The Secret Of The Magic Hole

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Fishing tales

Since in my youth I had the opportunity to catch crucian carp (more precisely, crucian carp) in winter, I naively believed that there was none, but I still have experience in catching this fish. However, already as a student, I became convinced that my "crucian" experience is worthless. All attempts to catch crucian carp in winter in sufficiently large reservoirs were unsuccessful. It turned out that, while catching crucians in the lake I mentioned, I knew nothing about both the campsite and the finickyness of the crucians. Therefore, for a long time I could not catch carp in winter. As usual, chance helped.

When, on my next fishing trip, I appeared at the house of a local resident of Kuzmich, with whom I always stayed, I found a guest with him - a middle-aged man in a patched quilted jacket and worn high boots. But he made an unpleasant impression on me: he was somehow unkempt, I would even say - rough, sloppy …

“This is Rodion,” Kuzmich introduced him. I named myself.

- Rodion is an inveterate fisherman and knows how to catch any fish, in any lake in the area, - Kuzmich continued, looking first at me, then at Rodion.

- What kind of fish would you like to catch? - looking at me point-blank, asked Rodion.

“Carp,” I answered without hesitation.

- And you know that even a bear in the circus does not work for free … - Rodion betrayed me, still looking at me.

I didn't like this conversation at all, which was more like extortion. So I said nothing. And although the question was addressed specifically to me, Kuzmich continued the conversation:

- You are Rodion, don't bury yourself too much.

“And I don’t ask for much,” he answered and, turning to me, asked: “Do you have hooks, jigs, spinners?

"There is something." Show me. … I showed. For a long time, he meticulously examined my not too rich arsenal of fishing lures and selected several hooks, five jigs and two small lures. And with a satisfied chuckle, he announced:

- Tomorrow morning I will come for you, and you will catch carp to your heart's content.

He appeared very early, when still darkness enveloped everything around in a dense veil. Since I was in full readiness, as soon as Rodion knocked on the window, he left the house, and we immediately moved to the lake. Melo. Snow twisted in live streams into bundles and now and then crossed our path in different directions. My guide, in some incomprehensible way, orientated himself in the pitch darkness, and we never strayed from the right direction. As soon as dawn began, we found ourselves on the lake: we stopped in the middle of a small bay. Looking around, Rodion, according to some signs only known to him, chose a place and, although there was an old hole nearby, he stepped aside a little and ordered: "Drill here." When I drilled the hole, he began to instruct me:

- If you catch only from this hole, it won't bite in others. Before you start fishing, you will throw a bait at it, - and he put a rag next to the hole, in which it was wrapped somewhat round the size of a ping-pong ball. Then he continued: - Throw two lumps into the hole. You start fishing with this rod in half an hour, - he handed me a homemade winter fishing rod. At the end of the line, a hook was tied ten centimeters higher than the jig (see picture).

- You act so that the hook with the worm lies at the bottom, and the jig is a little higher. No need to move. The depth is one and a half meters. If the biting stops, throw another lump into the hole and wait thirty to forty minutes. If biting does not resume, reel in your fishing rods …

And he left the lake without looking back.

I started fishing. Before throwing these rounds into the hole, I held them in my hands, examined them, and smelled them. Not immediately, but still I realized that they consist of a mixture of clay with cow dung. Having thrown the round pieces into the water, he began to tune the tackle. And twenty minutes later began fishing. They took small ones first, then larger crucians. It was a truly magical hole! True, only two fish were the size of a palm, the rest were smaller. I managed to catch a dozen or so crucians when the biting stopped. Following Rodion's instructions, he threw another round into the hole, paused, and the biting resumed … Alas, this time it did not last long. But still, my trophies turned out to be a dozen more crucians. In vain I tried to revive the bite: I threw round pieces, small bloodworms into the hole, all in vain - the fish did not take it. That was the end of the fishing trip.

Returning to Kuzmich's house, I found Rodion there. "Well, how?" - he turned to me. I showed the catch.

- Tell Rodion, - I asked when we were sitting at the table, - what is the secret of your so magical hole?

He looked at me with hostility and said just one phrase:

- You will know a lot, you will grow old quickly.

… The magic hole has kept its secret.