The Salyan and partly Shirvan steppes, or joyrides of the "Salyan Tramps" team

Long story short, I decided to change up the report format a bit.
So that all the extra questions go away…
So…..
The "Salyan Tramps" team lineup (not to be confused with the Nargin Pirates) ;-)
Alex
Tolstich
Poladik
Assassin
Wa4er
Cars:
Prado and Lacetti
Gear:
Anglers:
Jig heads 10.6 g http://shop.nature.az/lures/jig_lures/Red-Wolf-3_8oz-Yellow
Paddle tail: http://shop.nature.az/lures/jig_lures/O-BAIT_Curl_Tail_Grub

Spearfishers:
Wetsuits:
Beuchat Equip 7mm alex
Beuchat Elaskin Camo 5 mm – Tolstiy
OMER 5 MM – Mamed (aka Wa4er)
Guns:
Tolstich - Beuchat 60 cm band gun.
The rest - Beuchat 75 cm pneumatics.

Like true Patriots, we decided to celebrate National Flag Day properly. That is, on the water.
We called each other the night before.
Agreed to meet at 6:30.
Picked everyone up and off we went. Got to the canal. Fish are jumping, the air is awesome.
Well, God himself told us to fish here. We grabbed the spinning rods and walked along the canal. Meanwhile the guys cast a float rod. Wa4er scouted the area by the book.
GPS and chatting with the local elders. We got to where the main canal joins a smaller one, and there's a net set with a 300-500 gram pike in it. So, pike are here, all that's left is to catch them…
Jumping ahead, I'll say we didn't catch any pike on that canal. On the way a local joined us, complaining that 3-4 days ago the pike were literally jumping here, and now dead silence. That some gagash caught a pike YESTERDAY so big he couldn't carry it and dragged it along the ground…(Damn, why are all the giant fish always yesterday and tomorrow?) Anyway, the water is clear (0.5-1 m), you can see the fry in the sun, literally tons of it, but no pike. We decided to head back in shame.
The float guys were doing better than us - 2 decent roach, but still not great…
Wa4er found out from the locals that the pike spots were 4 km further on.
After a short breakfast and feeding a local mutt (that's our contribution to animal welfare), we set off. The road was awful, but we made it. The pike spots turned out to be an irrigation ditch completely overgrown with reeds, with anglers sitting in the gaps catching something. You can cast a spinning rod, but it's a pain, a retrieve of 2 meters max…
We wandered and wandered….
Result: no pike! Nothing on the float either…
But lots of anglers - about 30 people on a 2 km stretch of canal.
The locals tell stories about yesterday's crazy bite….
Everyone was walking around bummed, Tolstich was whining something about ZGO. But after checking the weather (southerly 6-8 m/s) we decided to go to my shop (or my vegetable patch, whatever you prefer to call it). But before that a terrible oath of secrecy was sworn, since the spots are super secret
We got there. Well, everything as always: the pike are biting, the spots are beautiful..

Poladik and Assassin were catching pike like they'd been doing it their whole lives (it was their first time pike fishing)
One of the big ones straightened Poladik's hook

Tolstich and I took the spinning rods and walked along the canal. Apart from me losing one and Tolstich getting a couple of tugs, nothing…. Our hands are made for the speargun
Tolstich, yelling "that's it, I've had it, I'm gonna kill her now," ran off to change, and nothing stopped him, not our pleas that the water here was murky, nor that in murk like that he'd run into a net.
By the way, he did end up flying into a net. But a 120 kg carcass can't be stopped by a flimsy Chinese net. Anyway, forgive us, grandpa, for the torn net…
Result:
Just a mountain of pike, both anglers and spearfishers did well. Honestly, I haven't seen this much big predator fish in one place in a long time…
P.S. How much the pike weighed, I don't know. Because I never weigh fish! It's a superstition of mine…
The rest is in the photos.