Prices, dates, who carries what, and what we expect of you. If something you need to know isn't on this page, that's our mistake — email us and we'll add it.
| Trip | Length | Days fishing | Group | Water | Best months | From |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Float | 9 nights | 6 days | Max 6 anglers | Shishged, camp‑to‑camp | Aug – early Oct | $3,900 – 5,900 |
| Base Camp | 8 nights | 5 days | Max 8 guests | Fixed camp, day beats | Jun – early Oct | $2,900 – 4,900 |
| Creator Expedition | 12 nights | 7 days | Crew + max 4 anglers | Shishged & Tengis | Sep – early Oct | On quote |
| Combination | 14 – 20 nights | 10 – 12 days | By arrangement | River + a second region | Aug – early Oct | On quote |
Prices are per person in US dollars, based on two anglers sharing a ger or tipi on the river. A single-occupancy supplement is available on request. Non-angling companions travel at a reduced rate.
A deposit secures your rod on a departure; the balance falls due before the season opens. Because permits, charter seats and camp crews are committed months in advance, deposits are non-refundable once permits are bought in your name — which is why we ask every guest to hold cancellation insurance.
Exact deposit percentage, payment dates and cancellation terms are set out in the booking contract we send with your invoice. Nothing is binding until both sides have signed it.
Small groups are the whole point: more water each, less pressure on the fish, and camps that can move without a convoy.
The river season runs June to early October. Taimen feed hardest as the water cools, so the fishing sharpens from mid-August and peaks through September into the first days of October, when ice starts to shape the mornings. July is the warmest month and fishes better for lenok and grayling than for big taimen.
Departure dates for each season are published in advance and fill early — the established operators on Mongolia's taimen rivers are currently booked out about two years ahead. Email us for the current calendar and remaining rods.
Our home water is the Shishged and its tributary the Tengis, above Tsagaannuur soum in the Darkhad depression of Khövsgöl aimag — a high basin under the Sayan mountains in Mongolia's far north. No road follows the river, so access is by raft, 4x4 and horse. Local river people rate the water upstream of Tsagaannuur as the most reliable in the country for genuinely large fish.
Taimen also run in the Delgermörön, Eg, Selenge, Orkhon, Tuul, Onon and Kherlen. We build private trips on those where permits and season allow — allow six months' lead time for the paperwork.
Shishged & Tengis (Arctic drainage): taimen (Hucho taimen) to around 150 cm, lenok — the Mongolian trout — and Arctic grayling.
Eastern rivers (Amur drainage: Onon, Kherlen): taimen, Amur trout, lenok, Amur pike and asp.
Taimen is the largest salmonid on earth and grows very slowly: a metre-long fish is likely thirty years old. Everything goes back.
Ulaanbaatar's Chinggis Khaan International (UBN) is served from Seoul, Tokyo, Beijing, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Frankfurt and Moscow. Most guests route through Seoul or Istanbul. Plan to arrive at least one full day before the trip starts.
Many nationalities enter Mongolia visa-free for short stays; others apply online in a few minutes. Check the rule for your passport well before you book flights — and tell us, because the border-zone permit we file for you uses your passport details.
Trips begin and end in Ulaanbaatar. A driver and guide meet your flight and handle every transfer from there.
These are genuinely remote rivers. We build a buffer day into every itinerary because weather can move a domestic flight, and we would rather lose a buffer day than a fishing day.
For guests whose time is worth more than the road, we arrange helicopter charters through a partner operator — the two travel days each way collapse into an afternoon. Charter flying is priced by the flight hour and the aircraft returns empty, so it suits groups of four to six splitting the cost. Ask when you enquire and we'll quote it against your dates.
In Ulaanbaatar: two nights in a good hotel, single room, on arrival and departure.
On the river: spacious gers or tent-tipis, two anglers sharing, with proper beds and a wood stove. Camps have simple toilets and hot showers. A professional cook travels with the crew.
On float trips camps are struck and re-pitched ahead of you each day, so you arrive to made beds, a lit fire and dinner cooking. Single occupancy is available for a supplement.
Mongolian river guides who grew up on this water, working alongside experienced international guides. Two anglers to one guide, rotating daily so you get everyone's read on the river rather than one person's.
Every trip also carries a cook, camp hands, and drivers. On creator expeditions an English-speaking fixer-translator travels with the crew for the whole trip.
All meals on the river are included and cooked fresh in camp — Mongolian and international, with soft drinks, tea and coffee, plus a reasonable allowance of beer and wine at camp. Tell us about allergies and dietary needs when you book; vegetarian is straightforward, anything stricter needs notice because resupply is a day's drive away.
Meals and drinks in Ulaanbaatar are not included, and the city is full of good places to eat — your guide will point you at them.
As is standard for Mongolian travel companies, guests arrange and pay for the following themselves:
We supply all flies and terminal tackle. You bring your own rods, reels, lines, waders and boots, plus clothing for a genuinely cold, bright, windy place.
A detailed packing list goes out with your booking confirmation. Clean and dry your waders and boots before you fly — we check, because invasive species are how rivers die.
Taimen fishing in Mongolia is licensed, and licences on our rivers are now allocated by local auction — the soum administration sells a limited number of rods per season. We bid for ours openly and hold them in the company's name; your permit is issued against your passport before you arrive.
Tsagaannuur sits inside a border zone, which requires a separate travel permit. We file that for you too, which is why we ask for passport scans well ahead of the trip.
Mongolia is called the Land of Blue Sky and mostly earns it — dry, bright, continental. Expect warm days and cold nights in August, hard frosts and possible snow by late September. Rain can arrive in any month.
Every ger and tipi has a wood stove and the crew lights them before you get in. Come prepared for all four seasons in a week and you will be comfortable.
Comprehensive travel, medical and emergency-evacuation insurance is mandatory for every guest, and we will ask to see your policy before departure. Trip-cancellation cover is strongly recommended given the deposit terms.
These camps are hundreds of kilometres from a hospital, with limited mobile coverage. Guides carry satellite communication and first-aid training, and every itinerary has an evacuation plan — but travel here is at your own risk, and you should join a trip in reasonable physical condition. Tell us in writing about any medical condition, medication or allergy before you travel.
Non-fishing partners are welcome, at a reduced rate — Base Camp suits them best, with riding, hiking, reindeer-herder visits and photography on the doorstep.
Most guests add a second region either side of the river: Khövsgöl lake, the Gobi, an Orkhon valley horse trek, the Golden Eagle Festival in the Altai — which falls in the first weekend of October, right at the end of the taimen season — or a short Terelj and Hustai loop near the capital. Our office in Ulaanbaatar can also help with visa letters, extra hotel nights and flights.
Catch-and-release only, single barbless hooks, no bait, non-motorised boats on the river. Fish are kept in the water, unhooked wet and released where they were hooked.
Camps are temporary: no permanent structures, no concrete, natural-decomposition toilets, and everything packed out. A share of every booking funds river wardens on our home beats. The auction system that caps rods per season is, in our view, the right instrument — a limited number of well-run trips is worth more to this river, and to Tsagaannuur, than an open season.
Dates, group size, whether you're fishing, filming or both — and any question this page didn't answer. We reply within a day, in English or Mongolian.