The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

Bleak wrote: ↑Thu Dec 10, 2020 9:58 pm Some good advice there, thank you.

Mate, Opening up 2, 3yr old post will soon get you over 25 post access to the full site, then you can have real fun

I’ve caught many grayling on dry fly (love a Klinkhammer) and nymphs.

One interesting and true story. In a previous life (before I was married with kids) I had a couple of mad trips (1997 and 2000) to Outer Mongolia, right up on the Siberian taiga border. The fishing for grayling was other worldly and in fact Pitlochry were of the view we’d discovered a new subspecies of grayling on the Tengis Gol (Gol is river). We were fishing right on the cusp of winter, when the Shiskid and Tengis freeze over for months. The grayling stomachs were absolutely jammed tight with larch needles (the valley was larch as far as the eye could see). The fish scientists came back and told us they thought that this is what the grayling did to survive the winter. Just as the freeze was due they would fill their stomachs with larch needles, the freeze would arrive and they would, in effect, go into a state of hibernation. The larch needles would gradually be digested and would slowly release just enough nutrition to keep the grayling alive until the thaw. Make of that what you will; I’m no scientist and that’s my recollection of what we were told. Interesting though eh? I think that’s similar to bears so it makes sense.

I think they were pulling your leg about the leeches. Grayling don't hibernate like bears, for sure. Probably more like squirrels that only stay in their nests and sleep on the coldest of the coldest days.

Santiago wrote: ↑Fri Dec 11, 2020 9:57 am I think they were pulling your leg about the leeches. Grayling don't hibernate like bears, for sure. Probably more like squirrels that only stay in their nests and sleep on the coldest of the coldest days.

Not leeches! Larch needles. From the Larch trees. It's a fact, I was catching the grayling and cooking them on the fire. Their stomachs when opened up were full - jam packed - with larch needles. Great big grayling of two pounds or more.



When the winter comes, the temperatures hit minus thirty, minus forty and more, every day and the rivers freeze. When the Dzud hits it goes to minus fifty and beyond and the horses freeze through, standing up...hundreds of thousands dead in a day but the grayling survive and they do so by 'hibernating' with a stomach full of larch needles keeping their metabolism one notch above dead...

When they say winter is coming, they really mean it; we were lucky to get out just in time:



That line of trees in the background is Tengis Gol, up which the mighty taimen swim to the headwaters to spawn. Great big fish of four, five and they say six feet long. There they meet the shaman, for a festival of virility and strange things happen up there in the taiga forest and the land of the Tsaatan...

Can you imagine the grayling having their first post hibernation dump - OW!

Dave Burr wrote: ↑Fri Dec 11, 2020 6:21 pm Can you imagine the grayling having their first post hibernation dump - OW!

Perfect! Love you Dave

Tengisgol wrote: ↑Fri Dec 11, 2020 6:24 pm

Dave Burr wrote: ↑Fri Dec 11, 2020 6:21 pm Can you imagine the grayling having their first post hibernation dump - OW!

Perfect! Love you Dave

awe shucks

xx

Larch needles at minus thirty. Now it makes sense. They're full of natural anti-freeze that stops ice crystals forming in the needles and killing the tree.

Santiago wrote: ↑Fri Dec 11, 2020 6:45 pm Larch needles at minus thirty. Now it makes sense. They're full of natural anti-freeze that stops ice crystals forming in the needles and killing the tree.

Oh my word - that’s so clever, nature is so clever. The people we spoke to about what we discovered at Pitlochry also talked about a very slow release of enzymes. I’ve no idea what that means!

Paul F wrote: ↑Thu Dec 10, 2020 10:15 pm

Bleak wrote: ↑Thu Dec 10, 2020 9:58 pm Some good advice there, thank you.

Mate, Opening up 2, 3yr old post will soon get you over 25 post access to the full site, then you can have real fun

Thanks Paul,
I am on leave this week and using the time
to have a look around the forum.

Unsure what you mean by "real fun " but it
sounds interesting. If you mean being able to
sell items. I don't have anything, other than
a reel. Kindly gifted by a member. I am
looking to make a start in the new year,
after a thirty odd year absence from angling.
Kind regards,
Phil.