At the “Bureya Sea”

In January 2013 My friend Arthur Miskevich and I had made a trip to the Bureya reservoir. In Siberia any big reservoir is traditionally called «sea». The weather was cold, around −40C at night and −30C at the day time. The fishing was not good, but we had learned a lot. Besides that, it is always fun to visit this water — it is somehow recharging you with new energy.

The dam of the reservoir constructed near the Talakan village

*Here the road become a winter road – from this point one could drice on ice 200 km to the north *

*A local fisherman is showing us a special tackle with three big treble hooks used to catch big pikes. The tackle is normally baited with a little pike (about a pound or bigger or similar size live burbot. *

This year there is not much snow, so the road is very good. It is possible to drive it as fast as one dares.

Further upstream from the dam at the banks there are many rock outcrops

Chaos of rocks, dead trees, and ice...

This house used to stand at the bank of the Bureya River. Presently it is floating in the reservoir in summers, and in winter the water sets it at the bank – every year to a new spot.

These ice mushrooms are grooving at the flooded trees every winter

Ice mushrooms

These ice marks show how the water level was falling from the beginning of the winter

Our first camp was in the tributary, Melgin River, 120 km from the reservoir dam

A common lure for the local pike is a “crab” made of lead, baited with a minnow

In the morning it is even colder than it was at night – about -40 degrees. The fishing is nor great – only little pikes are biting.

We were not able to catch any pike bigger than this

To catch a burbot you have to set the baited bottom lines for the night

The horses in the snow along the road – the pictutre looks like in Mongolia..