around him and controls the surface of the water. When an insect appears, the grayling slowly rises from the bottom and, having grabbed the prey, abruptly rushes back, taking only its place. Single graylings are in no hurry to grab a swimming insect, but when there are several of them in a flock and they are close to each other, several specimens rush towards the approaching treat at once, and the larger ones literally repel the smaller brothers.

Graylings are "joyful people". In calm weather, they often jump out of the water very high for no apparent reason, surprising even experienced anglers. seas.

However, graylings are not dolphins and do not chase boats. On the contrary, the noisy behavior of people on the shore, aimless races on motorboats alert the fish, and it stops biting or completely goes to other, calmer places.

When passing near a boat with a motor at high speeds, the fish "sinks", stops biting and does not melt for more than half an hour. On the contrary, when a tugboat or motor ship passes on a windless sunny day on a wave raised by large transport, the grayling takes the bait better than when it is at rest. During the time that the wave shakes the cargo float, you can catch one or two graylings, which before that did not take the bait at all.

On the Angara near Irkutsk, fishermen catch graylings from boats in the midst of scurrying large and small fleets. Here, apparently, the fish has come to terms with the daily hustle and, since it has nowhere to go (there is a hydroelectric dam ahead), it has ceased to pay attention to the roar of equipment. But this is an exception, and in general grayling loves silence.

On quiet evenings, when an innumerable army of moths, mosquitoes and midges rises into the air, graylings come out of pits and shelters to open places above the riffles, to the head of the islands, to the channels, to the shores with trees and grass hanging over the water. Here begins the so-called swimming - mass fattening of fish of different ages and sizes. With some experience, bursts can be used to determine the approximate number of fish, because each grayling melts in one “own” place.

In the cold season, in early spring, autumn and winter, grayling is caught at the very bottom. In summer, when various insects, falling into the water or washed off the coast, are in its thickness, the fish can take the bait "in the semi-water", that is, at a great distance from the bottom, and on the surface of the water.

Before a long storm, the grayling becomes lethargic, does not peck and does not melt. Caught at this time, he is very "bleeding" - he releases a lot of blood from under gill covers even with a light blow.

The best fishing for grayling occurs with a warm wind rippling the water, and in cloudy weather with short-term warm rain. During the arrival of water from heavy or prolonged rains and its turbidity, the biting completely stops until it subsides.

Fishing for grayling on the Angara River.

Irkutsk fishermen have long mastered the fishing of grayling on the Angara River. This river used to abound with various valuable fish and a huge supply of food for it. On the wide and deep stretches above Irkutsk, graylings, lenoks, taimen and other fish were found, and at the bottom there lived a myriad of bormash, boogers (stoneflies), marsoviks (caddisflies).

Open pebbly shores were very convenient for those who like to fish from the shore, and calm, not very deep reaches were chosen by boat fishermen.

Now, due to the dam of the Irkutsk hydroelectric power station, all these reaches are in the flood zone and a reservoir has formed in the place of the swift river. The fish, not accustomed to such conditions, went to other places, and the caddisflies and stoneflies perished.

At present, the remaining grayling has adapted to the new conditions of existence, its number is increasing every year, and it even gains weight, but it is very difficult to find it and catch it with sports gear. The huge area of ​​the reservoir, great depth, lack of current in its lower and middle parts do not allow the use of traditional fishing gear, and Irkutsk fishermen invent and make new ones.

The reservoir is populated by new species of fish, but so far there are not enough acclimatized fish to allow catching them. It seems that without the effective help of the great army of amateur fishermen in populating the huge reservoir with fish and protecting it from poachers, you will have to wait a long time for the opportunity to fish near the house, and not travel hundreds of kilometers in search of good luck.

The location of the cargo mood in the water: 1 - correct; 2 is incorrect.

Previously, the river was protected by a steep bank overgrown with dense forest, and anglers could fish from the shore and from a boat in any weather. They were looking forward to the lowlands - the northwest wind, which raised a steep wave on the reaches. The grayling, which usually lives in a “furrow” far from the shore, approached the very shore, and anglers could catch it on a simple fly rod without a spinning rod. coils. This was explained by the fact that the wave that broke out washed away from the banks and carried into the depths a mass of various food that lives in the coastal strip. Now graylings have nothing to do near the banks and they live permanently along the entire width of the river. With the disappearance of stoneflies and caddisflies, the diet changed, and consequently, artificial baits changed.

Now interesting sports fishing for grayling from the shore with spinning tackle near the village of Nikola has been preserved. With the opening of fishing after the ban on spawning on the river bank, you can see spinners of different ages. The fast current and shallow depth attract graylings here from Baikal and from the lower reaches of the Angara. Grayling is caught on cargo tackle by baiting a well-seasoned and tinted earthworm on a hook or using the so-called rubber band - an artificial worm made from a PVC sheath of an electric wire. The live worm and gum are stained with rhodamine C in a pale pink color. Both on the Angara itself and on its tributaries, Irkutsk fishermen use well-extinct earthworms to catch grayling and other fish. Worms for catching grayling should be of medium size and tear-resistant. They are baited starting from the thickened head and pulled through the entire hook. Having closed the fore-end, they make an “accordion” on it and, holding the hook by its bend, pull a part of the worm through the eye onto the leash. The remaining free thin tail of the worm is cut off so that its end remains on the hook, protruding from the tip of the sting by 3-5 mm, since in the water the worm baited on the hook is reduced so much that the shorter end left in the reserve is not enough, and from it the tip of the sting protrudes. A properly baited worm should hide the entire hook and not have a loose end. When pressing with a finger on the torn end of the worm, the angler should immediately feel the prick of the hook. In this situation, the fish has nothing to profit from and it is forced to take the worm for the most dangerous place for itself. In the case when the worm is not torn off, but hangs freely and wriggles, the fish does not take the hook itself, but this end, cuts it off and, “making the fisherman a pen”, calmly goes about his business. In such cases, no "rybalin" ("Rybali" - a comic name for a non-existent means for lubricating an artificial fly or worm, supposedly helping to successfully catch fish) will not help.

For All Irkutsk fishermen remain a mystery about the behavior of the harus when catching it on a natural live worm and on an artificial one, known as "gum". A natural good worm should be whole, not dented and completely cover the hook. With the left eye of the hook or sting left open, the grayling does not take at all. In the manufacture of artificial worms, the ear of the hook can be closed, and its lower part inevitably remains bare. Despite this, the fish willingly takes such "worms", sometimes even better than living ones, if only they were well made and successfully painted.

Natural baits:

1 - gammarus (bormash); 2 - combined bait ("sandwich") from half a grasshopper and an artificial grove fly;

3 - earthworm on a fishing hook

Many anglers catch grayling with only one drill or with a “sandwich”, that is, with a drill attached to an artificial fly. The shell of a large drill is quite strong, and it is necessary to skillfully bait it on a fishing hook. First, the hard head and upper part of the body are cut off with scissors at the drill, then the sting of the hook is inserted into the incision and passed through the body not to the very end, but the hook is brought out in the lower part of the abdomen so that the entire sting, beard and frontal part of it are bare. If you place the entire hook in the body of the drill and do not leave the lower part of the hook free, when the fish bites, the solid shell of the drill does