American Surprise:
Travelling for years I have already visited many countries and almost all continents but the United States happened to have still remained an absolutely mysterious place for me. Surely, there were films, newspapers and television, which created a certain general idea. So, I had a definite pattern and quite understandable illustration of this country , therefore, I was expecting quite understandable impressions. And then, suddenly, a completely expected, but at the same time, completely unexpected adventure happened. For a long time I had been trying to get to the USA and dive in so desirable places for me. But I turned out to have been rejected an American visa several times for reasons I cannot explain. And suddenly, “the stars aligned ” after 7 difficult years of war and service in the Ukrainian Army, I received an invitation to take part in the Freshwater Spearfishing Tournament.
There wasn’t really much hope, especially in terms of the COVID epidemic, that is why, getting ready for such a trip looked like a gamble, but my whole life is a continuous adventure, so I started preparing … I can say that my adventure happened thanks to the friendly assistance and enthusiasm of Mike McGuire, the organizer of this tournament, who also helped a lot with visa support. And in fact, he helped to prepare the whole trip (having found for me both a partner and accommodation and a Captain with a boat) and as a result, he organized the Tournament perfectly.
To begin with, the rules are totally different from the traditional CMAS competitions and our national ones. The first difference is that the competition is held in three days, seven hours per day. I came alone, I performed in the master division. My American partner, Mike Kennedy, is a wonderful guy from Utah, that’s why we named the team “LaKen” after the first syllables of our names, we performed in the mixed team “mix” – He was in the “Mans” division, I was in Masters” and we had common team result.
We lived at Bill Shaw’s house, who was also the pilot and owner of the boat. And spearfishing was something new for him …
But still, we had five days to prepare. The water in the lake is warm and clear, this is not Ukraine. In my country if it is warm then it is muddy , but if it is clear, then it is cold. Very cold! The first three days made it clear that there are a lot of carps, drums and perches, but I began to see veils and catfish only by the end of the fourth day, while I met only one striper, and even then only briefly. Mike says that strippers are always on the border of cold and warm water, you need to lie in stakeout and wait!
In general, before the start of the competition we had only one place where Mike had seen large strippers several times and we decided to start there. On the first day, on the very first dive, Mike meets a large stripper but does not have time to shoot, and then, 7 hours of fruitless diving.
I went into a normal competition mode: a minute and a half rest on the surface, and 2.15 – 2.45 under water. But there’s zero result, there’s no fish to be seen. Moreover, Bill, getting to Mike, unsuccessfully approached the shore and bent the propeller strongly. Later, in the marina, we change the damaged propeller for a spare one. Until then, endless diving was going on. There were Carps, Cupids, Veils, Dramas, rare catfish, and no strippers … Plus, by the end of the day, Bill again jumps out on the rocky ridge with a boat and bends the spare propeller and breaks off the fin on the engine leg, the engine is junk, the boat hardly works. And we return to the marina with troubles….
Driving to the gathering place, we discover that only 15 people came out with strippers and the first sensation – the Pelengas team has got 4 large test perches! The fish are large, all of them are 6-10 kg.
Here is a triumph, Chunyukin is the first, Mayorova is the first among women, Galaktionov and Golovyanko are also with large fish, all are in the top six.
The whole day of rest is spent on straightening and tidying up the screws, my leg cannot be fixed, the motor runs badly, but at least it does. Tomorrow Game Fish will take place. After much thought, I come to the conclusion that, nevertheless, I will try to hunt in the “refrigerator” below the thermocline. My suit is thin, well, I’ll freeze, but I hope I can stand it for an hour, it’s worth trying…
We decide to start again in the same place as on the first day. We arrive at the place clearly to the start, one boat is already there, we maintain a distance (at least 100 yards) and get into the water. The first dive – a depth of 11 meters, I see flooded trees, it is cold, muddy, I understand that I need a shorter gun and at that moment, over my gun, right next to me, a large striper passes! The adrenaline rushes, I come up, run to the boat, change the gun for a shorter one, and dive again. In the muddy place, in the light, I see the shadow of a very large fish passing by, I shoot. The fish makes several powerful jerks and, having winded 15 meters of the line from the reel, pulls out the harpoon from itself and leaves… I recharge, calm my nerves and dive again, now a little deeper, 12.5 meters, freeze at the bottom and after 50seconds, more intuitively than realistically, I still see a shadow. Shot, the fish winds the line and gets entangled at depth. After unwinding the reel, I float and dive again, lifting the desperately resisting striper from the rubble. It’s the fish, not large, approximately five kilograms, but still a stripper! This is the first test, now I can give all my attention to the veils.
Quite quickly I take two credits “grey” (we call same fishes in Ukraine), then a catfish, and Mike is still looking for a striper. By the end of the second hour, we change the point and look for “kittens”, but no luck. The transition again, at the new point there should also be Catfish, but so far only Vualai are found. I have a complete set, and I call Mike, and he emerges in delight – he took a stripper! And after a couple of dives, he gets a veil, now we need dramas and catfish. We change the place, the boat is moving slowly, at the new place I quickly take three credit drams, Mike is still fiddling around. The place for “catfishes” is hopeless, I can hardly persuade him to change his place again, there is only an hour left. At the new place I manage to take only one catfish and that’s it, time is up.
