Taimen fly fishing trips
Our fly fishing weeks at the Taimen Camps are designed for discerning yet adventurous fly fishers, who want guided fishing for the prime fishing weeks in the season, and who appreciate good camp accommodation with a comfortable bed, hot showers and great food.
The fly fishing programme varies from week to week and can be tailored to you and your group; you have the choice of multi-day float trips, camping in tents or staying at our strategically located gers as we float downriver, or you can be based at the camp, accessing the fishing by all terrain vehicle and drift boats, returning to your cosy ger at 'base camp' each night. The taimen average 30 inches, but exceptional specimens grow to over 60 inches here.
Fly fishing for taimen is a combination of wading and drift-boat fishing from inflatable rafts. The boats give access to rarely fished inaccessible waters, floating up to ten kilometres a day allows us plenty of time to fish the best pools as we travel through magnificent scenery. We have four rafts available, each equipped with casting seats for two fly fishermen, and rowed by one of our guides.
The Location
'Mongolia's best kept secret'
Mongolia is a unique fly-fishing destination: a land of rolling steppes, rugged mountains, verdant forest, and pristine rivers. Hardy nomads continue a traditional way of life living in felt tents and moving their herds to new pasture with the seasons. Wild rivers teem with fish: Grayling, Lenok Trout, and the legendary Taimen.
The rivers we fish are some of the most beautiful, and least discovered places in Mongolia; beautiful valleys carved through limestone and granite bedrock and inaccessible canyons. Rivers meander from cliff to cliff, creating deep pools, and long runs. In places the valleys open out into broad grassland, flanked by steep hillsides and larch woodland; and flow through pastures grazed by camels, yaks, horses, sheep and goats, tended by nomadic herders. The remote upper reaches of our favourite Taimen river are a sanctuary for big taimen.
The Fishing Camp
'gourmet meals & fine wines'
The fishing camp uses traditional Mongolian gers, felt tents wrapped around a collapsible wooden frame to provide the accommodation, dining and washroom facilities. The gers are 9 feet high and 15-20 feet in diameter, much larger than standard wall tents, and are equipped with beds and an area to sit down and relax by a wood stove. Each ger accommodates 2 to 3 anglers. At base-camp there is a washroom ger equipped with an innovative wood-fired hot shower system; and a restaurant ger for dining and relaxing.
We pride ourselves on serving good food on all our trips; meals will include a range of tasty Mongolian and European dishes; meat supplied by Ulaanbaatar's top gourmet French chef, along with fresh vegetables and fruit, is flown in weekly. Shore lunches are typically a riverside camp-fire grill such as prime steaks or tasty kebab skewers. Beer, soft drinks, and wine with dinner, are included in the trip cost.
The Float Trips
We will float the river at a leisurely pace, taking plenty of time to fish the best pools and runs. The drift-boats are custom-built inflatable rafts, equipped with rowing frame and casting seats for two anglers. Your raft will be rowed by one of the camp's Mongolian or Western guides, who will show you the good fishing holes, select good flies and lures, and help you to land and photograph your catch. Each night we will set up our wilderness camp on the banks of the river, or stay at our strategically located 'satellite' gers provided by the local community. Camping is comfortable, with 3-person mountain tents for two to share, a dining tent, camp chairs and tables, toilet tent and simple shower.
The Fish
Taimen (Hucho taimen) are a landlocked salmonid that can grow to huge proportions. They are an aggressive fish that feed on anything that they can fit in their mouth, from minnows and fry to mature grayling and trout, or even small birds or rodents. The average Taimen in the rivers we fish are around 30 inches long, weighing roughly 12lbs, but there are many of over 40 inches, around 20lbs, and we have opportunities to catch hogs of over 50 inches on most trips. Taimen can grow up to a massive 70 inches, although these monsters are extremely rare and only found in the remotest locations. We know where the big ones live!
Lenok (Brachymstax lenok ) are the Mongolian equivalent of a trout, distantly related to Char, generally around 15 to 20 inches (2 to 3 lb) they can grow to over 30 inches in Mongolia. These are an exciting sport fish. Grayling are plentiful in Mongolia 's waters and there are in fact four sub-species here.
The Fishing
Our favourite river is particularly suitable for using double handed rods, and for spey-casting techniques, fishing from the bank and wading but using the boats for pool to pool transport. Single handed 8 or 9 wt rods are also effective; you'll catch more taimen when fishing from the drift boats or with a long cast to cover the water. Taimen fishing at our camps is strictly catch and release.
We fish for Taimen mainly with surface flies on floating lines. Streamers fished with a sinking line are also effective, especially in the deep pools. A 9' rod for 8 or 9 wt lines is generally recommended for Taimen fishing, but salmon fishermen will prefer double handed rods, e.g. a 12-13' 9 wt or 15 ft 10 wt rod. For Lenok and Grayling a 5 or 6 weight rod and floating line is suitable. We will provide Taimen flies and have developed our own highly productive patterns. Upon booking we will provide the full equipment and tackle list, and comprehensive briefing notes for the trip.
The Logistics
'Getting There'
The rivers we fish are remote and not easy to get to; we have a choice of flying you on a scheduled domestic flight to the regional centre and then driving up to the camp, or flying direct to camp on a chartered Cessna Grand Caravan.
For 2007 we will open a landing strip at the fishing camp allowing us to fly directly to camp by Cessna, these flights will depend on us having a minimum of 6 people in each group.
Community & Conservation
Taimen are under threat from poaching, mining, pollution and irresponsible 'sport-fishing'; fishing with us will help protect this magnificent ancient fish and defend their habitat. We can't tackle all the problems by ourselves, so we are focusing our efforts on creating taimen sanctuaries and working with the local community to protect these last pristine places, meanwhile we also do our best to co-operate, support and co-ordinate with other taimen conservation initiatives. Our challenge is to build a sustainable business that can contribute to the local community and conservation.
|
Destinations 
