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Even though it is late autumn, at the end of October, still there are fishermen on the banks of the Danube.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 25th October 2008
The Alexis Project team fishing on the Jiu River, near Bilta village, at a place called "Balta Manastiri".
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 9th July 2008
Ionut, Amelia, Alina, Alex, and Adrian lit two fires for warmth and cooking, and enjoyed the crystal clear night sky and the stillness of nature all around them.
They were fishing for cat fish, and as can be seen a nice one was caught by Adrian. It was a great experience.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 9th July 2008
Obviously Adrian is improving in his fishing prowess, if we judge by the size of the fish above compared with this "monster of the deep" thirty years ago when he went spearfishing in the Black Sea!
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe Summer 1970?
Alina, Alexandru si Adrian pescuiesc pe malul Dunarii, langa satul Cetate, aflat la jumatatea distantei dintre Garla Mare si Calafat.
Alina, Alexandru and Adrian are fishing on the bank of the Danube river, near the village Cetate, situated half way between Garla Mare and Calafat.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 22nd June 2008
Fishing on the Clisura Dunarii, part of the Iron gates gorge, at a point 40 km west of Orsova.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 9th September 2007
The Catfish, or Sheatfish, Siluris glanis, is the largest fish in the fresh waters of Romania. It is a grey fish without scales, but its skin is protected by mucus.
Although it has bad eyesight, the feelers or whiskers combined with good smell allow it to find food on the muddy river bottom.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 9th September 2007
Sometimes fishermen see no fish, and can become disconsolate, as Adrian is here, but the scenery at Dubova, about 40 km west from Orsova, in the Cazanele Mari makes up for the lack of fish.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 16th September 2007
Where the water is very deep, two empty plastic bottles are attached by a long rope to a heavy weight on the river bed with a baited hook. From time to time a man in a boat goes to check this set line.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 9th September 2007
Another method is to fish with a "Clonc"
Three men in a boat are needed. One pilots the boat, and puts it in the middle of the Danube. Another has a long line with a frog on a hook, with a heavy metal weight on the end.
The third man is at the back of the boat, and has a wooden cup with a rod fixed to its base, like a "plumber's friend", but made of wood.
Photo and artwork: Adrian Gheorghe 10th September 2007
The man moves the "Clonc", rhythmically hitting the water with the open cup rim. This makes a loud noise, "Clonc" which seems like a frog calling to big fish who hunt them as prey. The fish finds the frog on the hook, takes the bait, and is caught by the fisherman.
Photo and artwork: Adrian Gheorghe 10th September 2007
This is a small hand operated crane for a fishing net on the Clisura Dunarii.
The bottles of water on the end of the crane act as counterweights to make it easier to raise the net.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 9th September 2007
Fishing is a very popular pursuit for people on the banks of the great rivers in Romania, such as the Jiu, Olt and Danube.
In Bilta there is an ancient way to build a boat, like a "monoxila" or dug out canoe from the stone age.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
They choose a very old and big specimen of a tree (in english a yew tree) called the Tisa, (the same name as a tributary of the Danube, perhaps it grows along the banks of the Tisa as well) or the Pluta, which is the cork tree. There are many such trees on the banks of the Jiu. Those who wish to make a Cin cut it down and take the trunk.
Then with a special tool called a Barda (In the Polish language also, barda means 'hatchet') they spend a lot of time to carve out the wood to make a dugout canoe.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
This boat is called a Cin and is about 2 m long and about 0.5 m wide and about 0.3m high and is made from a single piece of wood.
The Cin has two paddles, made also from wood, about 0.5m long and about 0.1m wide, one for each hand to use to row the Cin across the river.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
In the photos you can see one of the oldest Cins from Bilta. Dr Gheorghe has a Cin too, also a very old one, given to him by a man from Bilta for his museum.
The man with the Cin is Florin Buligioiu, a man about 70 years of age who has spent his entire life on the waters of the Jiu doing a lot of fishing.
No matter what the time of year, every time the Jiu gets high and fast and the water is muddy, he goes to fish (you can see how he goes to fish even in the depths of winter!!!).
He puts the boat into the water from the banks of the Jiu where the water is shallow, and then goes upstream to where the fish are, at the intersection of the Jiu and Motru, to the west of Bilta, about 3 km upstream. Every time he comes back with at least 1-2 kg of small fish, but he has caught fish up to 25 kg in weight.
All night long in summer, a lot of people from Bilta (even without Cins) go fishing and usaully are able to bring home fish from the river.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
This is a very old Cin in Dr Gheorghe's possession.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
The Cin has two paddles, one for each hand of the user, and they are very small, about half a metre long, so they may be used easily by one hand to move the Cin through the water.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
Another tool used for fishing are the nets shown here. Some are for one man, some are for two men to handle, each holding one of the sticks, some are 30 metres long by two metres high, and are used by teams of five or six men.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
These nets are called Cotoci, and are used both by day and by night, along the Jiu and the Motru, though less so on the Gilort River.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
