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.

Fishing for Nothing In the Cold

It was forecast a cold weekend in Bulgaria, but most of us had fogotten what cold was as winter was such a long time ago. We have had a hot or very warm six or seven months and it was with that in mind we decided to go fishing for a few hours.

The journey to the next village of Ovchi Kladinets, which means sheep well was our destination as we were told that there was good fishing in this village. It lies 7 km west of our farmhouse in Skalitsa, but as we were to find out that was only half the trip.

We had been given instructions on how to get to this reservoir which was meant to hold very large carp. Although the place is technically in Ovchi Kladinets there was a further 4 or 5 km to travel over rough ground to reach the fishing area.

After reaching the village we turned onto the initially stone track which is designed for horse and car not ladas and made out way, slowly and carefully. With pot holed and subsidence ridden tracks it was an exciting route to take in this wild area of Bulgaria.

3 or 4 km later we entered into a deeply wooded area and followed this through, it was magical ovoiding trees as we made out way to the sight of a little clearing about another kilometre on. As this was reached we could see this massive expanse of water and wandered how many people knew of this place. It would be hard if not impossible to reach after rain as the track to the reservoir would be a mud pit and the rises and fall of the tracks far too steep to negotiate for any motor driven vehicle; even tractors would find this hard to reach on this track with rain.

We had arrived as the car was parked right next to a sandy shore with much wildlife around from the floral and fauna kingdom. We still had to walk a little way beyond some rocks that sttod in the way of the 'beach' type shoreline. It was while waliing through swamped brush that most of the thistly seeds decided to come with us as we swept past! Removing these was a very painful process without gloves and we were without gloves!

The fishing postion setup and we cast our lines and waited. There was a strong wind coming off the water, often whipping up a little wave or two, so repositioning out lines was frequently done with the floats wandering quickly out of place. It was hard work as the first half and hour wnet by and no bites made. It was now cold as the wind was consistently blowing in this open position we had taken up. All the time in our heads were the thought of just one big fish for dinner tonight on the barbecue, the cold was a minor inconvenience with this in mind.

We endured another hour or so and still not one bite was made. The cold now was becoming unbearable as we shivered our way through each regular casting; time and time again we had the same result; Nothing!

Finally, the fanstastic views, the massive variety of waterfowl that shared our environment and our love of fishing was no match for the cold. We packed up and made out way back to the windcheating inners of the Lada. That was a lovely moment when we sat down out of the wind, but not before another rich picking of thistle type seeds off out trouser and socks (ouch!)

The journey across the open countriside track was enjoyed to the full in the warmth of the car as we all relaxed knowing that there was a wood burner and rakia waiting for us at home to warm us up even further, but no barbecued fish today.

I must add that this is the first time I have been fishing in Bulgaria where I ended up with absolutely nothing!

Fishing from Luck not Judgement

We had guests this weekend at the Skalitsa Farmhouse, we had Galia’s eldest son Anton coming to stay with us and to be joined the next day with his girlfriend. The plan was to go fishing all together and have a fish Barbecue that same day in the evening.

Anton is a very handsome chap indeed, typical Bulgarian in every aspect I love the guy and like having him around. He is a talker and expert on everything but like so many other Bulgarians I am slowly realising that he is another Bulgarian maestro and the baggage that comes from this.

Today was Maria Day (Bulgarian Name Day) and the weekend break from work started off all so well as we arrived in Skalitsa. There was the non-stop talking from Anton and Galia for the whole 35 kilometres on this blazing hot Friday evening but that normal as I was now quite capable of contributing to the conversation in parts.

As we drove into Skalitsa is was the local shop that was the first point of call. Maria was there and it was Maria Day as we presented here with three flowers bought from Yambol. The shop was littered with flowers for Maria, all given by customers from their own Skalitsa farms and gardens except for our purchased bunch, which looked feeble against the fantastic array local flowers.

Onward to the farmhouse where we called met an Englishwoman here for three months who had just blown up the electric system. Anton of course was a maestro electrician but needed support as we took it upon ourselves to source other Bulgarian maestro neighbours. We found some spare parts and within the next half hour we had saved this woman a fortune in hiring cowboys and the massive chest freezer she had to the brim with food.

