Penzhina Cisco

This is a very rare fish; most of fishermen have no idea on its existence. Penzhina cisco is living in only two rivers — Penzhina and Talovka, which are draining into the Penzhina inlet of the Sea of Okhotsk, in its north-eastern corner. This area is famous with its 13 meter tides — the highest tides in Russia.

The species was discovered in 1933, when a scientist A.Kaganovski had caught in the Penzhina River a strange whitefish. By that single specimen a new species Coregonus subautumnalis was described. In 1988 I was floating down the mighty Penzhina River with my scientific boss, late I.A.Chereshnev. We were able to catch several dozens of the Penzhina cisco with nets, so it became possible to put together detailed scientific description of the rare species. In 1990 I was able to work in the drainage of the Talovka River; It turned up that this whitefish is rather numerous here as well. Penzhina cisco feed on benthos, on adult insects and their larvae, so it should be not too hard to catch this fish with a rod. Unfortunately, during those trips I was very busy, and had no time for sport-fishing.

Yesterday I was surfing Internet and found a Russian web forum on sport-fishing. At that page someone named Mikhalych was telling, that he had caught Penzhina cisco with a small spinner, on slow retrieve... How interesting...

On the next post another fisherman is writing that he had landed in the same Penzhina River 57 Penzhina cisco. At that moment I had realized that many things are happening, and I don’t have a slightest idea...

Fortunately in the next post one more lucky fisherman was bragging on a 1,652 kg (this is precision!) Penzhina cisco landed on a bottom line baited with a chunk of fish. In this post there was a word igroden (game day) — ho, this is only virtual fishing! And I was thinking it is real...

OK, let’s see where I’ve got — http://rus-fishsoft.ru OK, if it brings enjoyment to somebody...

By the way, some of these virtual fishing sites are very popular. Humans are generally strange creatures. I think I will stick to real fishing for a while...