We stopped the car and enjoyed a little break on the beach. For us living in heavily congested Moscow metropolis, just being there in a big open space was a moment of sheer pleasure.

We ended up catching modest trout only - very similar to the Amego trout we catch in mountain streams of Japan.

Smaller than what we hoped for, but our main objective of catching Caucasus trout was nevertheless achieved.

The valley, after the sun pushed away the morning mist, brightened up in all autumn colours.

The beautiful stream with riffles and pools - only several miles away from the Turkish border.

We slept the night in a log cabin by the river. No luxury place - but being able to sleep dry to the sound of raindrops was by far more comfortable.

We traveled back the road and arrived in Tbilisi in the late evening. We walked down the hill to Hamam, - the public bath house for which Tbilish, meaning ''hot water'' is famous.

With only 3hours flight from Moscow, Georgia offers very dynamic natural beauty and, as an extra bonus, exotic cultural experience. Our visit this time was a little too late to do its fishery justice. A little earlier next time - yes, surely again someday.

- Back

Oh, it's warm down there! Afternoon temperature climbed above 20 degrees - hard to believe the icy world we saw the day before belonged to one same small country Georgia.

Being in mid October, we saw variety of fruits waiting for pick everywhere.

It was not ideal - rise of the water level and drop of clarity would not improve the fishing.

Carefully we fished, making the best of what we had, and managed 5 small trout in 6-8inches.

We were guided by the members of Georgian Flyfishing Club. Based in Tbilisi, they are working on the preservation of trout habitat and education of sport fishermen - including the practice of C&R, which still is a less known notion there. They supported everything about our trip - including the arrangement of fishing permit.

Driving up along the river some 20kms, we came to our fishing venue. Nicely rugged - sometimes reminding our home streams in Japan.

The river was running high. Higher than usual, because of the afternoon rain of the past few warm days. Also on this day, it started raining again, because of the clouds that forms only around the top of the mountain, as they get pushed up by the sea breeze.

Along the Black Sea coast we continued some more distance south, to a river named Kintrish, located almost on the border with a neighboring country Turkey.

The river had a fairly clear water, and a powerful current which, obviously, ran down from the snow capped mountains we could see in the backdrop.

Not big in number but the river has a small population of sea trout, which grows to 3-4kg in the sea and comes back to spawn in the river's upper reach.

4 hours' drive straight west covered a distance of 350kms. We arrived in the village on the shore of the Black sea. The shops sold fresh catch - carps, pikes, mullets and the like.