General Information
Taimen are an interesting fish to pursue within a pristine and protected fishery. If you love swinging and skating flies or fishing large articulated streamers, then you’ll love this experience and the overall fishery. If you enjoy hunting large, predatory fish and value quality of catch over quantity, then this is your place. Taimen fishing is not a numbers game, but when a three, four, or even five-foot river fish eats your fly, you will quickly understand the draw of fishing in Mongolia. Anglers that enjoy the solitude of swinging flies for steelhead or pursuing musky with streamers transition well to targeting taimen.

Known to Mongolians as the “river wolf”, Taimen (Hucho Hucho Taimen) are exceptionally fierce and ferocious predators. As the world’s largest surviving salmonid, they are famous for feeding on large lenok and grayling, ducks, mice, and even large prairie dogs. Among the preferred techniques for catching Taimen is skating large, waking dry flies. The takes can be violent and unexpected, and one of the hardest things about this style of fishing is leaving the fly in place while a huge fish wakes, strikes and bats the fly before fully committing and eating. Despite the scene that can play out when a large Taimen attack a skated dry, it is crucial to let the fish take down the fly before strip-striking and setting the hook.

On Mongolian rivers, the average Taimen caught are around 32 inches and roughly 10 pounds. There is always the possibility for larger fish in the 40 to 50-inch range as well, and each week usually produces a number of these trophy fish. While Taimen are the primary species, lenok, Arctic grayling, and pike are also found in the area. Lenok runs anywhere from 16 to 30 inches in length, and their top-water eats can be fantastic. Looking much like a large brown trout with a strange, smallish mouth, they are routinely found in shallow, fast water, where skated dry flies and drifted terrestrials can be very effective. Lenok make a great addition to the more challenging, time-consuming hunt for Taimen.

All fishing on the Eg and Ur Rivers is catch and release, with single, barbless hooks only. Anglers can expect a combination of wade fishing and fishing from the 18-foot aluminum jet boats. Atlantic salmon-style “drops” (where the boat is slowly maneuvered downstream using an anchor and pulley system) are very effective and allow two anglers to effectively and carefully fish productive runs at the same time. Anglers should be prepared with both a dry fly set-up on a floating line and a streamer set-up with a 300-350 grain sink tip line. Each guide is assigned a specific section or “beat” of the river, and clients will rotate through different guides and different sections over the course of the week. You can expect long days on the water, leaving camp after breakfast and returning approximately one hour before dinner. Fishing days run anywhere from eight to ten hours in length.

Boats and Equipment
Anglers fish the Ur and Eg Rivers using 18-foot aluminum jet boats. The typical situation has two anglers fishing with one guide. While flies, tippet, and leaders are included with each package, it is recommended that anglers bring all of their own fishing equipment.