Yeni Kend. Canal 107.

Yeni Kend, Canal 107.
Well, the long-awaited day of spearfishing has finally come. For two weeks I had no chance to go hunting, so I decided I'd definitely head out on the weekend. In the morning at half past five I met up with my older buddy, we drove out of the city and by eight we were on the spot. The water in the canal had dropped a lot, which made it more or less clear. My buddy, without a second thought, rigged his rod, put on a Soviet spoon and cast right away, and on the second cast he pulled out a small pike. Excited by such a quick result, I went looking for a spot to get into the water. Pulled on my suit and, without much thinking, went under. The water turned out to be not all that clear, a meter and a half at best. The weeds had almost disappeared, I looked for fish under little snags, an hour of active searching gave nothing, once I saw a pike swimming off and that was it. I swam to the bridge by the pumping station, and that's where I saw a little carp. It comes out of the weeds to see who's stirring up the water, its little snout appears, it looks at me, darts forward, I shoot ahead of it, and I've never seen such agility – it brakes sharply, the trident goes into the silt and it takes off in an unknown direction to the far border, there's your "bust". Got out, got upset, had some tea, went for a pee and decided to go in at another spot past the bridge, it's pretty shallow there by the reeds, and as it turned out a little pike was standing there in the weeds, and if it's standing in the weeds that means it hasn't eaten yet and is hunting (the gutting later proved the textbook theory right). Anyway, I missed here too, the water was knee-deep and swimming without making noise with the fins is really hard, I shot at a pike swimming away. Got out to a relatively deep spot (1.5 meters deep) and then a beauty comes out at me, how much it weighed I don't know (I've shot a 3 kg pike but this one was bigger), it stares dumbly into my mask, then it figures out I'm too much for it and bolts, I shoot after it and hit it, and that's when it started – sharp spinning, murk, a nightmare, basically I grab it by the back, it tears loose and jerked me so hard, I got hit with a ton of silt and a strong blast of water to the mask (no lie, it nearly came off), in the end all I had left was a bent trident, all the prongs bent, I spent about 10 minutes straightening them underwater, however much I searched for my rightful catch I never found it, what a pity. And please, no arguments like "If you'd had a single-point tip, you'd definitely have got it" – with a single-point tip I wouldn't have hit it at all. Upset to death, I see the very first little pike, shoot and cleanly slice its head off, talk about bad luck, I leave the head and hang the body on the fish stringer. About 5 meters later I see another pike in the weeds, a shot, and again two halves hanging by a thread, I immediately remembered Vova's nickname for one spearfisher who hunts with a trident – "Half". I swim another five meters or so, a pike comes out at me, looks into the mask, turns around, I shoot, hit it, but it came off the trident, floated up to the surface, spun around and softly settled on the bottom, apparently I nicked the spine, I took it and hung it on the stringer. Another five meters, a shot right into the snout of a pike, I shoot – no point staring at a spearfisher – and it's on the stringer. About five meters later I got one more pike, by then I had a bit of a cramp and decided that's enough, two halved pike and three normal ones, I'm not greedy, it's enough for my family. Swimming back took a bit longer, with a cramp it's especially unpleasant. By the way, almost forgot to tell you: I'm taking a pike off the spear, out of the corner of my eye I see something swimming, medium-sized, about 300 grams, I turn my head – damn, you won't believe it – chalbysh, 3 little sturgeons of about 300 grams. I quickly take the pike off and notice that they've turned around and are rushing back fast, what scared them is unclear. Anyway, I got out on the bank, my buddy ran up and helped me out. Got undressed, had some tea, went for a pee. And then we went with my buddy so he could spin where I'd been hunting, honestly I thought there'd be no pike, but as practice showed they were biting even where I'd been shooting (so what about fish territoriality?). My buddy caught more than I shot. The result: 3 pike, two pike halves, all together 2 kg of speared fish, that's enough for me, I'm not doing this commercially, it's my favorite hobby. My buddy caught 3 kg of fish, the biggest fish we had weighed 600 grams, weighed on electronic scales, although we thought it was no less than 1 kg) So, comrades, a fish looks bigger per kg than we think)
As for gear, I hunted in a 5 mm suit with a 70 cm Bushat pneumatic gun, with a gliding trident (that's why it cut the fish in half, need to order a new one). Didn't get cold even though I swam for over three hours, though considering my love for winter swimming in the sea and my build, that's normal. The water is cold, the face doesn't get used to it right away. By the way, don't keep swimming long with a cramp, I've been limping for two days now. Well, what can I say, gentlemen, it's my first year hunting and this is my first late autumn hunt, I've never come across pike in such numbers before either. Had a ton of fun, wish everyone the same!!
Good hunting, everyone!!!