Fishing is a cool thing. Especially if you are disturbing the water not for the sake of an underwater scavenger, but for the keen attention of cold predatory eyes.
The most memorable in this regard is fishing for heat-treated animals. It lives in places of extremely beautiful - flooded stone forests. Once I pulled Lekha’s long-time friend, an avid fisherman, onto this fishing trip. It was a long way to go, but imagination won out too lazy and, replacing each other at the wheel, we safely rolled up the kilometers.
We stopped in the evening with Sergey, the former Lyokhin colleague who had settled in these parts, and the next morning went fishing with a heavy head.
Sergey and a friend settled in their own boat, we used the services of a local fishing base. The latter was not particularly remarkable with the exception of a gorgeous view of the Smoky Volcano. Signed for safety, took the boat. With the boat, we were obliged to unload two bulky and uncomfortable thermal protective suits. Lyokha with an instructor made me a beginner put on all the ammunition, not denying myself the pleasure of neighing over the resulting clumsy stuffed animal. However, the initiation rite did not last long, and already departing from the pier, I sat only in thermal boots, resembling the usual "bogs", and lightweight life jacket, self-inflating when released into the water. Costumes were among the fishermen categorically unpopular. About a dozen people each year suffered severe burns, but this did not stop anyone, and was part of a kind of bravado.
We moved, murmuring with a motor, to the place of the intended fishing. The base was located on a flat stretch of shore, convenient for the pier and the car entrance, we headed upstream, to where the main stone thickets were located. Soon the first idols appeared, as if their razlapisty green bumpy paws were waving in a greeting to the guests and suddenly frozen forever.
The stone tree is a colony of miniature photosynthetic organisms with a mineral exoskeleton. The raw materials for building envelopes are provided by chemicals saturated with water flowing from a volcanic glacier. The surface of the community specializes in "solar energy", underwater - in fact, is a filter sponge.
Both halves actively exchange substance and energy. In particular, the oxygen produced in the process of photosynthesis, is delivered from the upper floors to the lower ones and is released into the water, creating, along with stone structures in which to hide, a favorable environment for the habitat of small underwater fauna.
For their part, some varieties of fish scavenging in the tubular roots facilitate their cleaning, ensuring the constancy of the pumped volumes of liquid (and therefore the stability of the supply of mineral substances).
Thus, stone trees, filtering water and enriching it with oxygen, serve as a catalyst for underwater life, which, to the delight of biologists and fishermen, beats the key here.
Going into the specified channel, the motor was lifted in order not to accidentally damage the screw on the young stone trees still hidden under the water and gently walked a little at the oars. Having risen in a favorite place, we planted live bait (minke whales, a typical warm-up booty) and abandoned fishing rods. The floats went for a walk on the surface of the water, now drawing closer, then diverging in different directions.
Thermal - a predator, living their prey alive. Grabs and covers the unfolding stomach, covered with something like ceramic scales from the inside. After that, it heats up to 150 degrees due to exothermic reactions triggered in cavities inside ceramics. In this case, he himself does not brew a separate question - there are both heat-insulating layers of tissues, and compensatory endothermic reactions, and flow-through water cooling - engineers still have to learn from nature.
The main way to hunt for warmth is an ambush attack. Disguised at the bottom or in the stones, the predator suddenly catches the unwary fish with a sudden sharp throw. Alone, a person’s life is usually not a threat, although it can cause severe burns. However, packs of heat-rags are dangerous - they are capable, closing their stomachs, to cover and roast prey, which is significantly larger than them.
And here is the first bite. With a sinking heart, I began to draw out, but on the second movement the fishing rod unbent sharply and showed an empty piece of fishing line (not simple, by the way, but with a reinforced core and heat-resistant coating).
I swore.
“In 7 out of 10 cases, the heat traps are off the hook,” commented Lech. - Come on new.
For the day there were 5 more bites, and all failed.
Later in the evening, Lyokha caught a decent cow, who was also not averse to tasting a minke whale. To be photographed is a holy cause. He stood in a pose, lifting the booty on his hands, but just in case, holding the bait with one hand, the second one started pointing the camera, moving almost aboard to include the characteristic local landscape in the frame. And then they bite, but so powerfully, as never before for the whole day. Instinctively clutching the fleeing bait, I lost my balance and flew overboard.
