The Veselovskoye Reservoir is famous far beyond the Rostov region. First of all, its famous fishing, amazing nature and well-organized recreation. The Veselovskoye Reservoir is located on the Left tributary of the Don River - Western Manych. Fishing on the Veselovsky Reservoir It is popular not only among local residents, but also among guests from other regions.
The length of the reservoir from Veselovsky to Proletarsky hydroelectric complex is 100 km. The banks of the reservoir are heavily indented and form many straits and estuaries. There are also several small islands in the waters of the Veselovsky Reservoir. This reservoir is not famous for its great depths; the greatest depth is observed in the vicinity of the dam, a little more than 9 meters. The average depth in the reservoir is 2-3 meters. The width of the reservoir in some places can reach 7 km.
The heyday of this reservoir occurred in the 70s and 80s of the 20th century. During this period, 46 species of fish lived in the waters of the Veselovsky Reservoir. But currently only 33 species of fish live in its waters. The most common types of fish in the reservoir are ram, bream, crucian carp, silver bream, perch, silver carp, pike perch and carp; there is also a small population of sterlet.
Anyone who wants to relax in silence in beautiful nature fishing in the Rostov region on the Veselovsky reservoir You will like it both for its excellent catches and for its very reasonable prices.
What to catch?
The most popular prey at the Veselovsky Reservoir is ram. This fish is a local variety of roach, however, it differs from roach in its larger body height, smaller scales, and its length often exceeds 35 cm. Basically fishing for ram in the Veselovsky reservoir It is fished using float tackle; some fishermen catch rams with a spinning rod. Taran is excellently caught in any season; large specimens are often caught in the catches.
This reservoir is also rich in large bream. Bream is especially well caught in the spring, immediately after spawning. This fish bites just as well in August and almost until late autumn. Bream can be caught using bottom and float gear. Most often, large bream are caught in pits. Bream does not like strong currents and only comes out to shallow water when looking for food.
There is also a fairly large population of crucian carp in the Veselovsky Reservoir. Due to the fact that there are quite a lot of predatory fish in the reservoir, which contributes to natural selection, the crucian carp here is caught mainly by large ones and often pleases anglers with excellent catches. The best time for fishing for crucian carp. Fishing for bream in the Veselovsky Reservoir occurs on the same gear used to catch bream. Primarily for float and bottom gear.
This reservoir is also excellent for catching silver bream. In the summer, she prefers to be in places overgrown with grass where there is a muddy bottom. This fish is also caught using donkey and feeder float rods.
Among predators, the most popular prey for fans of spinning fishing is pike perch. Pike perch sites and hunting areas for this predator should have a rocky, sandy-stone or clay bottom, preferably with a stepped relief. Most successful fishing for pike perch on the Veselovsky Reservoir
occurs on the northern shore of the reservoir. It is there that there are many places where there are large differences in depth, and these are the places the fanged one loves. Pike perch is a nocturnal hunter, especially in the hot summer of Southern Russia, it prefers to feed in the evening, night and pre-dawn hours. It is better to catch this fish from a boat using the jig method.
Pike also bite well on the reservoir, especially catchy ones pike fishing in the Veselovsky Reservoir after the spawning of the predator and in the autumn, when the pike begins to feed on autumn. Pike are caught using a variety of spinning baits. Which bait is best to use for catching spotted predators is up to the fisherman himself. However, to get a trophy specimen, you should catch pike from a boat. This predator bites well throughout the daylight hours. But pike bite is especially active on stormy and cloudy days, when there is light rain.
Another popular catch among many anglers is perch. Which, by the way, is quite large in size on this body of water. First of all, perch is caught using light spinning rods or ultralight spinning rods. Perch loves shallows, where there is a hard bottom and a fairly fast or medium current, as well as underwater spits and various channels. Successful perch fishing often occurs in grassy thickets. Since perch is a schooling fish, anglers often catch rich catches consisting of a striped predator.
Fishing in winter
Winter fishing on the Veselovsky reservoir in the Rostov region
no less interesting and catchy than in the summer. It is best to catch ram and perch in the reservoir in winter. If you know the places and constantly feed them, you can catch large crucian carp and bream. In those places of the reservoir where water is discharged or streams flow in, you can catch medium-sized crucian carp with bloodworms, but the places should be baited.
