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Fishing

The territory of the Museum-Reserve is rich in clean and picturesque lakes and rivers. For a long time these places had been destinations of rest and inexhaustible source of creative inspiration. Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov was especially enamoured of fishing, and there was hardly anyone to rival him in knowing subtle peculiarities of the Don fishing.

True lovers of good fishing will discover for themselves splendid Upper Don sceneries, lake and wood landscapes, will enjoy the transparent water, silence, pure air.

The Don fishery has a centuries-old history. Cossacks set out for fishing in their boats made of big trees hollowed out. They used fishnets, trap-nets (a fishnet stretched over several hoops with a sack at the end) and other clever devices.

The Upper Don country is quite splendid for successful fishing both in winter and in summer. The Don, its tributaries, local lakes are inhabited by about 50 fish species, and even a fresh fisherman will get his catch. A fisherman’s trophy is extremely diverse: an ordinary gudgeon and a noble vimba, a night sullen burbot and a swift perch with striped sides, an impetuous sea-roach and a heavy-weight carp shackled in golden scale, a whiskered giant sheat-fish, a “river shark” – a pike, and a sedate bream. As well, in the clearest Don water one can find a zander, a chub, an asp, a roach, an ide, a redeye, a breamflat,  a white-eyed fish, a zope and other deep river specimens. The Upper Don waters are also chosen by valuable kinds of fish such as sturgeon and sterlet.

The fascinating fishing is followed by a real pleasure of trying the favourite treat of Cossacks – a “triple” fish soup cooked on the fire.