ZGO, 2 August 2009

Hi everyone! Someone said there's been neither sight nor sound of me for ages. Well, yesterday I finally got out for a full day of hunting. I wanted to get there early, but things got in the way. First I went to the pig farm. The spot was already taken: Lomonosov's brother was swimming there with someone else. Hoping to run into someone from the forum, I drove around all the spots from the pig farm to ZGO. At the pig farm I also saw 2 guys, spearfishers. They'd already pitched a tent, and one of them was pumping up his speargun. They were in a GAZ-24, I think. I don't know them, so I didn't go over. It's just that this tent brings back an unpleasant memory: in the same spot, about 2 years ago, there was a tent too, I saw a speargun and a wetsuit, well, and people nearby. I went over to ask about their catch, but got a far from warm welcome, so... Anyway, back to the report.

I got to the spot, that is, to ZGO, at about a quarter to one in the afternoon. I REEEALLY didn't feel like trudging on foot all the way to the ferry, so I decided to conquer the off-road: the barrier was closed, as it always is lately... Luckily I was in my trusty Pyzhik... ))) Only one stretch held me up, for 10 minutes, where I had to get over some concrete blocks, but even that didn't stop my "steed"... By one o'clock I was already at the ferry. Fixing a few small gear problems, changing and getting ready took another 40 minutes or so... At about twenty to two I got in the water. First I decided to swim around the foundations to the left of the ferry. Loads of fish, but 500-600 grams. No big ones. I swam the whole area, right up to the entrance to the kultuk. No big mullet, and I won't even mention carp... In the kultuk it's murky, visibility no more than a metre. After diving around a bit and not seeing a single fish, not even at the resting spots, I decided to get out... I walked back to the car, and from there at 4 o'clock got into the water again, on the ridge to the right of the ferry. I did the first ridge, then the second, then the third... Still no big ones, but loads of small fry. Around 6 in the evening I decided to head back. There's no fish at home, so I had to shoot what there was... After shooting 5 at 600-700 g each, I decided to check whether anyone was on the island near the far foundations. And then I heard a shout. Not far from me, about 50 metres away, another spearfisher. I swam over, we said hi. I didn't know him... We started swapping info. He'd been in the water since one o'clock, all in that same spot. When I asked, "Any fish?" he smiled: "Of course!" I dived down to have a look. His fish stringer was full, mostly the same size though, around 600-700 grams. But one leaping mullet clearly counted as a trophy: 1.2-1.3 kg at least. After I'd admired his catch, he said he hadn't managed to get another one like it... By that point I hadn't EVEN seen any big ones, let alone shot one... I asked what he shoots with. My fellow addict, whose name, as it turned out later, was Oktay, had a speargun with homemade bands made from rubber tubing. And you could see the man had put his hands and effort into a lot of things, which is always great to see. It's nice when someone's hands grow from the right place, especially since all my own gear is homemade, apart from the wetsuit, the guns, and the float, mask and knife. And even then, I'm going to build a new float too: this one doesn't suit me for a number of reasons. So, where was I. He asked what gun I had. When he heard it was a Taimen, he immediately asked my name. And right away he said he knew I was Esen and that he enjoys reading our forum, but unfortunately he isn't registered here. He promised to sign up as soon as he has decent internet at home. Well, we chatted and went our separate ways. I decided to hang around the shallows, maybe I'd see a big one after all? Oktay's leaping mullet had cheered me up and given me back my confidence in a good haul. No such luck! However long I hung around there, I didn't come across anything worthwhile. In despair, I decided to head back, especially since it was already 19:30. And then a brilliant idea came to me: I decided to check out a small shallow ridge that lay right on my way back. A few metres after the start of the ridge a leaping mullet of maybe a kilo and a half came out at me. And what do you think? Firstly, I was stunned, and secondly, I missed from just a couple of metres! The spear went a few millimetres over the head of that beauty. Stupid habit of aiming for the head... If I'd shot at the body I'd definitely not have missed... I've sworn that hard underwater maybe only a couple of times... Finally some luck, and that's how I use the chance that finally came my way! Oh well, after promising myself that next time I'd shoot the fish in the body, if there even is a next time, I moved on. My instinct didn't let me down: if one leaping mullet came out, there could be more trophy fish here... Within the next 15 minutes there were already 3 trophy leaping mullet on my fish stringer, not as big as the first one, but also around 1 kg each. How about that! All day in the water without meeting a single trophy fish, and on this ridge a whole 4 leaping mullet. So there you go, 3 good leaping mullet at the end of the hunt — a weak consolation, but a consolation for an overall unlucky day. That's the story, and whoever read to the end — well done! )))