On the first ice on a pond, using a jig tackle or a float rod, the silver bream bites well. Winter in these places is bitter, so fishermen mostly catch peaceful fish, hiding in tents, where they create more or less comfortable conditions for ice fishing.
Fishing bases
For comfortable fishing and relaxation, there are fishing bases on the Veselovsky Reservoir.
Recreation center "Zakurgannaya"
Located in the vicinity of the small village of Stepnoy Kurgan. This base is located 150 km from Rostov-on-Don. The most popular type of recreation at the base is naturally fishing. You can rent a boat here. There are several accommodation options at the Zakurganaya base; in the first option, you can rent a house per day, which will cost 500 rubles. You can stay on the territory of the base in your own tent, the cost of which is only 100 rubles.
Fishing base "Vesely Manych"
The base “Vesely Manych” is located in a village called Vesely. About 45 people can live on the base at a time. There are 5 houses of two floors each. In addition, there is one comfortable cottage and a cozy hotel. The base also has its own well-groomed beach. Boats are available for rent for fishermen, and you can also use the services of a guide. You should know that accommodation on base on weekdays is cheaper than on weekends.
Fishing base "Centurion"
Approximately the same services as at the Vesely Manych base can be obtained at the Centurion fishing base. This base is also located on the shore of the Veselovsky reservoir in the village of Vesely. At the base you can rent boats, both with and without a motor, as well as various fishing equipment. Fishing is organized by experienced huntsmen.
Happy fishing!
The Veselovskoe reservoir or Lake Manych stretches in a northwestern direction, crossing the Rostov region from the Salsky steppes to Kalmykia. Formed on the eve of the Patriotic War on the Western Manych River, it was designed to irrigate agricultural lands of the arid steppe region, develop fisheries, serve as a water transport artery and work for the benefit of energy.
Initially, it was planned to use a man-made route between the Don and Volga through the Manych valley, but the 300-kilometer section from Lake Manych-Gudilo to the Don River turned out to be not deep enough for navigation. It was necessary to transfer the waters of the Don and Kuban into the Western Manych River, but great depths could not be reached everywhere, and interest was lost in further work to transform the reservoir into a transport artery. But the reservoir coped with its fishing and irrigation role remarkably well. Before the Kuban was replenished with water, the reservoir had salt water, but donor waters gradually, since 1948, turned it into a freshwater reservoir.
The reservoir covers 238 km 2 and stretches for one hundred kilometers from Veselovsky to Proletarsky hydroelectric complex. Its average width is about three, and its maximum is seven kilometers. It occupies a position between the Ust-Manych and Proletarsky reservoirs and has a controlled flow, allowing the water level to vary by almost ten meters. Its depth on average is slightly more than four meters, while in the lowlands it reaches nine meters, and in areas with an elevated bottom it can barely reach a meter. In summer the water heats up to 27 degrees.
The shores of the lake are heavily indented, their bends forming numerous estuaries and straits. There are several large islands scattered across the water area, up to 100 hectares on which crops are grown, and about two dozen small ones. In the coastal zone, the soil is clayey with sandy areas in the east of the reservoir. The reservoir freezes from the end of November and remains under ice until mid-March.
On the reservoir you can constantly feel the turbulence of the water, and the impacts of the waves wash away the shores, making them steep, except for areas of ravines and bays. The coast was strengthened by planting bushes of trees, so the adjacent steppe areas were landscaped with forest belts. Further from the coast, rice is grown in marshy areas, and livestock is grazed in dry areas. The wetland system serves as a resting place for migratory birds and home to their waterfowl and semi-aquatic relatives: swans, storks, waders, gulls and geese. The water's edge is overgrown with cattails and reeds in places. On the banks of the reservoir there are two forests of artificial origin: “Dubrava” and “Dubki”, with a total area of 1400 hectares.
The diversity of fauna and the presence of a decent M4 highway in the area of the reservoir make it a place of pilgrimage for hunters and fishermen, of whom about forty thousand come here every year. About thirty species of fish live in the waters of the Veselovsky Reservoir. Commercial species include: pike, pike perch, bream, ram and carp. Among the rare and protected species that live here are: Koktebel katran, salvinia, and vallisneria. In the catches you can often find sabrefish, carp, asp, catfish, sterlet, silver carp, silver carp and grass carp.
