Siberian rivers are a cozy haven for many species of fish. Almost all of them have commercial value and are distinguished by unique, incomparable taste. Small freshwater tugunok fish - not an exception. Dishes made from it are highly valued by true gourmets, are quite often found on the menus of expensive restaurants, and successfully compete with delicacies made from snails and truffles.
A little Wikipedia: the fish belongs to the family Salmonidae (Salmonidae), belongs to the genus Coregoninae (Coregonidae), the Latin name of the species is Coregonus tugun (Tugun). In some regions of Siberia it is also called Sosvinskaya herring, tugunok or manorka. Which name is more suitable for this representative of the fauna is up to the fishermen to choose.
Population
Half a century ago, the species was a valuable commercial fish and brought considerable profit to the state . Currently, the population has decreased significantly, especially in the Yenisei basin. Accordingly, the volume of fishing decreased by more than 10 times (when compared with the 50s of the last century).
Significant damage to the population was caused by human economic and industrial activities, which led to changes in the direction of river channels and water pollution. A particular threat to the abundance of the species is posed by uncontrolled fishing in spawning areas and on approaches to spawning areas.
Habitat
According to the fishing rules in the Middle Urals, there is a ban on commercial and recreational fishing of the noble fish - tugunka. Until quite recently, it could rarely be found in the reservoirs of the region, but currently the number of mange has increased slightly. In the area where tugun fishing called “Sosvinskaya herring” occurs, the fish is in high demand as one of the types of gourmet products.
The catch of tugun often coincides with the capture of dace. For fishing to be effective, it is recommended to hook immediately, at the first bite. If the prey leaves the hook, there is a high probability that the entire flock will leave a specific point in the reservoir. They catch fish in mid-water or from the bottom.
Fishing a mantle is quite a pleasant and effective activity. There is no need to prepare special bait mixtures, exclusive baits or expensive fishing tools. The optimal time to go fishing is at sunset and dawn. On moonless nights, hunting is carried out with the help of lanterns, which attract schools of tugun.
Source
Tugun is endemic to Siberia, inhabiting rivers from the Ob to the Yana. Never goes to sea. In the Ob basin it is known in the Ural tributaries: from the Shchuchya River in the north to Lozva in the south. Recorded in the Tom River. Within the Urals it is found in the tributaries of the lower Ob: Synya, Voykar, Sob, Kharbey, Longotegan, Shchuchya. Single individuals were found in the rivers Nadym, Poluy, Nyda, Seyakha (Green), Yuribey, Ngosaveyakha and in the Ob floodplain.
In the Ob basin, the highest abundance of tugun is in the Northern Sosva River. In the Middle Urals it is found only in the tributaries of the Tavda River - Sosva and Lozva. In Sosva it is found from the town of Serov to the mouth of the Bolshoi Kriv River, in Lozva - from the village of Mityaevo to the village of Vizhay. The tugun for breeding enters the upper reaches of the Sosva, into the tributaries of the Vagran and Shegultan.
In the last 10 years, there has been an increase in its numbers. The reason is that living conditions have improved, because... Mole rafting stopped, mining by dredging was reduced, and river pollution from mine waters was reduced.
Tugun lives in warm water areas, such as the mouths and tributaries of rivers, bays and kurias, and in shallow lakes. It bites more actively on the last ice during the day. In some regions of Russia it is allowed to catch tugun with a tightly knit seine, so it is usually caught that way. The biggest catches occur during the last ice and at the end of August - beginning of September, and on dark nights when the moon is not visible.
Attachment for tugun: chironomidae (bell-bellied mosquito) and its larva - bloodworms, riding flies, pieces of worms, maggots, mayflies, in addition, tugun willingly pecks on a fly. Bait is usually not required.
Tugun is often caught as bycatch with dace. You need to hook immediately, at the first bite. If one fish leaves, it can lead the entire school away from the biting area.
The fishing rules in the Middle Urals prohibit commercial and recreational fishing of tugun. Until recently, tugun was very rare in the rivers of the region. Currently, its numbers have increased, but not enough to allow fishing. In the tugun fishing areas, called “Sosvinskaya herring” is in great demand as a delicacy product.
Tugun meat is very similar to the meat of fresh smelt - they are united by the similarity with the smell of cucumber. The main condition for preparing fish is that it must be fresh. After a few days, the taste of the meat deteriorates.
Endemic to Siberia, inhabits rivers flowing into the Arctic Ocean from the Ob to the Yana, in the Lower Ob basin, and is found in all Ural tributaries.
Typically, the tugun chooses stretch areas where the flow is slow and the depth is relatively shallow, and the bottom is covered with pebble, gravel and sandy soils. Tugun avoids difficult areas with rapids and rifts. You can often find tugun at the mouths of small tributaries.
