Peculiarities of Russian Fishing. Part Two.

Still Thursday the 23rd of August 2007.
When I last left you, the fishermen had arrived at the lake and looked quite comfortable sitting under the tarp, downing shots of vodka and toasting everything under the sun. With no sigh of a fishing rod, fishing seemed highly unlikely.
My anticipation must have been sensed. Or maybe it was my hints of Gde riba?, Where are the fish? Because out came 5 huge bags of nets. Igor with his limited use of English and fantastic use of charades, proceeded to explain that the use of nets in this lake was highly prohibited and if caught the trip would come to an abrupt end, along with a hefty fine. The risk was worth it, apparently, as there was still no sign of rods and Igor began pushing me towards the dingy.
Setting the nets up took probably an hour, too long for Igor who seemed keen to get back to the other guys, who were making dinner and probably doing a great job at cutting that carton of vodka up.
On the way back from setting the nets up, I could see the camp site had visitors. Looking at Igor's face, they were not the most welcome ones. You guessed it the PARK RANGER had sprung us. My fishing trip had ended, I thought. What a disaster! Hang on, the ranger was waving to me with one hand and holding a shot of vodka in the other. "That's cool" he yelled in a heavy Russian accent. We had been saved, along with another family, the ranger had joined our festivities on the banks of the lake. We offered him a few drinks and the nets just disappeared.
Amazing the power of vodka.
The rest of the night was one big party. Total strangers hooking up and partying like they were friends for years. It's a Russian tradition. Hospitality is in the blood. Never have I met people so giving and genuine. The ranger, with his catch cry of "that's cool" proceeded to let me fire his flare pistol over the lake. Along with a bon fire blazing in the background, the seen was an interesting mesh of wild celebrating in harmonic surroundings. Full to the brim, the five of us piled into the back of the truck and collapsed. Just before dozing off, I thought of my new interpretation of fishing.
The morning was spectacular. Sun shine, a beautiful lake, lush forest everywhere and Oleg sitting at the breakfast table with a bottle of vodka. Do these guys ever quit?! Finally it was time to collect the nets and in true excessive Russian fashion the catch was enormous. 82kg to be exact. Enough to feed a whole city. "The girls back home will be happy", Vadim said.
The peculiarities were something I would have never expected. Never the less I had the time of my life and would do it all again.