At the weigh-in my Ukrainian colleagues turned out to have showed a brilliant result again- each of them got a large stripper. Galaktionov is undoubtedly the first, he has a complete set. Golovyanko is the second, but also good result. Sveta Mayorova is definitely the first among ladies. So far I have the third result in veterans and seventh in the general list, it’s a pity we lost time on transitions and in Mike’s attempts to take the third drama. At least a couple of hours weren’t wasted. In the teams: Galaktionov and Golovyanko are the first, the Veteran team from Hawaii is the second (they performed on the good level and were the only ones to shoot Crappie). Mike and I are the fourth, Mayorova and Angela Golovyanko are the first among women.
But there is still a day ahead, again you need to think a lot about what to change in tactics, let’s try to get out on the carp …
The last, decisive day. Local carps are really far from being as cautious as ours, drum also seems to be fine. You need to move a lot, constantly and often change places. Before starting, I change the harpoon to a thicker and more powerful one, lengthen the working line and increase the pressure in the gun. There shouldn’t be any doubt about the power of the shot. Since the start, we have changed our location 5 times. For the first hour, I manage to take 6 fish, for the second 7 more, the dynamics almost suits me, I planned 6-7 fish per hour. And then, the engine of our boat finally says “NO!”. The boat immovable and now we need to change tactics again, we will not get to the most interesting places (((Chances are falling rapidly! The boat is at anchor, we will have to hunt only around it. Change the tactics of active hunting, to long-term haul-outs, in one of the dives I raise my head and see two silhouettes of large fish passing over me. I shoot the biggest one. Fish, winding the coil makes powerful pushes, over and over again breaks the wound and the harpoon gradually comes out of the fish. Despite the powerful injection, it was not possible to pierce the fish completely. Realizing that I could lose the trophy, I risked – having dived to the desperately resisting white cupid (here it is called Grass Carp), I pierce the harpoon further with my hand and continue the struggle again. As a result, a fish on a fish stringer, I hand it over to the boat, take pictures and dive again. An hour before the finish line, the ear stops blowing, that’s what it means for the last 6 years I have hardly dived. But, even with ear troubles I manage to take a few more fish
While Mike and I were diving, a boat from local fishing guides came up to our boat. Paul and Claire, learning about our problem, promised to return to the finish line and tow us to the marina. They are really friendly guys, whose boat is equipped with the latest fishing electronics, I especially liked the taxiing in the marina, the bow electric motor. Two large boats, moored by the sides, gently and accurately came out to a given parking point. Do I need to talk about the emotions of communicating with wonderful people, fun, kindly, they also got me a beer. Now it is important to have time to transfer the fish from the boat to the car and be at the collection point no later than the control time. We are in time end-to-end, five minutes before the control time, but we are in time!
The judges count the tails, I have 24 fish, they weigh my cupid, 33.65 pounds! This is certainly not a stripper, but still, the largest fish!
in the evening, we all gather at a Mexican restaurant 50 miles from the lake. Everything is very emotional, cool and fun. Delicious food is provided by the organizers, but everyone chooses and buys the drink himself. After a delicious dinner, rewarding takes place and what is unusual for us – a lottery. Everyone brought some prizes with them, they are equated to a certain number of tickets, if desired, tickets can be purchased well, and then the usual lottery draw -each winner selects the thing he likes on the table with prizes. The awarding ceremony is also organized in an unusual way – there are no medals, but instead of them, there are beautiful commemorative plaques that can be placed on the table, fireplace or mounted on the wall. There are no traditional first three places, but the first six winners in the individual and five in the team. Everything is very funny, with jokes and sincere congratulations, speeches and stories. My friends, Mike McGuire and Darren Shields from New Zealand have been thinking over the idea of holding a big world championship in freshwater spearfishing in Ukraine for quite a long time. Moreover, there are also Finns, Danes, Italians, all the Baltic countries and Poland, Croatia, Greeks, a good quorum may be gathering. Literally, every second, came up and asked if the next (in two years, international) world championship was really planned to be taken place in Ukraine. All the time I had to answer about the difficulties of the organization, political situation , war and so on.
But everything is real. Let’s see what we can do…. And the choice of a reservoir (there are two options) – summer and a large reservoir, on the Dniester River 500 km from Kiev, or fall-cold water and the Dnieper River 150 km from Kiev. The second option seems to be more interesting to me. This is the historical center of Ukraine. And I want to turn this tournament into a holiday and a real adventure, for everyone who has not been to our country yet. There are so many details to think over-boat rentals, accommodation and a lot of little things require serious organization. And surely, we need to start preparing now. This is a good way to declare Our Country not only as a leader in sports, but also as a good organizer of sport events.
But actually, why not…?
