Salyan district, Shagay

Over the holidays we went for pike. Beforehand, in Balakhani... in Binagadi... in Balajary we caught about 40 live baits, but by morning about 20 had survived. On the 1st day we caught about 6 small pike. We stayed overnight in a tent. At night dogs ran over from the neighbouring sheepfold and barked at our tent for about 2 hours, but thank God they got bored and left. In the morning we got up and cast our rods, my husband and I with live bait, and our friend with a spoon and a spinnerbait. The water was clear, you could see about half a meter down. We noticed that when you fish with live bait you need to go further away, otherwise the pike sees you and won't come near, and when it grabs, that's when you need to run to the rod fast. But often we didn't make it in time. And the turtles drove us crazy too, they gobbled up so many live baits. Well anyway, our catch was 7 pike from 400 g and one of 1.5 kg. And our friend got more, 16 of them from 400 g and up and one big one - 2500 kg. In the second half of the day we decided to go to the 107 km mark. Total bust there - by the pumping station the water stinks and is overgrown with weed. Not a single bite. We had to go back to the city, but we were still very happy with the weekend and the catch.