Twenty-nine hours of flight, layover and shuttle time to get to the hotel , another 13 hours to get to the river to start a 7 day float. For a stupid fish?!? Where even IS the Onan River and where on the planet is Mongolia. All questions I had to answer to my wife before heading out on a two week trip of a lifetime for the fabled Taimen of the Amur River system (by the way, the answer in regards to ‘stupid’ fish was a resounding YES!!!). Especially when said river stretch is only fished 3 times a season by a max of 6 people.

Myself (Scott Drooger), and three buddies from Michigan, as well as Brian McGeehan, the owner of Montana Fly Anglers and the organizer of this trip, in collaboration with Mongolia River Outfitters, took part in this adventure. Brian had done this twice before and is still one of his top trips. We arrived and spent a couple of days exploring Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia’s capitol, some, on our own, some guided. The city was phenomenal, with Buddhist temples, hard, Soviet era buildings and modern glass highrises. We sampled traditional Mongolian cuisine, including horse meat.

Tuesday morning we left in a pair of Lexus 490’s for our 13 hour drive to the river. After stopping for lunch and dodging the many herds of sheep, goats, cattle and horses crossing back and forth on the road, we made it to our destination and were greeted with wine and appetizers. The first evening we spent in traditional “Gers”, complete with wood stoves. After an amazing dinner and introductions to our guides and staff, it was off to bed Wednesday morning dawned to a beautiful fog on the river that burned off by the time we hopped in the Clackacrafts. They had a ton of rain, the weekend before, so the river was fairly stained and fishing was very slow. We were using 9-10 wt rods with intermediate sink tips and throwing 8-10 inch streamers with barbless hooks. We had a few strikes throughout the day, but my buddy and I were only able to land one Amur Pike apiece. All these fish require a large strip to set the hook, just as you’d do fly fishing for tarpon or snook. Needless to say unlearning the trout set took some time to do. Each successive day, the catch rates went up and the water clarity improved. It does mess with your psyche a bit when you’ve made 100 casts and 3000 strips before you get a strike, and then miss the hook set. My Garmin watch had us at 27-30k steps per day, so imagine the amount of casts and strips that were being made. Needless to say, by the end of the trip we could hardly make fists with either hand.

Each day we had coffee delivered to our teepees, started off with a wonderful breakfast, had an amazing shore lunch and were greeted with appetizers and libations when ending our day. Hot showers were available and the evening meals were delicious. Lots of fish were caught, with the average Taimen size, probably in the 30 inch range. Lots of bigger fish were caught, with the largest pike and largest Taimen in at 40 and 47 inches, respectively. It was the pro that landed both of those. My buddy Andy landed a 38 inch Pike and I landed a 43 inch Taimen, and also an 8 inch Grayling. Caught on a pale dun dry on a 3 wt, during lunch. One Amur Trout was caught and one Lennock.

Another 13 hour slog and two more nights in UB with a very expensive massage, haircut and beard trim and it was time to say goodbye to Mongolia. The skies at night were incredible. We heard wolves howling and Red Stag bugling most every evening. Every stretch of the river was a postcard. The service and attention to detail was perfect. The guides were legendary and the house /cooking crew were unbelievable. Please check out Mongolia River Outfitters and Montana Fly Anglers. It’s a long way to go, but the experience and the fishing are legendary.