The most catchy ones are channels, creeks, creeks and reeds, and you can fish from the shore or from a boat, during the day and at night. In the shallows they fish with spinning rods using poppers, wobblers, and silicone fish with a double hook about ten centimeters long. It is better to fish from a rowing boat, otherwise the motor constantly wraps itself in algae.
The deepest and most fishy places are in the area of the dam, but fishing is prohibited near it. The northern coast delights fishermen with large differences in depth, in which predatory pike perch stays near schools of white fish, which can be detected with an echo sounder. It is obtained by jigging, using weights up to 16 grams. For medium-sized predators, non-snacking “offsets” No. 4 are used, which guarantee reliable hooking. The bait used are three-inch silicone ribbed fish tubes YUM and RELAX. To catch large fish by jigging, it is better to use gear with a multiplier reel, which is more convenient in playing the bait with the movements of the rod and allows you to use a thicker fishing line. The length of the rod when fishing from a boat should be about two meters. Pike perch reacts to fast retrieval with a sharp double toss of the rod from the bottom of the sinker with bait. The average weight of pike perch in a catch is a kilogram.
Pike in the reservoir are caught on the shallows in the spring after spawning from March 18th and in late autumn. The specimens are mostly caught in large sizes - seven to eight kilograms - on a jig from great depths, where they stay above schools of white fish. The perches on the Veselovskoye Reservoir are very large and well-fed, they are caught using perch gear with a meter-long lead in the pike version with a 25 gram sinker. Perch shows interest in the twister game and complex slow retrieve with a sharp toss of the sinker. The largest perch like to hide in the abundant grass and cannot pass by silicone worms, fleshy and thick.
In addition to jigging, a good catch is produced by float rods, spinning rods, pickers, feeders and donks with attached worms, corn, dough and pearl barley. Such gear can catch crucian carp weighing up to a kilogram, perch, silver bream, rudd, bream and roach. The bait used is corn cake, eggs, breadcrumbs, vegetable oil, peas, rolled oats and even bread with jam, but the bite begins no earlier than an hour after feeding. Turntables and wobblers have proven themselves well. At night, catfish are caught using white earthworms. The ram goes for maggots and bloodworms. Many fishermen point to a large catch in the area of the villages of Vesely and Stepnoy Kurgan.
The surroundings of the reservoir are abundantly populated by ticks, so fishermen and tourists better stock up on accicides for clothing and body products that repel ticks.
Tourist infrastructure is developed mainly in the area of the village of Vesely. Active recreation on the water is organized by employees of several recreation centers, among which “Vesely Manych” and “Kleevoe Mesto” are very popular.
The Veselovskoye Reservoir, built on the Manych River, a tributary of the Don, is a very popular fishing spot not only among residents of Rostov, but also other regions of southern Russia.
In addition, this body of water is of increased interest to fishermen from Ukraine. Moreover, in terms of accessibility for Ukrainian fishermen from the eastern regions, it can compete with fishing on the lower Volga and Akhtuba.
What is being caught?
If we consider catching predatory fish, then pike perch will come first. It is the opportunity to catch pike perch that attracts jig fans to fishing at the Veselovsky Reservoir. The second most popular fish is perch. Moreover, in terms of dynamism, perch fishing can easily take first place. And if we take into account that the perch in this reservoir is quite large, then interest in catching it is growing from year to year.
Naturally, there are pike in the reservoir. But one gets the impression that pike are losing to pike perch and pike perch in the competition for hunting places and food supply. Pike is most often caught as bycatch. Moreover, quite large fish may come across.
Of the peaceful fish, the most attractive is the local ram, which is a type of roach. Moreover, this fish is quite large, striking in its strength and tenacity. It can be caught both in open water and from ice.
Local bream is also a coveted trophy for many. Moreover, the bream here is quite large, which is, in principle, typical for large bodies of water. Large crucian carp can also be caught together with bream. Moreover, both bream and crucian carp are caught both in open water and from ice. Although crucian carp is not always actively caught.