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Tugun behaves differently in the light and dark of the day; during the day it stays at depth, and at night and in the evening it comes out to shallow coastal sections of the river, creating significant accumulations. In the spring, after the rivers open up, large herds of tugun rush to floodplain reservoirs for fattening , small channels and other areas well warmed by the sun.
Tugun also feeds in shallow areas of lakes, closer to the sources and mouths of small rivers with a muddy bottom. During the decline in water, closer to the second half of July, the fattened tugun leaves its feeding grounds, returning to the river. And by the first ten days of August, it gathers in river beds, preparing for spawning migration.
Fishing for tugun is a challenging and interesting activity. This small fish usually lives in areas where warm water predominates, mainly river mouths, oxbow lakes, and shallow reaches. In winter, the active bite of the tugun is observed on the last ice; it is caught with a winter fishing rod using a jig. Bloodworms, burdocks, and small worms are used as bait.
In some areas of Siberia, tugun can be caught with a small-cage seine. If in winter the richest catches of tugun are on the last ice, then in summer the most productive tugun fishing occurs from mid-August to the first half of September. It is best caught on dark, moonless nights. But this applies more to the seine.
Amateur fishing for tugun is carried out with a float rod, spinning rod and fly fishing, as well as from a boat with a winter fishing rod and jig. You need to catch it in mid-water or from the bottom. In the summer, the best baits for catching small whitefish are a top fly, bloodworm, mosquito, small maggot and worm, as well as mayfly.
Reacts well to artificial front sight. No bait is required for tugun fishing. Tugun is often a catch when fishing for dace. It is recommended to hook a tugun at the first bite, and sharply at that, since when the fish leaves the fishing spot, the entire school may leave. They catch tugun before sunset until it gets completely dark. At this time, schools of this fish come out to feed on the coastal shallows.
Tugun is considered a valuable commercial fish; its fishing was especially widespread in the 40-50s. Today, the commercial value of tugun is small, and its catch has recently (over approximately the previous 40 years) decreased significantly - more than 10 times. This state of affairs is due to the fact that rivers are polluted, and fish are caught on the routes to spawning grounds and in the spawning grounds themselves.
Appearance
Externally, tugun resembles a miniature herring or large sprat. It has a long body, compressed from the sides and somewhat thickened in the back area. The anterior part of the oral cavity is limited by the upper and lower jaws of equal length (terminal mouth). Behind the dorsal fin (trapezoidal in shape) there is an unpaired semicircular adipose fin. The skin is covered with small, easily removable scales. The main color is silver-gray with iridescence. In the back area it is darker, on the abdomen and sides it is light gray.
The weight of an average specimen is within 20 grams, its length does not exceed 10 - 12 cm. The length of large individuals reaches 18 - 19 cm, weight - 60-80 grams.
Description
Features of the view
Tugun fish is a whitefish, the taste of the meat resembles vendace, it belongs to the whitefish family. In Tom, the fish is known as manorka; in the Urals it is called Sosvinskaya herring. The photo shows the dark shade and large size of an ordinary herring; by these signs it can be distinguished from a tugun. Tugunok has common features with smelt; both fish are used to prepare dishes according to the same recipe.
Appearance
The oblong shape of the body resembles a herring; on the sides there is a faintly visible pattern in the form of a straight stripe along the entire length of the body. The cross section is round in shape compared to other members of this family. The small silver scales are very easy to separate; there are 70 scales on one side.
Age and size
The lifespan of a tugun is 5-7 years. The maximum length of an adult is 20 cm, weight - 90 g.
Color
The shade is light on the sides and bottom. The back and upper part of the head are distinguished by a lightish gray tint.
Vision, sense organs
The triangular eyes point forward with their sharp part. The sense organs are well developed, the fish has excellent orientation in the water.
Features of behavior
The behavior of fish is affected by both the time of day and the time of year.
- At night they come out in flocks into shallow water closer to the shore, and during the day they hide in the depths.
- During flood periods, they migrate to floodplain reservoirs, river mouths with muddy bottoms, and shallow areas of lakes, where at this time the water warms up well and there is a high concentration of bottom organisms and zooplankton. Intensive nutrition allows you to quickly restore the weight lost during the long winter, and sometimes add a few extra grams to it.
- The return back to the river occurs in the second ten days of July.
- The first half of August is marked by preparation for the upcoming spawning, the gathering of schools of fish in river beds.
- Spawning migration begins after August 10 and continues throughout September.
Reproduction and nutrition
On average, sexual maturity in tugun occurs by the age of three (sometimes by the second year of life), but usually after the fish reach a length of 6.5 - 8.5 cm and a weight of 7-9 g. In the 2-3 decade of August, spawning usually begins Tugun migration, which continues into September. The tugun, having fed up in the accessory reservoirs, goes out into the river to spawn.
