Next day it was my turn to try Snatolvayam, together with Jim and Michael. It had been snowing the whole night, so it was absolutely awesome to ride over the snow-covered tundra on horseback! It was the first time that I tried to ride a horse for real, and it was feeling very special to do it here in the middle of nowhere. It was impressive to see the others ride with their Spey rods; they looked like conquistadors with their long swords! I caught a steelhead rapidly that day on Snatolvayam; Jim got one at the end of the day. On the last cast I got another hookup, but lost the fish, because I fought it too hard. One learns for every fought and lost steelhead! These large and powerful fish leave you very little error margin.
The last three days passed like the first ones. The water levels were stable, since the fallen snow did not melt, due to the low temperatures. This meant that we also often had to deal with ice in the rod guides. The water temperature dropped, and the fish got slower. The fights did not last as long as they would have under normal conditions.
The last fishing day, I went to Snatolvayam again, together with Ken and Michael. The ride over was great as usual. Fishing was good, I got my fish, and Ken landed two in a ten-minute period! Incredible, the two fish looked like twins! In the evening, we rode home, tired and worn out. My horse was quite slow, and I ended up 500 yards behind the others. I tried to give my horse a little kick so it could go faster, and so it did! It started galloping at full speed across the tundra, catching up with the others. I was not very stable on top of it, but managed to stay on; I was convinced that it would slow down once it met its companions. But no, it just passed by very quickly and the others got excited, and they started galloping as well! As my horse made an abrupt turn, it fell off! Good that the tundra is so soft, it really made the fall less dangerous. I got a very sore elbow, fortunately it happened the last fishing day. The rod didn't break, even if I landed quite hard on it. It would have been shameful to break two rods on the same week!
The last evening in camp was celebrated as deserved, and the day thereafter we flew back to Petropavlovsk. I had been fed with Spey casting, steelhead, horse riding and beautiful nature in fourteen days! I had learned very much about steelhead fishing and its biology, and I had met many nice and interesting people. It was not a usual fishing trip I had participated in, I would call it a social cultural fishing trip! I have a very positive impression of the Russian people; these folks are just so warm and cordial.
