Caspian Sea

[SlackLines]

Has anyone got any experience of fishing in the Caspian Sea, specifically Baku in Azerbaijan?

I understand that it is supposed to be very polluted, but I'm going to have a bit of spare time on my hands during a forthcoming business trip so I might take my rod with me...

[PanamaJack]

I've similarly no first hand knowledge. But everything I've read suggests that fish numbers have slumped dramatically over the past 50 years resulting from pollution and, often illegal, over-fishing. There are still the five species of Sturgeon present, right up to the giant Beluga, as well as a species of Salmon and also, in its saline waters, freshwater Asp.

I'm fairly certain, possibly as recent as last year, I received some literature on an operation that was offering angling trips down there but I really can't recall where precisely. And it's a huge stretch of water! Tried looking through Google, but there was nothing obvious on the Net.

The 'Sea' is on the route of migrating birds and, although I know it's very easy to get hysterical over reports of Avian Flu, I understand there were three human deaths confirmed from Azerbaijan earlier this week.