Tugun spawns in September-November, when the period of freeze-up begins on the rivers, and the water temperature usually does not exceed 4 °C. The tugun does not spawn annually during its life. The female lays her eggs on sandy and small pebble spits in the river bed, where the depth is from 1.5 to 2 m. Those fish that have spawned spend the winter almost in the same place where the spawning itself took place.
Tugun is not a very prolific fish, its fecundity greatly depends on the size and age of the fish, it ranges from 450 to 5182 eggs. Tugun caviar is yellowish with a reddish tint, quite large, not exceeding 1.8 mm in diameter.
The tugun feeds on both aerial and aquatic invertebrates, and when other fish spawn, the tugun eats its eggs. Initially, tugun fingerlings eat mainly zooplankton (copepods and cladocerans). As the tugun grows, the number of bottom organisms in its diet increases, which by the second year of the fish’s life are of paramount importance. During the warm period of the year, especially in summer, the tugun feeds mainly on aerial insects, and the basis of its diet are adult forms of chironomids and mayflies. During the cold period, when the biomass of organisms living in the water becomes lower, the tugun begins to feed on planktonic organisms.
Reproduction
Young fish become sexually mature at the age of two to three years. To carry and lay full-fledged eggs, they must have a mass of at least 10 grams and a length of more than 7 cm. The spawning period lasts three months (September, October, November). Tugunka breeding occurs at a temperature of 4°C.
Females select areas of the riverbed up to 2 meters deep, covered with small pebbles or sand, and lay their eggs there. The number of eggs is affected by the age and size of the individual. Small young fish lay about 500 eggs, large adult females can lay up to 5 thousand eggs. The diameter of one egg does not exceed 2 mm, all of them have a soft yellow color with a slightly reddish tint. The fry appear in March–April, grow quickly and actively swim in the water column.
Females that have just laid eggs spend the winter near the spawning site. Long migration depletes the body’s energy reserves and they will be ready for the next reproduction no earlier than in two years. Males can spawn every year.
Description of tugun fish
The fish belongs to the salmon family and the whitefish subspecies.
This small representative of the salmon family is found in freshwater rivers flowing into the Arctic Ocean. In addition, it is found in all tributaries of the Ural rivers. People also call it manorka or Sosvinskaya herring. The largest individuals reach a length of no more than 20 cm and weigh up to 90 grams. In the second year of life, she reaches sexual maturity. Can live from 5 to 7 years. The diet of this fish includes insect larvae and plankton.
Shape Features
The body of the fish is distinguished by a rolled shape, which is covered with small scales and which easily fall off if you apply effort. The fish has a silvery tint that varies from darker towards the back to lighter on the sides and belly. In the area of the back behind the fin there is an adipose fin.
Despite the fact that the fish is found in waters that do not have high temperatures, this fish prefers to stay in warmer areas located in shallow water, the bottom of which is covered with pebbles, as well as fine gravel with a predominance of sand.
Most often this fish can be found at the mouths of small tributaries. During the day, the fish changes its behavior: during the daytime, the tugun prefers to be in the depths, and in the late afternoon it begins to approach the coastal shallows, gathering in numerous schools.
With the onset of spring, when the ice has already completely melted, numerous schools of this fish rush to the beds of small rivers, to shallow channels and other areas of reservoirs that have time to warm up well. In these places, she begins to actively feed. During this period, the tugun chooses areas with a muddy bottom, where there is enough food.
When spawning begins, the fish head to small rivers after reaching 3 years of age. The spawning movement begins at the end of August and continues into September. The spawning begins in mid-September and continues until November, when the reservoirs begin to become covered with ice. The water temperature at this time does not exceed 4 degrees.
Throughout its entire life span, the tugun does not reproduce every year. The fish lays eggs in areas where there is a sand and gravel bottom, the depth of which is no more than 2 meters. Having spawned, the fish remain to spend the winter in the same areas.
Tugun is a fish that is not highly fertile. The population of this fish depends on older individuals, which lay up to 6,000 eggs at a time. Smaller individuals are capable of laying from 500 to 1500 eggs. This is also due to the fact that tugun eggs are relatively large, considering the size of the fish. Its diameter is about 2 mm, and its color is yellow, with a reddish tint.
The tugun's diet consists of various invertebrates that inhabit both the underwater world and its beyond. When another fish spawns, the tugunok easily eats its eggs. The fry of this fish feed on zooplankton. As the fish grows, it switches to feeding on other microorganisms until its diet is replenished with the main food.
When summer comes and the movement of above-water insects begins, the main types of food for the tugun are bell-bellied mosquitoes and mayflies. When these insects and other insects in general disappear, the fish again begins to feed on plankton.
Tugun is a small fish with a ridged body, which is covered with easily falling scales. The mouth of the tugun is terminal, the adipose fin is located behind the dorsal fin, the lateral line is complete, the body of the fish is colored silver, with a darker back and a light belly and sides.
