Trout Fishing Afghanistan
by Mark Waldin, Flycatcher Inc. (custom fly rods) - With President Obama set to announce plans for a push in military build up in Afghanistan, it seemed it might be interesting to research trout fishing opportunities in the country. Nothing could be more stress relieving than a fly on the water. Of course Afghanistan has never been known for being a fly fisherman’s mecca (at least as far as I know) but nothing ventured nothing gained. It turns out that there is excellent trout fishing in the Khinjan River and in the upper reaches of the Andarab River which passes by the city of Khinjan in the Andarab Valley of Khinjan district. This section of Afghanistan is in the northern section of the country’s highly mountainous region. Trout, both brown trout and rainbow trout, are found. A subspecies of brown trout (Salmo trutta oxenesus) swims in streams north of the Hindu Kush. This is called locally mahi-e-khaldar, which means spotted fish. Some rainbow trout, Salmo gairdneri, have been introduced by the Bulgarians into the Salang river.
Unfortunately the area is being targeted by the Taliban (Iraq Today) so unless you are military you are not likely to be participating any time soon.
Best seasons trout are June and late-September – early-October.
December 19th, 2009 at 11:31 am
Salmo Gairdeneri? What is this, 1970?
German naturalist, Johann Walbaum, identified this fish as Oncorhynchus mykiss in 1792. We’ve known that rainbow trout is genetically closer to the Pacific salmon due to DNA testing. It’s been Oncorhynchus mykiss for DECADES now.
Dude, take off the leisure suit, put away the disco ball and throw out the pet rock, then come and join us in the Twenty-FIRST century!
December 19th, 2009 at 8:59 pm
These are synonyms. Please see UniProt Taxonomy page http://www.uniprot.org/taxonomy/8022 or look it up on Wikipedia.