Arthur first picked up a fishing rod at the age of 12 while at a pond in the town of Kainda in the Panfilov district. Since then, he has spent 18 years in search of big catches, traveling across Asia.
Under the pseudonym "Asian Traveler," he shares his impressions of fishing and recently spoke about sport fishing in India.
Heading to the Indian Ocean with hopes of catching a shark, he faced a reality that was far from his expectations.
"Sea fishing is radically different from what we do in Kyrgyzstan. Finding a permanent spot to cast a rod on the shores of the Indian Ocean is extremely difficult—the water level and shoreline constantly change due to tides, creating dangerous conditions. Once, I nearly drowned while returning from a peninsula that became an island during high tide. The fish that bite the hook are often poisonous, covered in spines, or can even attack the angler. That's why I mostly fished at night: during the day, the heat was a hindrance, and the fish stayed away from the shore. But even during the day, swimming in the ocean was not easy—the bottom was littered with sea urchins, and schools of poisonous jellyfish floated near the shore. The ocean is home to sharks and stingrays, and scorpionfish with poisonous spines hide among the rocks," he shared his impressions.
During his fishing trip, the "Asian Traveler" caught a leopard moray eel weighing 12 kilograms and measuring two meters long, as well as a stingray weighing 6 kilograms.
The most memorable trophy for him was indeed the stingray, as these creatures in the Indian Ocean can weigh up to 400 kilograms and reach lengths of up to 4 meters.
"I found a suitable rock on the shore where I wouldn't be flooded during high tide and prepared my tackle as if for catching zander. I cast my rod 60 meters from the shore. After an hour, something suddenly tugged at the bait. I set the hook and began a struggle that lasted about thirty minutes before I managed to pull a large stingray to the shore. When I saw it up close, I noticed its long tail and two sharp spines covered in poisonous slime. I quietly flipped the stingray onto its back, pinned it down with my foot, and used pliers to bite off the spines to remove it from the hook. I had dreamed of catching a shark and even saw its fin while casting my line, but unfortunately, I didn't succeed this time," he reminisced about his adventures.
According to him, there are eight species of sharks in the Indian Ocean, but they can only be caught on a line during the rainy season, which lasts from June to August in India.