Having emerged, I spun around in search of a boat with chaotic strokes. Movement hampered heavy boots, but saved. The vest did its job - the upper part of the body immediately appeared at the top and it was rather easy to stay on the surface.
The boat was relatively close, but not enough - apparently, falling, I pushed off from her a little, plus the flow combined with the first disoriented movements. Lyokha, unlocking the oars, turned the boat around, trying to simultaneously go for rapprochement.
My right foot groped for an underwater stone or a growing stone plant, when suddenly a ring-shaped cotton occurred around the ankle, and there was a feeling that I had put on a sneaker over my boot and had tightly laced myself. I automatically started pushing unsolicited "shoes" with my second foot. The heat sink seems to have leaped, but then, having caught the rhythm of the knocking-down leg, pulled the grip on both feet at once. Have you ever had to swim in boots with tied legs? Before me, no. Pleasure, to put it mildly, is below average. I jerked my left foot and felt a sharp loss of controllability and buoyancy. A second later, one more warmth grabbed the legs from the heels. And further.
I froze with horror and shouted a good language for early help in leaving the water element.
Lech, throwing the oars, wailing the engine and instantly flew up to me. To get into the boat was hellishly difficult - you had to act only with your hands, while actively opposing the heat-absorbers, who dug into the depths.
Putting his feet on the side, Lyokha pulled me out of the water and we crashed to the bottom of the boat with the noise. Immediately in the hands of the knives appeared, and the invaders were quickly neutralized.
We exhaled.
“You know, fishing for live bait is usually slightly different,” Lech quipped.
- Why the hell did my leg need him? - I asked puzzled in space.
- They are ready to grab everything that moves and the size does not really care. But they cannot quickly disengage the formed pot, which killed them, along with greed, ”Leha said. - Congratulations on your trophy! The healthiest 15 kilograms will pull.
I decided to rinse my hands in the outboard water and was surprised to see how the water on my freshly washed left hand turns pink.
- Here is an infection! - I said.
It seems that at the last warmth I cut myself, which was not immediately noticed by the fever. The knife slipped off the slippery wriggling scales.
“Scratch,” I put out my hand, and I answered Lyokhin with a questioning look.
“Why did you rinse it in water?” Heats of blood completely from the coils move out. Heard about it?
Conveniently sitting on the side, Lyokha clearly intended to give me a lecture on safety. In order not to waste time and to seal the cut for talking, I asked:
- Where is the first aid kit on this boat?
“There, from below,” he replied, and leaning forward strongly, launched his hand under the far seat.
At that moment, a splash was heard over the place where Lyokha’s corps was a moment ago; shells flew away with heat. Rushing over unexpectedly for his bent body, the predator turned his armored stomach open with an inverted umbrella and, wagging its tail, tried to turn around and reach the target with its whole being - but did not reach it and, flying to the stern, crashed onto the engine, for some reason snapped on the tank.
- Ofiget, he jumped out of the water, saw? - I said. - Well, they nafig, get out of here!
- Before that - never. Only he controls the motor control until we knock it down, we won't go anywhere ... So, take the paddle and portray the baseball player, while I free the motor, - said Lech decisively and with a deft leap threw himself to the stern.
Forgetting about the first-aid kit, I thrust my hands into the rowing anti-slip gloves and, taking the oar out of the paddle, made myself up, standing in the middle of the boat.
The river gurgled, the local fauna whistled, and from time to time swearing at Lech. Steam came from me. The network of heating fibers woven into the clothes, yet realized and began to gradually dry the fabric soaked through during the recent "bathing."
- Listen, Lyokha, I have an idea why he was on the motor crush. This is the warmest thing on the stern. You drowned him quite recently. Initially, of course, he aimed at you, but since it did not work out ... It was not intentionally that he blocked our engine.
- Maybe. Then I have nothing to be afraid of - you are 5 degrees hotter than me until your clothes are dry, - Lech replied, adding with a smile, - but you are not drifting, the oar in skillful hands is a terrible weapon.
- Yes, you go ... - I replied amiably and, not having had time to figure it out, I beat off the paddle with a paddle blade that suddenly jumped onto me. And it began.
