Manoma River

The map of the Manoma River drainage. This medium size river joins the right tributary of the Amur River, Anyui, in its lower part. Manoma River is 198 km long. Manoma flowing between the cities Khabarovsk and Komsomolsk. Its upper reaches are crossed by the road from Lidoga to Vanino. At the river there are two villages — Upper Manoma and Lower Manoma. The upper part of Manoma are mountainous; this area of the stream is populated mostly by lenok, grayling, and minnows. Taimen and Amur ide are rather rare. Here there are spawning grounds of the chum and cherry salmon; the second species is very rare. The lower part of the river is populated mostly by Amur ide, pike, and flathead asp. On the way to the upper part of the Manoma at the logging road we have met a snow-shoe hare. In the river there are lots of Lower-Amur type grayling. The bigger «yellow-spotted» species is not present here. The Elk Hair Caddis is one of the best dry flies for the local grayling Lenok in Manoma is not very numerous; its average size is smaller than in the bigger streans such as Khor or Anyui. This fish is normally caught with nymphs presented close to the bottom. Dense forest along the Manoma In the Upper part the Manoma is mountainous stream with «correct» riffle-pool ratio. Here it is easy to find fish but difficult to convince it to eat a fly. In summer in the shady side-streams there are lots of grayling * Good size side-stream In summer the little streams are grown with the butterbur (coltsfoot). This mighty plant helps the fisherman hide from the wary fish. The bears love the sweet butts of the butterbur. The bitten off leave butts form the characteristic «flowers». In the Manoma we sometimes catch dwarf males of the cherry salmon. This is the proof that the spawners of the species are present in the river.*