Each trip starts from the list of the necessary things that I need to take with. The difficulty of our situation was that from the one side we were going to the mountain hunting from another one to the hunt, that would take place in the broad-leaved floodplain forests and from the third - we planned to fish. Moreover, we had weight limits - 20kg for a luggage and 5 kg more for a carry-on baggage. It was an ordinary requirement for airline passengers.
1. Waders are the obligatory thing, especially if you are going to fish. It’s better to buy them the bigger size than your normal boots to use the warm inserts. They are easier to dry and your feet will be warm. If you are going just for fishing, I advise to buy the insulated waders to protect from wind and rain all your body. Probably you’ll wear them in the mountains too. I had special boots but my feet were always wet because herbage there was high and rain and dew drained down inside the boots by the pants and thermal underwear. My feet started to squelch in 4-5 hours.
You should use boots in the dry weather and only in the mountains, that's why you can take them as the reserve variant #2.
There is not any sense to take low-top boots, you can't use them in the boat or to walk anywhere. Don't forget to take light boots or slippers for a camp you can fly in it. Most likely – sneakers.
3. I advise to take several pairs of warm socks. You’ll change them every day because they become wet during a day and I’m not sure that you can dry them because of Kamchatka weather.
4. Thermal underwear. It depends on you what kind of thermal underwear you prefer - synthetic or a wool ones but I advise to take not less than two sets. I’ve said that it’s a problem to dry things because of the wet climate but if you are going to hunt you’ll walk a lot and sweat that’s why you need to have the extra set. Sometimes two sets are not enough. Once we even stayed in the camp to dry our clothes in the hot bath house.
5. I recommend the softshell costume as the main hunting cloth. It breathes, rattles less, protects from wind and light precipitation, which prevail there. I had the Kadog set from Kryptek. The fleece jacket and the rain coat are enough for fishing.
6. The rain costume is an irreplaceable thing for Kamchatka weather. It has to have pants that you can put on not taking off shoes and to have an external non-rustling fabric of a protective color.
7. I used the touristic clothes from Marmot and Hart as the extra set.
8. I also took the light down jacket but used it just once. Unfortunately, "the dry down", that had to be dry, became wet and stuck together even under the light rain. It was raining nine days of ten while I was there.
9. Fortunately, I had Agis Extreme Cold Kryptek jacket. Made from membrane and tinsulite. It saved me, I was warm and dry. I liked that jacket very much and advised it to everybody. It suits for cold weather too. Telling the truth I didn’t wear that model in the cold weather but had the similar one with primaloft and it worked when the temperature was -25 degrees. The model for a cold weather had an insulation 100 g per meter and the jacket that I took had 80 gr per meter what was not critical.
So, you need to have warm, waterproof jacket no matter what brand, you can choose what you like.
10. It’d be better to have two caps: fleece warm cap and a light one.
11. Gloves- two pairs of fleece gloves for hunting. If you are going to fish, you’ll need to have one waterproof pairs of gloves. I took neoprene gloves but didn’t like them.
12. Polarized glasses – for both mountains and rivers.
13. A waterproof backpack is very important because it protects all things that you carry inside.
14. A sleeping bag for -5 degrees. It is not colder at this time, as a rule.
15. A navigator wrist "Phoenix 2" company "Garmin". It’s an obligatory thing there. The flat forest doesn't provide any landmarks. It seems that you go the specified direction but go by circle in reality. It often happens when there is no sun. Not to mention the night. Never leave the camp without the flashlight during the day because nobody knows what can happen.
16. I used a Black Diamond headlamp. I’m not tired to praise this model. You can charge it through USB, it has the blocking from accidental switching on, and red diodes so that the animals do not see the light, not to mention the powerful spot and wide modes. The only thing I was sorry, that I did not take a powerful under-barrel gun – it was often needed. It was always dark when we left the camp and I was nervous when sailing a rubber boat by the rivers blocked off by fallen trees. In any case it was much better to have the visibility range of 30-40 meters. It is an absolutely necessary thing for hunting from the tower.
17. A multitool with a set of adapters is a necessary thing for any expedition.
18. Two cameras. Cybershots. I took two in case if something was wrong with one of them because of high humidity. Mine and my guide’s cameras didn’t work because of it. I used a GorillaPod as a tripod.
19. Don’t forget to take a solar powered battery for charging all gadgets The generator in the camp worked each day but not all of us had the possibility to charge all gadgets to the full, that's why all equipment worked autonomous.
20. I was disappointed by the satellite phone Inmarsat. I got through after the twentieth attempt. We needed the phone just for getting the actual weather forecast. Or when we were discussing the plan when the chopper could arrive.
21. One more thing is a plastic shockproof, waterproof box for electronic gadgets.
22. Plus iPad in a protective case (to watch movies, to read books or to write reports).
23. Two knives. Mora knife was well-proven not only when we fished but when butchered the moose. A powerful Buck Ergohunter with SV30 steel is one hundred percent expedition knife.
24. The binocular Traditionally, I used Leica.
25. There were some small items of underwear, a first-aid kit, ingredients of Japanese cuisine, and so on.
26. I packed everything in the waterproof bag. It’s better to place the most valuable items waterproofing bag.
27. Fishing with the spinning rod. The optimal length of the rod is from 2 to 2,5 meters because you’ll fish from the boat too. The test from 10 to 50 g, that's enough to catch any fish. I had two rods DAM an Shimano.
28. You’ll need a special case to carry them. The airport staff will forced you to hand over your fishing rod in your luggage. I advise to have a fish net not to cut hands and it increase you chance to get the fish and not to broke the rod when you’ll pull out it. Usually, the guides have nets.
Inertia-free coils of size 2500-3000. There is not any necessity to wind the long cord. Take a cord or fishing line, according to your preferences, with a test of up to 10 kg. Salmon doesn't fight actively.
29. Spinning lures: 80 percent spinners-spinners. The local fish prefer silver spinners with the bright red or orange cores.
Size of spinners: from the 2nd for grayling to the 5th. The most popular ones are 4. The fish there don’t like feathers on the hooks. The remaining twenty percent are the wobblers (silvery, with bright spots) and small mice (they are loved here by large grayling). I cut three big fish and found mice in their stomachs.
Will you grab some donkey gear. Some anglers use hooks with sinkers. The traditional set is two hooks.
30. First of all, you need a multi-tool –to remove the fish from the hook. The fish there are toothy, and the bait is swallowed deep.