Reacting to the splash on the left, I otbutbolil one more and, turning 180 degrees, I met another already completely on the approach with a greedily opened stomach boiler. Apparently, he jumped out of the water only a little later than the first. Due to the lack of distance, the blow fell on the spindle of the oar almost "in the forehead" - on the opened lamellar inside of the boiler. She immediately collapsed into the grip, hooking all her mass dispersed in a jump onto the oar. The paddle drifted to the side and, if it weren't for the microfiber coating of the gloves, it would probably fly out of my hands. Leaning down and stepping to regain balance, I slammed the oar on the board and, in the near-surface layer of water, noticed the last underwater centimeters rushing before the next warm-throat jump. There was no time left on the backs, and I, as if by the command “lie down!”, Rushed to the bottom of the boat. The heatwave flew by. At the bottom was full of water.
- The boat is flowing! - I shouted.
Apparently, having driven on a motor in Plotnyak, Lyokha hooked a hidden underwater fossil on the bottom.
“Yes, I see,” a voice suddenly called out.
- And what are you slacking off? We are already on the motor must ulepetyvat at full steam from here.
- The engine is ready, but we will not be allowed to leave. They are already coordinated attack, if you have not noticed. Look better for a green backpack, there are blasting checkers - Seryoga let the fish down and so on, just in case a fireman.
Having flown over the side, the silvery body flopped into the bow of the boat. Having pushed off from the board, the warmth cover turned and rushed towards us with a torpedo. I grabbed a helmet from a thermoprotective suit that came up under my arm and at the last moment put it under the opening mouth. Predator with a crunching grab the helmet. And while the intruder did not have time to figure out, I forcefully threw him along with the helmet overboard. Contrary to expectations, the helmet with the load flew no more than one and a half meters. He stopped abruptly and gurgled down, as if he had rested against an invisible wall. Or as if someone caught him "by the tail." And then I remembered that in case of a coup, the boat tied all the valuable items together with a thin nylon rope. Running my eyes on the rope, I looked at the green strap of the backpack, pulled out of a flying helmet in the light of day.
Throwing the find in the middle, we began to gut a backpack in four hands, crammed with any actually necessary, but completely useless nonsense in this situation.
- Similarly, in a backpack?
- Yes, I give a tooth!
While our attention was absorbed by the search, jumped to the stern and too late to see the warmth, deftly "hugged" me for the nearest leg.
- Well, there is a bitch! - I exclaimed.
- You do not get used ... Here they are! Hold two to you and two to me. One for the count of three. One, two ... - began counting Lech.
“All at once,” I responded to the “three,” pulling out both checks and standing up, threw the charges away into the water.
There were explosions, the boat swung and splashed over the top of the boat. A second later, something big and heterogeneous with a crash crashed into the water. It turned out to be a colorful stony tree that grew nearby on the side of my side. Apparently one of my drafts dropped me straight into its underwater part.
Well, okay, the new one will grow, the main thing is that the heat boxes were impressed. Pulling out the water, we moved back.
Lyokha called Sergei. They were going to get up on the next sleeve. Sergey did not answer.
- Probably, they pour it already at the base, - I suggested with pessimistic envy.
“So we agreed to leave with the water ...” Lech said uncertainly.
The rate of flow of water is clearly not docked with the length of the return route, and we began to look for stone trees suitable for the pier.
Come to the first. It turned out that its green surface does not have to climb. It looks like a small moss, to the touch it was slippery and sharp like a rough sandpaper. The relatively high arrangement of the branches, looking good from a security point of view, turned out to be a problem.
I had to stick at the more stocky plants. More or less horizontally having adjusted the paddle between the branches, and having thrown their surface with things, we quickly built a temporary parking lot, unloading the boat.
Lyokha again tried to get in touch.
- What is this bastard so busy ?!
- It will be dark soon. Call the base.
- They also will write off money for towing services from us.
- Then the rescuers.
- And in five minutes they will descend the stairs from the sky to us? Yeah. They will look at the map and redirect them to the same employees of the fishing base (they are really closer). Only time is extended.
- What do you suggest? Sleeping like a bird on a perch is not an option.
And as if in response to my question, the phone rang. It was Seryoga.
Then there were no adventures.
Fishing turned out more expensive than planned, but the result was, and with a noticeable admixture of exotic.
Already in the evening, in the table talk, Sergey told that he knows a great place where you can catch heat tanks directly from the shore. However, to get there, you need to climb a lot over the mountains.
Mountains so mountains, you will not frighten us with difficulties. Since we arrived ... And it was decided to make a sortie the next day. But that's another story.