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Red star indicates the area of the Zhoponova River in far eastern Siberia where Tom Poe of Conway and Robert Shoptaw and Brad Hendricks of Little Rock are fly-fishing for trophy trout and salmon. Adventurous Arkansas fishermen head to Siberia Saturday, Sep 3, 2005 By Joe Mosby When Tom Poe of Conway and a couple of longtime fishing buddies tell you they are getting away for a while, they mean it. Poe and friends Robert Shoptaw and Brad Hendricks of Little Rock have embarked for Siberia for some fly-fishing. Yes, you have to be serious about your fishing and your spirit of adventure to head into the "last great stronghold of wild trout," as the California-based Fly Shop calls the Zhuponova River on Kamchatka Peninsula. If you look on a world map, this is the large finger of extreme eastern Siberia that is north of Japan and west of Alaska. Kamchatka Peninsula is larger than California and Oregon combined but has just one city, and that a modest one. Petropavlovsk, population a little more than Fort Smith, is the capital and a Russian nuclear submarine base. It was recently in the news when a sub was tangled in fishing lines, with a multination rescue effort successful in bringing out the sailors. Poe said, "Kamchatka Peninsula is what Alaska was 200 years ago. Outside of Petropavlovsk, there are just some villages of reindeer farmers. It's been closed to outsiders until just a few years ago, and still it's very limited on people going in there." A Web site says Kamchatka Peninsula has a thousand rivers as well as 120 volcanoes. The Zhuponova is just one of the rivers, but it's already acquired a reputation for out-of-this-world fishing from the trickle of sport anglers who have visited it. Poe said, "We'll fish for trophy trout like 26-, 28-, 30-inch rainbows and for Pacific char, king salmon, silver salmon and Dolly Varden. One-third of the world's wild salmon spawn on the Kamchatka Peninsula." The salmon situation is a key to the trip by the three Arkansans. You just don't take rod and tackle, fly to Russia, buy a license and go fishing. Along with the extensive paperwork and documents needed for a visit, the three anglers are donating $400 apiece to salmon research through the international Wild Salmon Science and Conservation Fund. They'll keep notes on what they catch for scientists to study. Guides will be both Russian and American, and they will raft on the river for six days, fishing by wading and then camping in the evenings. Poe said, "We can use only barbless hooks, and we are taking 800 flies, everything from little dry flies to 8- to 12-inch flies. We have flies of (imitation) egg-sucking leeches, articulated bunny leeches, mice and lemmings. We'll take four rods apiece, and everything will have to be waterproof. There are no Wal-Marts over there to run buy something you need." Poe, Shoptaw and Hendricks flew from Little Rock to Anchorage, Alaska. Another five-hour flight took them to Petropavlovsk. Then a helicopter flight carried the three and their guides to the headwaters of the Zhuponova River for the fishing to begin. They will work a reverse route on the return, but there's a catch. The helicopter service makes a pickup just once a week. If heavy rain moves in, the fishing party will have to wait a week on the Zhuponova for another chance. Poe said the Kamchatka Peninsula rivers' fish are virtually untouched. Residents of the area don't fish for sport, but do catch fish for food. Kamchatka Peninsula is also home to the most brown bears in the world, and he said the Kamchatka bears grow larger than their cousins in Alaska, which are plenty big themselves. Caribou are also numerous on the peninsula. Poe, Shoptaw and Hendricks have made a habit of these exotic fishing outings. "All of us are in high-pressure work," Poe said. Shoptaw heads the Blue Cross-Blue Shield insurance operation. Hendricks is a prominent attorney, and Poe is in real estate title work. "When we get away, it is something for unwinding." Previous excursions have taken them to Alaska's backcountry and deep into the Amazon River country of South America. Physical conditioning has been part of the preparations for the Siberia jaunt. Poe said, "I've been cycling and doing some running." It wasn't many years ago when many people, not fly fishermen, would have used cycling and running opportunities to get out of Siberia, not go into it. -------- Joe Mosby is the retired news editor of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and Arkansas' best known outdoor writer. His work is distributed by the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock. He can be reached by e-mail at jhmosby@cyberback.com. |
