362 trophy fish for two competition days and Ville Haapasalo at closing ceremony

There is a lot of fish in Tatarstan

Competitors of the fourth open fishing competition Total Spin Fishing. Kazan agreed with it. During the first stage, athletes presented 167 pikes, sanders, Volga pikeperches, perches and asps to the preliminary and main weigh-in — it is the list of trophies accepted in the tournament. The size of wild fish is strictly regulated: for pike, it is 45 cm from the tip of the head to the last scale on the tip of its tail, 40 cm for sander and asp, 25 cm for Volga pikeperch and 20 cm for perch. However, if on the first day the fisherman just had to grope for sites full of fish and take what they managed to get (within allowed sizes) to the riverbank amid rain and wind, on day two, the fight was literally for every gramme. And those who already caught the first fish had a chance to make a change after getting a bigger sample. But only one out of all five types. The first trophy on day two was provided for weigh-in just several minutes after the start. Volga pikeperch with a weight of 298 grammes laid on the scales at 6.23 a.m. The most interesting thing is that the same team that one a day before became the “author” — the Kazan team No. 83 consisting of Anatoly Breus and Sergey Talapin.

Then the yield just rose. There were over 30 weigh-ins in less than 35 hours. The Kazan team No. 108 Kozhenkov-Shmelyov lacked just 70 grammes to beat their own record of the biggest pike. The trophy’s weight was 9,85 kg. But it caused a round of applause of the people who gathered next to the stage where weigh-in took place. Only two teams — No. 44 Aleksandr Khegay and Andrey Krasilnikov from Kazan and No. 85 Aleksey Karchevsky and Rustem Minegaleyev also from Tatarstan managed to have all five kinds of fish.

175 trophy fish was caught on day two, of which 53 are pikes (the sharp-toothed fish was the most frequent one), perches totalled 42, sanders — 33, Volga pikeperches — 30 and asps — 17 (the rarest fish, which means the most valuable).

Ville Haapasalo in great demand

The most popular Finn in Russia, famous actor and TV host quickly accepted the invitation to come to the fishing tournament, the organisers say. Tatarstan isn’t a strange place to him, he has been here just recently, he has shot a cycle of films. This time Ville Haapasalo agreed to become the co-host of the tournament’s closing ceremony.

Ville arrived in advance and immediately was in great demand. A couple of hours to the concert and the announcement of the competition’s results, he managed to talk with fishing fans from the online studio of the tournament, give several interviews and speak with the competitors and guests of the tournament. He also became the hero of at least a hundred selfies. As Ville admitted himself, he hardly managed to make more than three steps when moving along the camp. A queue of people who wanted to take a photo with the hero of Peculiarities of the National Hunt was constantly created.

Best team 2018 proves its mastery

The Kazan team No. 44 Aleksandr Khegay and Andrey Krasilnikov occupied the first place and got the main award — a new 5-metre boat and big prize money. It should be noted that they have been the leaders for the second year in a row. And this time, having scored over 508 points, they finished with a huge margin from their rivals. Chuvash athletes Artyom Nikitin and Aleksey Magazeyev, who competed as the team No. 53, managed to score a bit more than 382 points. Another team from Tatarstan — Vasily Kiselyov and Dmitry Aksyonov who competed as the team No. 24 — were on the third position of the podium.

The pike weighing 9,155 kg was the biggest fish of the tournament, the heaviest sander reached 3,470 kg. The record Volga pikeperch weighed 802 g, perch — 930 g and asp — 1,820 kg.

The next Total Spin Fishing will be a jubilee edition — the fifth in a row. It is expected to beat its own records again both in terms of the number of participants and the amount of the prize money.