Tugun is the smallest representative of the whitefish family. Its usual dimensions are: length - 9-12 cm, weight - on average 20 g. Some specimens of tugun can reach a length of 16 cm, weighing up to 60 g. The lifespan of a tugun is no more than 6 years.
Subtleties of fishing
Interest in fishing for tugun does not disappear throughout the year. Fishing quite often ends with a good catch, which only encourages local fishermen.
Where to fish in summer
In summer you should go for tugun at the end of August, beginning of September. The best time to start fishing is evening dawn. In order for the fishing to be successful, they search in advance for suitable shallow reaches and oxbow lakes, where the largest number of fish gather under the cover of twilight.
To attract flocks, lanterns are installed on the shore. No bait is required for fishing from the shore. They catch fish from the bottom or halfway through the water. They hook you immediately, and without hesitation, at the first bite. If a fish accidentally falls off the hook, it can take the entire school with it. That is why there is no need to hesitate.
When to fish in winter
In winter, especially in anticipation of the approaching spring, the tugun is active during daylight hours. It is believed that fish bite best on the last ice.
Tackle
You can catch fish using various gear:
- for summer fishing they use a spinning rod, a float rod, or a fly rod;
- For winter fishing and fishing from a boat, take a winter fishing rod with a jig;
- in some regions it is allowed to catch with a seine with 10 mm cells.
Bait
- The ideal summer bait is mayfly, chironomidae. You can also use bloodworms, flies, small maggots, and earthworms.
- In winter, bloodworms, small worms, and burdock moth larvae are used as bait. The bait is hooked onto a thin hook with a sharp sting.
Currently, there is a ban on recreational and commercial fishing of this type of fish within the Middle Urals.
Fishing for tugun
Tugun, also called “tugunok, manorka, Sosvinskaya herring,” belongs to the salmon family and the whitefish genus, prefers fresh water bodies flowing into the Arctic Ocean, and can also be found in most tributaries of the Ural rivers. A noble individual never goes to sea. The largest dimensions of the manger are 19.5 cm and weigh 89 g.
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Sexual maturity occurs in the second or third year of its life, the body length reaches only 10-12 cm, and the life cycle lasts up to 6 years.
Tugunok spawns in September-November, when the period of continuous ice cover on the rivers begins, and the water temperature does not exceed 4 degrees. Spawning does not occur every year during the short existence of the individual. Females lay eggs on sandy and small pebble spits in the river bed, where the depth is from 1.5 to 2 m.
Shape Features
Tugunok in cooking
The fish has tender, juicy, aromatic (with the smell of fresh cucumber) meat, and is an excellent source of easily digestible protein, vitamins (PP, A, B12, D), and mineral elements. The fresh product is well suited for smoking, salting, and preparing various dishes, including dietary ones.
The nutritional value
100 grams of fish contain:
- proteins – 19.1 grams;
- fats – 5.9 grams;
- polyunsaturated fatty acids (Omega-3) – 1.2 grams;
- calorie content – 130 Kcal.
Omega-3, which is part of tugunka, increases immunity, reduces inflammatory reactions, normalizes vascular tone, stabilizes cell membranes, and activates brain activity.
Delicious dishes
Cooking tugun dishes does not require special experience, knowledge and skills. It is good in any form (salted, fried, baked, boiled). The only thing that cannot be overlooked is the freshness of the product. Fish spoils quickly, and even when freshly frozen, it is not recommended to store it for more than three weeks (the taste of the product deteriorates).
Stuffed potatoes
The cook will need:
- 150 – 200 grams of tugun fillet;
- 6 large potatoes of the same size;
- small onion;
- 4 tbsp. spoons of sour cream;
- 1 tbsp. spoon of ghee;
- salt and spices to taste;
- 1 raw quail egg (or half a raw chicken egg).
Boil the potatoes in lightly salted water, peel the skins, remove the tops and remove the cores. Grind the fish fillet and boiled potatoes (tops and cores) in a meat grinder, mix with finely chopped onion, spices, egg, add a spoonful of sour cream. Stir the resulting mixture well and add salt. Fill the prepared potatoes with minced meat, place on a greased baking sheet, pour in sour cream and bake for 20 - 25 minutes at 180°C.
Casserole in a pan “Lazy cook”
Grocery list:
- tugun – 1 kg;
- sour cream – 150-200 grams;
- salt, spices.
Clean the fish from scales, remove the head, fins, entrails, and rinse well. Place in two layers on a cast iron frying pan, add salt and your favorite spices, pour in sour cream. Cover the container tightly with a lid, put on moderate heat, fry until cooked (at least 20 minutes) without stirring, make sure that the fish does not burn. The dish is served hot and goes well with boiled potatoes, fresh vegetable salad and bread.
Tugun fish is the cherished dream of a true fisherman and a true gourmet.
