'd missed proper fishing so badly that we were happy as kids over every palm-sized roach. Oh, and one more proof of the abundance of all kinds of fish is the photo below. For those who don't know what this green fish is, I'll answer in the comments, and respect to those who guessed right away. We all stared at it for ages, puzzled about what species it was. Then one of us (a master of the game Russian Fishing) remembered. By the way, this fish is fairly rare even in Russian waters, and I had no idea it also lives in our rivers. All in all, our outing was a success. The place is great, and we were pleasantly surprised by the absence of the trash that two-legged pigs leave at Baku waters. So go, you won't regret it.
P.S. If the guys from the spearfishing crowd go, they'll definitely like it too. Just one request: leave some fish for the rod anglers :))))