Fishing methods on the Veselovsky Reservoir
In open water, this is mainly fishing from boats. The coastline of the reservoir is heavily indented with various branches and bays. You need to look for pike perch and pike perch while moving around the pond. The main method of catching a predator is spinning. Moreover, this is not the case when microjig will be relevant. Of course, if you want to practice catching small perch, then very small baits and heads with minimal weight are also suitable. But if there is normal fish, then why do this?
Perch often stays on underwater plateaus with colonies of shells on the bottom. Depths in these places can reach 3-5 meters. In addition to jig fishing, perch responds well to rotating spoons and wobblers.
As for pike perch, jig fishing on this reservoir is unrivaled. But first of all, you need to find the fish. For such large bodies of water, an echo sounder and navigator will be very useful. Pike perch quite often stays in the same places. Although many anglers who fish on the Veselovsky Reservoir believe that local pike perch are not tied to a specific place and migrate behind schools of forage white fish.
White fish (roach, bream, silver bream) and crucian carp on the Veselovsky Reservoir are also caught from boats. And they use different methods. Peaceful fish are caught both on float tackle and on side fishing rods. Everything happens in the traditional way. One point is fed from the boat, a buoy is set.
Bream sticks to deeper places. It must be said that in this reservoir the bed of the river on which the reservoir is built is not very pronounced. But there are quite enough underwater holes and flooded ravines, where bream mainly hang out. Roach (ram) stays on flat plateaus, and is somewhat easier to find.
In winter, ram and perch are excellently caught on the reservoir. Things are somewhat worse with bream, pike perch and crucian carp. Finding a ram is much easier than finding and feeding a school of bream or bream. Occasionally a large crucian carp is caught. White fish are caught stationary, often using tents. Without a tent, fishing in the reservoir can be completely uncomfortable due to the wind and drifting snow.
Fishing for pike perch is more of a walking fishery, using spinners and balancers. And here the more important thing is to find fish. In winter, pike perch migrates long distances and its accumulation can be observed in a variety of places. Quite large pike perch are caught not only on artificial baits, but also on girders.
On which the Veselovskoe reservoir is located. It was built in 1941. The reservoir occupies a fairly vast area - 283 square kilometers. The average depth of the reservoir is from four to five meters. In some places there are depressions where the depth reaches 9 m and hills where the depth is no more than one meter. From Rostov-on-Don the reservoir is located 65 kilometers towards the southeast. It stretches from the village of Vesely to Manychstroy, covering part of the Rostov region - from the Salsk steppes to Kalmykia. Parallel to each other are the Proletarskoye and Ust-Manychskoye reservoirs, between which the Veselovskoye reservoir passes. And today we will talk about exciting fishing on the Veselovsky reservoir in 2017.
Due to the large size of the reservoir, waves are formed in strong winds. They crash on the banks, grinding them down. Over the years, the shoreline of the reservoir has become very intermittent. Its edges often collapse and therefore pose a danger to tourists. In order to prevent a massive collapse of the earth, the edges of the bank were planted with bushes in order to strengthen the soil.
What kind of fish can you catch?
Objects of interest for a fisherman in this reservoir may be silver crucian carp (locals call it a hybrid) - it lives throughout the entire territory of the reservoir and, moreover, in large numbers. Roach, rudd, ram, which are excellently caught at any time of the year. Also bream with small fish, bream. White bream, fisherman - not very common, but not too rare either.
There are a lot of small fish in the pond. It helps increase the population of large predatory species: catfish, pike perch, and perch.
In recent years there have been changes in the pike population. It has decreased significantly. This is all due to the herds of silver carp and grass carp that eat up the vegetation, at the same time devastating the pike spawning grounds. Fans of lure fishing also contributed to this. Schools of other fish eat the laid pike eggs, and fishermen catch them, so it is not surprising that there are so few pike in the Veselovsky Reservoir.
Well, everything else is the same as everywhere else. Fishing catch, industrial catch by trawls, and systematic fishing using kilometer-long nets, regardless of seasonal restrictions - all this affects the total number of fish in the reservoir.
