Fishing Dialogues on the Kura River

By Vestnik Kavkaza

“Fishing Dialogues” is a Russian TV-show which is 14-years old. The show producers say that the secret of its success is not unique equipment or peculiar basins, but people who are fond of fishing. Both for newcomers and experienced masters fishing is not simply a way of spending free time or hobby, but an integral part of their life, one of links connecting them with nature.

“Fishing Dialogues” often travel to expeditions on rivers and lakes of Russia and other countries. This spring after a trip to snowy and frozen Siberian taiga, the show crew which includes the Vestnik Kavkaza observer Gia Saralidze arrived to sunny Azerbaijan, the Mingechaur Reservoir. It appeared in the 1950s on the Kura River when the Mingechaur hydro-electric power station was built. Today the power station provides electricity for whole Azerbaijan and remains one of most popular fishing places.

The length of the reservoir is 75 km, it almost reaches Georgia; the broadness of the Mingechaur Reservoir achieves 17 km. There are high and low banks. This place is very popular among fishers of the South Caucasus. Pike, sander, roach, Caspian roach, bream, shemaya which is called “shamaika” by local residents live here.

In the end of the 19th century Russian zoologist, naturalist, promoter and initiator of hunting and finishing business Leonid Sabaneyev wrote that “even though few people saw shemaya alive, it is well-known to everybody due to taste and softness of its flesh. It is one of the most valuable fish among carps; it was called in Persia shah-mage (royal fish).”

Even though shemaya resembles ablet, it is much bigger than ablet. Its length reaches 25-32 cm and its weight is up to 800 g. It has dark head and back with blue hue; sides and belly are silver-and-white; all fins are grey, transparent; eyes are silver with a black point on the upper half.

“The locations of the fish are limited. They can be found only in rivers belonging to basins of the Black, Caspian, and Azov Seas. In Europe shemaya is known only on the Dunai where it is thought to be rare fish, but it is well spread in some lakes of Bayern. Shemaya is unknown in France, England, Prussia, Italy, and Spain,” Sabaneyev wrote.