This miracle happened last summer. We were vacationing on a beach in the Samara region on the Kopylovo Peninsula. White sand, a tent, kids splashing around, the Volga surrounded by the magnificent Zhiguli Mountains… Paradise, and right next door.
View from the shore:
The photo shows a place where grass grows underwater. It turns out that's where the carp live.
And here is the shore itself from the side of that very beach.
In some places on this beach, underwater seaweed grows, roughly where you wade waist-deep into the water. You can often see small fish swimming near the vegetation, and sometimes even small schools of perch.
My husband's favorite hobbies are fishing and hunting. Even on vacation, he can't live without them! So, when the whole family went into the water (to splash around), he wandered off to the side, right next to those seaweeds, to at least watch the fish (I didn't let him bring a fishing rod; we were there specifically to swim and sunbathe).
And there he stands, his hunting eyes scanning the water for fish, while we splash around with the kids. And I'm watching him. It's all so funny. He's looking into the water, and the water's staring! I was about to laugh, thinking he had a possessed look. But then he dives into the vegetation and pulls out a huge carp with one hand!
With one...hand...CARP...
I just stood there and couldn't believe my eyes. I know, my husband's an avid fisherman, but to catch such a fish with just one paw... My hands were shaking when I tried to take a photo!
So, we cut our rest short in the evening because we needed to properly clean and fillet the fish. Besides, we wouldn't eat it all anyway, so we'd have to freeze some. We headed home.
At home, we admired the catch again and weighed it—it weighed over 5 kilos. A beauty!
And the main thing is that any fool can catch a fish with a fishing rod, but with bare hands you still have to be able to do it!