Choosing a fishing spot
The best places to fish are in channels, creeks, creeks and reeds. You can fish on the shore or on a boat; there are no restrictions at any time. Many fish in the shallows only with a different bait. They are caught with poppers, wobblers, and silicone fish with a double hook. If you decide to go out on a boat, then a motor boat is not suitable, because algae will often get wrapped around the propeller. The best option would be a rowing boat. 
The deepest places with the most fish are located in the area of the dam, but fishing near it is prohibited. In the northern part of the coast there are many depth differences, where predatory pike perch and schools of white fish are found. To detect such depressions, you can use an echo sounder. Pike perch is caught with a jig using weights up to 16g. For a medium-sized predator, non-clinging offset hooks No. 4 are used. The baits for these hooks are three-inch silicone ribbed baits from the manufacturers YUM and RELAX. For catching big fish with a jig, a tackle with a multiplier reel is best suited. It will be easier for her to play with the bait and it will be possible to install a thicker fishing line. To fish from a boat, you need a rod at least 2 meters long. The pike perch actively responds to fast retrieval during a double toss of the rod from the bottom of the sinker with a nozzle. The weight of an average pike perch in a catch is 1 kg.
Features of pike fishing
Pike in the reservoir must be caught in the shallows. Pike fishes best in the spring - after March 17 and in late autumn. When fishing with jigs at great depths, you often find only large fish (7-8 kilograms). This is due to the fact that pike sticks to schools of white fish, which are abundant at depth.
Features of perch fishing
The perch in the Veselovsky Reservoir is of considerable size; it is caught with perch gear with a meter-sized lead tied like for pike with a load of 25 grams. A twister is perfect for the role of tackle. It is worth fishing with a slow retrieve with a sharp toss of the sinker. Trophy-sized perch usually hides in dense grass and in order to lure it out of there you need to put pressure on its weak point - the craving for fleshy silicone worms.
Catching white fish
In addition to jigging, the following lead to a good catch: spinning rods, fishing rods with floats, feeders, pickers and donks with baited worms, dough, corn and pearl barley. These tackles are very effective at luring: crucian carp (no more than 1 kg), perch, silver bream, rudd, bream and roach. You can feed: corn cake, eggs, breadcrumbs, peas, vegetable oil. You can even have bread and jam. You should not expect an immediate bite after feeding; it will begin only after an hour. Wobblers and spinners have a good reputation. At night, they lure catfish with a white earthworm. Ram is caught with maggots and bloodworms. About the villages: Vesyoly and Stepnoy Kurgan are described by fishermen as the most catchy ones. There are a lot of ticks in the vicinity of the reservoir and therefore everyone: both fishermen and tourists should protect themselves with sprays and creams to repel ticks.
Winter fishing
In winter, fishing on the Veselovsky Reservoir is still tempting. At this time of year, the main catch of fishermen is ram and perch. It is also not uncommon to catch bream and crucian carp. The latter most often swims in places where the water is warmer. Such places can be found in areas where streams flow into a body of water. In the first days after ice formation, you can catch silver bream with a regular float rod.
It is important not to forget that in winter the weather at the Veselovsky Reservoir is not the most pleasant. Strong cold winds often blow. So it’s better to fish at this time from special tents.
Anglers' reports
Report 1
It was Sunday, the area was hillocks, we were fishing on the right side of the main mass. They fed them with millet and top grain. I was biting at the fish all day, but really, very lazily. We caught about 20 tails. We were pleased with the fishing.
Report 2
Fished today in Vesele. It only bitten in the morning for one hour on one unfortunate hole. Afterwards the fish seemed to evaporate. The holes, baited in compliance with all fishing rules, also failed. I tried to find fish all day and the result was zero. Well, at least I got some fresh air.
Report 3
We went to Sadkovka on Saturday, set up fishing rods and caught rams. Nothing came across the girders. What about ramming, it was caught well, but very small in size.
Report 4
Recently I visited Vesel with my father. Before the start of fishing, we drilled, fed and then began to make the first casts. Success on the first try, I got a hybrid.
We continued fishing. And again the catch, again and again. There was no shortage of fish; this was the first time I’ve seen something bite like that in winter. When we caught a whole bag, we decided to call it a day. In general, our catch was as follows: 73 hybrids, 12 underbreams and 5 rams.