Fishing In A Secret Bulgarian Lake Location

Fishing in Bulgaria is enjoyed by millions, but as a hunt for food not just sport. Many use nets and devious ways to gather fish from lakes and rivers and although a blind eye is turned to this, most decent Bulgarians, including Galia’s family and friend here look down on that as an unfair way of hunting for food. Both Galia and I love fishing, but we just never have the time to go and practice it. It must be about a year ago since we last went and that was only because her son who is a keen angler insisted we take a break from farming at the weekend.

Well this weekend her son was with us again and the plan was to go fishing early in the morning before it gets too hot. The alarm was set for 5:30 and all three for us were off by 6:00. We knew there was lots of work to do with harvesting and preparing food gathered for winter this weekend so we planned to get back by 11:00 giving us time enough to complete the chores when we got back.

Now the place we visited was not know by many people here, not even local people and I am not going to give the place away now, but only to say that it is some 3-4 kilometres off road to get there and only accessible by Lada in the dry season due to the state of the track. We found it by accident one day after getting lost and kept the location in mind. It is the most beautiful and unspoilt spot of crystal clear water and the wildlife is everywhere you look in every direction. We were the only people there and apart from a hiker who passed up remain the only anglers there all morning.

Galia’s son had boiled some wheat the evening before and this was both the ground bait and bait on the hooks on our lines, he said we were guaranteed fish with this. No sooner were our lines cast and the fish just came rolling in one after another. There was no relaxing here as we were kept active for a full three hours with fish being caught every minute or so. The fish we landed were all carp, they weren’t that big, but totally edible as the buckets we brought with us filled up. By 10:30 they were to the brim with fish.

We brought home well over 150 fish as some were given to our neighbour, some prepared for frying for this evening’s meal and the rest prepared for the freezer both here in the farmhouse and back in the town home. It took some two hours to de-scale, gut and de-head the fish, no problem with the future meals in mind when doing it.

The fish was cooked simply by dowsing the finish in flour and lightly frying in a shallow pan of oil. The flesh fell off the bone as we feasted on these fish that had such a clean pallet unlike many freshwater fish I have eaten in the UK with a muddy taste. It was a feast we all enjoyed from out labours and that made a major difference as well. Buying fish and eating it just isn’t the same. We knew where these came from and the environment was a clean as anything you can imagine and local. Food always tastes better when local in any case.

We talked now about getting me a fishing license so Galia and I can go other times when her son is not there. Before you ask, yes you do need one and Galia and I were fishing illegally, but this is what goes on in isolated areas in these parts.

The best thing of all is having a female partner (Galia) who absolutely loves fishing as well. It has always been a fight to get permission to go fishing before now and fishing with guilt has always been the case, no longer!

Bulgaria Celebrates St Nicholas Day (6th December) with Fish

December 6th in Bulgaria is a special day, it is another name day and the day to celebrate the day of Saint Nicholas and all Bulgarian that are called Nikolai or variations on it.

St. Nicholas is the protector of sailor and fishermen and a public holiday each for all those that are involved with the fishing industry.

St. Nicholas being the commander of the sea calms winds and storms and often saves ships that are in danger. It is tradition that the Bulgarians keep icons of St. Nicholas on their boats and ships. This is meant to give them protection from the harsh elements that are sometimes thrown at them. The wives of the sailors and fishermen place icons of St. Nicholas into the sea and pray to St. Nicholas that their sea fairing husbands return safely to shore.

The day of St Nicholas is officially the day that ends the autumn fishing season called Nikulden (Nikul Day.) On this day the catch is offered to St. Nicholas. The hard worked fishermen eat the initial fish landed on the shore before bringing the remaining catch home.

The day is festive, especially on areas by the Black Sea coast, but also all over the country with fish filled reservoirs scattered the length and breadth of the land. There are many community and civic planned concerts, fish dishes galore and of course and fireworks and after dark.

The carp is the number one fish based food for the day. There is a legend that is told about a ship that was sinking due to a hole in the hull. The story goes on to say that St. Nicholas rammed a live carp in thegaping hole hence saving the ship. A special fish dish called Ribnik made up with carp wrapped in dough or sometimes baked with rice. It is then baked an oven alongside two specially made loaves of bread. As well as Ribnik there are a variety of other meatless dishes served.

Before the delicious food is tucked into, it is blessed at either a local church or at at home before being consumed. It is a Bulgarian traditional belief that the carp is as St Nicholas's servant.

Incense is wafted over the food as the host raises the bread and breaks it in half. The breaker keeps one half of the bread and lays the other on the table. The bread breaker also keeps the cross-shaped bone from the fish head, called krakhche . It is subsequently buried as is meant to protect for the house. Sometimes another tradition is for grandmothers to sew it into theirgrandchildren's head wear caps to protect them from evil spirits.

We are due to have fish tomorrowas one was taken from a local reservoir today (the one in the picture.) Even if we don't attend the civic festivals that are going on in every town it is still traditional that all Bulgarian families have fish to eat on the 6th December. This is of course the biggest day of the year for fish sales in Bulgaria.