Honestly, the Ishim River is not as popular as, say, the Volga, Yenisei, Lena or other large water arteries. But, nevertheless, the local population can no longer imagine their life without this most important geographical object. Among other things, fishing on the Ishim River has long been the most popular pastime of both adults and children living in the neighborhood.
This article aims to introduce readers to this waterway of the country, while indicating its main characteristics. It will also be told about where the Ishim River flows, how seasonal weather changes affect it and what should be taken into account when resting on its banks.
Section 1. General Information
The Ishim River, which flows simultaneously in Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation, is the left and longest tributary of the Irtysh River, which, in turn, belongs to the basin of the Ob River, which subsequently flows into the Kara Sea.
In Russia, this water artery flows within the Tyumen and Omsk regions, in Kazakhstan - in the Akmola and North Kazakhstan regions.
In fact, Ishim has not so many full-flowing tributaries. The most famous of them are Terisakkan, Koluton, Imanburlyk, Zhabay and Akan-Burluk.
In addition, there are two reservoirs on the river at once, Sergeevskoe and Vyacheslavskoe. Both are of great economic importance, that is, their water is widely used both for water supply to the local population and for irrigation of fields and household plots.
Section 2. What is geography?
The Ishim River begins in the Niyaz mountains, where it flows mainly to the west in a narrow valley and between fairly rocky banks.
It should be noted that below Astana the river valley widens significantly, after Derzhavinsk the water stream turns to the northeast, descends a little lower and goes to the West Siberian plain, where the rest of the time flows along the flat Ishim steppe in a wide flood plain, flows directly downstream among the swamps.
By the way, not everyone knows that the Ishim River is navigable 270 km upstream from Petropavlovsk and from Vikulovo to the mouth.
The river bed is quite winding, its width in some places reaches up to 200 m. The bottom is mostly sandy. The total length is 2450 km. Thus, Ishim is the longest second-order tributary on earth.
The floodplain is wide, has a large number of lakes. That is why fishing on the Ishim River is considered excellent among professionals.
Section 3. Hydrology Ishim
Ishim is a river with exclusively snow nutrition, it is due to snow that it receives more than 80% of its annual runoff. In the spring, approximately April 10-12, there is a significant increase in water availability. Flood decline occurs around mid-July. Summer-autumn low water lasts until mid-October. Due to the flat nature of the catchment, many closed depressions, small slopes of the riverbed, and an increase in the water level due to summer-autumn rains, almost none are observed.
In addition, the source of the Ishim River and its branches are fed by groundwater and floodplain floodplain. This is sufficient to maintain a constant flow of water.
The long-term average value (calculated over a hundred years) of the river flow per year is 76.0 cubic meters. m / s Freeze-up usually occurs in the second half of November and lasts an average of 5 months. The catchment area is 177 thousand square meters. km
Section 4. Flora of coastal territories
Any city on the Ishim River a priori can be considered beautiful and picturesque. Tourists traveling in this area, as a rule, open up completely different pictures. In spring, the banks of this river look like an emerald carpet of herbs with bright flowers, and in summer they look more like a sea of silver feather grass.
True, towards the end of the summer the picture becomes more dull - the boundless steppe, burned by dry winds, but in places it is decorated with whole fields of golden wheat. Of course, man managed to change the nature of this region, and now the cultivated field occupies a greater part of the local territory than the steppe or relict forests.
It should be noted that the local pine trees are rather stunted, thick-bark, therefore the forest looks thin, has a poor undergrowth and grass cover. But the few forests and hills nevertheless play an important role - they protect crops from the summer dry winds, and in winter contribute to the accumulation of snow.
In the lower reaches, Ishim is more like a taiga river, which slowly flows in low wooded banks. The closer the north, the less often the fields meet on the traveler’s path and much more often beautiful white-birch groves appear that cross into mixed forests. Many spruce, pine trees grow here, and in places even larch, cedar, and fir are found. Then, in some places, the trees begin to recede into the background, you can see swamps with sparse and thin Christmas trees, slender birches. There have always been many meadows on the shores of Ishim, the locals harvest hay here every year, graze cattle and simply enjoy the enchanting nature of this land.
Section 5. Features of the local fauna
Any city on the Ishim River is also attractive for travelers to the rich world of fauna, which includes various representatives of the class of amphibians, fish, birds and, of course, mammals.
Char, gudgeon, dace, roach, ruff, pike perch, bream, burbot, pike, perch and plucking are found both in small rivers and in numerous old women, where they swim during the flood of Ishim.
Lakes and sometimes freezing to the bottom sections of rivers are rich in crucian carp and minnow lakes.
Unfortunately, rare fish listed in the Red Book are not found in these reservoirs. As, however, and endangered species of animals.
In the warm season, here you can often find various kinds of invertebrates. These are, as a rule, beautiful and motley butterflies, worms, earthen cockroaches, dragonflies, caddis flies, mayflies, arachnids, mollusks, bedbugs, bugs and stoneflies. In spring and summer, local residents are advised to be extremely careful on vacation due to the particular activity of ticks.
Section 6. Is it worth fishing in Ishim?
Most locals happily spend time on the Ishim River, fishing and hoping to surprise with their catch.
And you can catch fish here, both small and rather large, so you can safely engage in such a quiet hunt. Although it is worth noting that large specimens come across here quite rarely.
Here you can easily catch perch, and in some places quite decent zander. However, many fishermen complain that they have not seen the pike here for a long time. Due to constant barriers, construction debris and the construction of dams, such a fish has become a real rarity in Ishim.