We finally got to our house and Galia spent the next two hours cleaning inside the house and Anton and I getting rid of all the expired tomato plants that had given as countless tomatoes over the last two months. The weekend break had started as we when to another neighbour who had a Maria living there for an all night session and bed at 2:00 in the morning after a night cap with Anton.

The next day was out fishing trip as we picked his girlfriend up from Skalitsa town centre at 7:30 in the morning. We were all here and the fishing gear put into the Lada and we were off.

Anton knows a lot about fishing and is not shy about it. We had been before and yes he is a real maestro at the sport but know nothing about where to fish. I remember last year travelling nearly 100 km and ending up at a place only 10 kilometres from Yambol because Anton insisted he knew the fishing venue but didn’t. We went round in circles for literarily hours and ended up fishing at my suggested venue. I had a gut feeling about today and knew that the same thing could happen. Anton is very insistent that he knows and he is right.

It is three years in Skalitsa and I have enquired countless time about where to fish around here. There isn’t anywhere in Skalitsa and you would have to travel at least 20 kilometres to the Rosa Village on the road to Yambol for the nearest public paid fishing reservoir. In the other direction anther 30 kilometres drive to the town of Radnovo to find anything and that was unknown territory to me with no guarantees. I was certain there were no public fishing place to be found locally. Anton disagreed.

Anton spoke with total confidence and his knowledge about such things is certain to bring us good big carp fish as the journey as we made was in my view just out of hope more than anything else. We travelled onward and upwards towards Radnovo.

We drive to village after village stopping and asking local folk where we could fish in the area. Each time their shoulders were shrugged and they didn’t know anywhere. I knew there wasn’t anywhere and by now were had gone beyond my local area knowledge and into villages I’d never heard of. Anton was still full of confidence that we would find somewhere and the two Bulgarian women with us just didn’t say a thing, it was not their place to be advising on such matters according to Anton.

We had now travelled 36 kilometres and we got sight of a few reservoirs. Again, after asking local people we were vaguely given directions but Anton knew better as I followed his lead. He just has no worries about anything and still totally confident we’d find somewhere. “No problem!” was the saying that kept coming more often as he valiantly tried to defend his maestro status.

We were now off track and into tracks suitable for donkey carts as we travelled further into the wilderness of the Bulgarian outback. It was another 4 kilometres before the track, which turned into prairie land came to a dead end. There was a swamp in front of us and we could go no further. We took a look around and found a larger lake a short distance away to we set up there and fished for an hour. This was illegal fishing but it was deserted here and no chance of getting shot, we were hidden amongst the tall reeds.

We caught a few but nothing big and Anton decided we should look for another place is the barbecue was to be a success later this evening. I was quite happy here but bigger fish was promised as I put my trust into his promises. After all he is the maestro at fishing.

We travelled back to towards Skalitsa stopping off for drinking water at the enormous power plant from which a complete community and village has developed for water. This place is another story!

Another 10 kilometres and we spot another reservoir this time with others fishing around it. We negotiate a very tricky path and steep gradient grassland down to the reservoir side and set up out gear there. This place was found by luck not judgement and even now I don’t think we were fishing legally but we weren’t approached at any point.

Fishing for the next five hours was fantastic as we caught much bigger fish here. It was a regular trawl of fish that came out which was then well hidden in a bucket of water under bushes in case of being questioned. This just confirmed that Anton knew we shouldn’t be here but we were.

Anton got a call that he had to work tonight so it was back to Yambol for him and his girlfriend this evening, no time for a barbecue but the fish would keep once de-scaled and gutted and that’s what I did after they were dropped off at the Skalitsa bus stop.

It was clear that Anton didn’t know anything about where to fish in the area but insisted continuously that he did. He would never for a moment say he was wrong; it wouldn’t be Bulgarian for him to admit this. At the end of the day, we got some fishing done but not due to Anton’s self-confessed knowledge but poaching. Anton would still attribute the success of the fish in the freezer from his own wisdom. And what to the Bulgarian women with us have to say on the matter? Nothing, they’d dare not question the authority of a Bulgarian male.

For more about Bulgarian Maestros try here: Skalitsa Maestros