Taimen Trout – World’s Largest Salmonid

Do you get the National Geographic channel? I enjoy watching it from time to time and this afternoon, there was a very interesting program about the Taimen Trout of Mongolia. These things are monster trout!

A conservationist traveled to Mongolia where he is studying the Taimen and has been tagging them for the past several years.  The “easiest” way to catch them apparently is by fly fishing. It looks like an amazing place and a trip of a lifetime to take a fly fishing trip to Mongolia! The scenery shown in the program was beautiful and the river being fished, pristine.

Apparently, Taimen trout can grow up to 200 pounds and live for 50 years in the wild. Voracious eaters, they will eat other taimen that are not much smaller than themselves in addition to ducks, rats and bats. From the footage in the program, they look like they are powerful fighting fish on a fly rod as well!

According to the National Geographic page on Taimen Trout, they used to be found throughout what was once known as the Soviet Union but today, they are considered threatened.   The narrator on the program I watched indicated that gold mining in the area could also further threaten the existence of taimen trout in parts of Mongolia through water pollution.

A quick search indicates that there are a number of operators that specialize in providing guiding services for taimen fly fishing in Mongolia, and anglers travel from all over the world, spending thousands of dollars for the opportunity to catch and release them.  It’s becoming an important part of the economy of some parts of Mongolia.

I’d love to have the opportunity to fly fish for taimen trout. I’d settle for a few thirty six inchers but one of those two hundred pounders would be amazing!