Vytegra Fishing Trip
Route
From Vytegra we drove to the village of Golyashi. There we assembled the boats, went around Petropavlovsky Cape across Lake Onega, and set up camp on the shore among small pines. We returned by the same route. For fishing, we walked through the marsh to Matkozero.
There was also a backup route in case Lake Onega turned out to be impassable: from the village of Paltoga through the marshes and Lake Vikhkozero.
Preparations
Before leaving we tried the five-star cognac and Russian Standard that we were planning to take with us. What if they turned out to be bad?
By the way, the vodka, whether it was Russian Standard or not, turned out to be quite decent. Five liters of the stuff ended up costing only 600 rubles, plus 150 for delivery.
Vova with an oar.
Preparing the nets.
Fathers say goodbye to children, wives to husbands.
Off we went.
The Road
On the road I wanted to sleep. The heat made itself felt.
No, that canister is not alcohol; it is gasoline for the boat.
We arrived in Golyashi. The shore of Lake Onega.
Assembling the kayaks. Preparing the boat.
Of course we do not forget to oil ourselves up too.
The first one is almost ready.
A kayak really is an amazing thing. On the one hand it is a backpack of tubes; on the other, it floats and glides surprisingly fast, and besides two people it also fits two large backpacks and quite a lot of smaller things.
Meanwhile Lake Onega was getting rougher and rougher.
We went out onto the lake. The faces of the men hurriedly gathering their nets as we passed clearly said: “What idiots!”
At some point I still decided to take photos. All six shots came out blurred, that was how much we were being tossed around.
The struggle with the lake and the wind lasted about an hour and a half. The waves were at least a meter high, because every now and then the neighboring kayak disappeared completely behind the crests.
The sun went down. It started getting dark quickly.
We all got ashore completely sober, adrenaline having “digested” all the alcohol consumed before, soaked through and immeasurably happy.
Fishing
After dragging the boat and kayaks onto the shore, we made a fire, cooked food, ate and drank, and went to sleep, postponing until morning the questions of where exactly we had ended up, whether we had lost anything, and how to dry all the things now.
The first morning was gray, windy, and cool. Gradually we sorted through the things that had been thrown everywhere the night before.
It was nice that we did not have to chop firewood: the whole shore was full of driftwood washed up and already well dried by the wind.
For breakfast, tea and jam with white bread: an indescribable delicacy, really. By the way, for some reason they do not bake this kind of bread in Petersburg.
Finally the fishing began. Vanya woke up earlier than everyone and went to Matkozero at dawn.
Clouds kept rolling in and soaking us with rain.
Toward evening the weather cleared up. Andrey is cleaning fish. Vanya is making ukha.
The ukha is ready!
The six of us somehow ate a whole bucket of ukha in one sitting. It was very tasty.
In the evening Vanya fried fish over the fire in a pan. I do not even know what was tastier: the bucket of ukha or the freshest fried fish.
We brought some fish home too.
The Way Back
The next morning, the one for leaving, was warm, windless, and sunny.
Lake Onega was calm, and the kayaks were taken in tow.
We reached Golyashi.
And that was the end of the fishing trip.
It turned out very vivid, memorable, and even a little harsh.
Thank you, Vova and Vanya! Thank you Dima and the Andreys!
Three more camera videos:
In Golyashi I also went to look at a small chapel above a bluff over Lake Onega. A beautiful place.
August 3. Vova sent his photos
Vanya on Matkozero.
The lighthouse on Petropavlovsky Cape.
We were towed with kayaks on both sides of the motorboat. From the outside it must have looked funny.
Andrey and Dima in a kayak on calm Lake Onega. The picture is good enough to print and hang on the wall.
And some more photos from the participants
