I recently guided clients for taimen fishing on the Delger Murun (River) which runs through the Mongolian taiga forest/steppe cross-over. The trips are organised by Andy Parkinson from fishmongolia.com and are well worth the bucks! The trip includes a six day float through a fairly narrow gorge with everything from big fish to mind blowing scenery, and the odd snow storm! The weather in Mongolia is unpredictable and may change from hot sunny weather, to heavy rain, to hail, to snow fall and back to burning sun within an eight hour period - so bring the warm stuff too! The taimen is a typical salmonid (in most ways), but they have the strange habit of smashing big surface flies that create a lot of noise or surface disturbance. It is quite a thrill to watch the big jaws poke the surface and slurp down the fly that is interpreted as a feeding or injured minnow, or even a rat or mouse crossing the river. As part of the guiding game, I too got a chance to fish and landed the season's best, a fish of merely 107 cm (they grow to 170 cm!). Keep an eye out on wademagazine.com for an article on this trip in the next issue...

 Submitted by:Leonard Flemming

 Email: leonardflemming@gmail.com

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