Fishermen haul their nets back up at Lake Çıldır

KARS

Fishermen have now begun to collect their nets which they left at the beginning of the new year in Lake Çıldır to fish in Eskimo style as its surface completely freezes in winter due to low temperatures.

The surface of Lake Çıldır, located between the borders of the eastern province of Kars and the neighboring province of Ardahan, was covered with ice as the temperature dropped to 20 degrees below zero at night at the beginning of the new year.

Fishermen in the region broke the 15-centimeter ice sheet over the lake with a pickaxe and began fishing in Eskimo style.

On the first days of the new year, fishermen digging small holes with picks and shovels in the frozen lake left their nets in the water with a 10-meter-long wooden pole.

After waiting for around two weeks, they collected the fish caught by pulling the nets under the ice sheet.

“This year, the lake froze late due to the warm weather. When the lake’s surface started to freeze, we started fishing in Eskimo style,” stated fisherman Yakup Topkaya.

“We dropped fishing nets through the small holes we opened on the lake’s frozen surface. Then we waited a few weeks and collected the nets. Since it did not snow, the fish was scarce as we expected,” Topkaya explained.

“We cook the fish we collect in restaurants near the lake and serve them to local and foreign tourists or sell them at markets. We will continue Eskimo fishing until the ice on the surface of the lake melts. This fishing method is also watched with interest by tourists,” he said.

Lake Çıldır is the second-largest lake in the region. Its surface gets completely covered with ice during the winter months.