Fixed-Line Fly Fishing Location Guides Other Trout & Char

Vitaly Valasevich: Tenkara in Belarus

In somewhat of a personal quest to learn a little more about how anglers have adopted tenkara and fixed-line rods around the world, I recently went deep down a Google Translate “rabbit hole.” I ended up befriending two anglers (hello Vladimir & Vitaly!), and attempted to participate in tenkara discussions in a foreign-language forum or two.

Of all of the sites that I visited, the photography on Vitaly Valasevich‘s website stood out quite a bit from the rest. Vladimir directed me there and I found each fixed-line photo to be beautifully framed, clearly telling a story that transcends any language barriers.

Upon contacting Vitaly on Facebook to see if he would allow me to share some of his photos to the readers of Tenkara Angler, I quickly learned that he is a very successful multi-dimensional angler, catching many different species on several different types of tackle. Fortunately, Vitaly agreed, and included some photos and brief words to share of fixed-line fishing in his home country of Belarus.

The following photos depict two areas of a small stream in Belarus. If you didn’t know better, you might mistake it for a trout stream in the Driftless area of Wisconsin or Minnesota.

Vitaly Valasevich - Tenkara Belarus - Small Stream
Vitaly Valasevich - Tenkara Belarus - rod

There are two types of fish in this water that Vitaly enjoys catching; chub & dace. He doesn’t eat chubs, but instead practices catch & release.

Vitaly Valasevich - Tenkara Belarus - foam bug
Vitaly Valasevich - Tenkara Belarus - chub

However, the dace are tasty when salted and dried. He enjoys eating them with beer!

Vitaly Valasevich - Tenkara Belarus - dace

These fish were caught by flies that Vitaly ties and sells. In this case, foam bugs and ants. He was using a Tenkara Prim 400 7:3 rod.

Vitaly also has photos on his website of trout and grayling. He seems to really enjoy mixing camping, fishing, and stream side dining into one consolidated tenkara experience.

Vitaly Valasevich - Tenkara Belarus - grayling
Vitaly Valasevich - Tenkara Belarus - trout
Vitaly Valasevich - Tenkara Belarus - gear
Vitaly Valasevich - Tenkara Belarus - food

I hope you enjoyed paging through Vitaly’s photos. If you’d like to see more, I highly encourage visiting his Facebook page, or perhaps stop by his fishing journal blog, where you’ll find far more than just tenkara.


Do you have a story to tell? A photo to share? A fly recipe that’s too good to keep secret? If you would like to contribute content to Tenkara Angler, click HERE for more details.

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