I returned yesterday from my annual gig with Sweetwater Travel Company in outer Mongolia. The taimen fishing was great, as always. The early season was marked by wet weather and less-than-perfect river conditions, but we were still able to find nice fish willing to attack our flies each day. A client in the upper camp landed a 60-inch giant (his first taimen) on a surface fly despite the murky water. By the last week, the river was in prime condition and taimen were happily terrorizing undersized river fauna, much to a fly angler's delight.
As usual, in my boat, the biggest fish of the year (48"-52") managed to avoid having his picture taken. But quite a few trophies in the 40"-44" range came to the net. The fishing days were occasionally interrupted by encounters with local herders, taking a break from hand-cutting grass meadows for hay, who came down to the river to make a few casts or just to check us out.
Besides the fishing, we were serenaded on the night of the full moon by a howling pack of wolves just behind camp. A few nights later that week, the same pack attacked our camp caretaker's herd of horses, wounding a couple of adults and killing a young colt. Fellow High Desert Drifter, Jeff Coughenour, guiding on his first trip to Mongolia, did some field suturing that evening on the wounded mare. I'm happy to report she was healing nicely as of our departure.
Beginning on the night of the first frost, bugling bull elk haunted the hills behind camp each night. Hoping to find a mate and always staying a step ahead of the wolves, they move like ghosts through the forest.
As I flew out on the helicopter heading home, the river was in perfect shape and the taimen were on the prowl, stocking up before the long cold winter. I can't wait for next year!
Here are a few scenes from the trip.
