Lake Aydykul - Lunar Lake of the Chelyabinsk Region

The South Ural is famous for its unique landscapes - it's forests, mountains, rivers and lakes. Only in one Chelyabinsk region are more than three thousand lakes, the total area of which exceeds 2000 km ² . Moreover, the mirror area of their majority does not exceed 0.5 km ² . Ural lakes are traditionally considered to be a favorite holiday destination and fishing for both locals and tourists.

One of the places where the Chelyabinsk region is famous is Lake Aydykul (on some maps it is also referred to as Alakul). Located in the Kunashak district of the Chelyabinsk region, about 100 km north of Chelyabinsk and 150 km south of Kamensk-Urals, it stretched from north to south by 8.3 km and from west to east by 4.5 km. Fused with the Aktyubinsk and Mamynkul lakes, the area of Adykul's mirror is more than 25 km ² . The average depth is about 3-4 meters (maximum - 5 meters). The water in Aydykul is bitter-salty, alkaline. The bottom is predominantly sandy, with a slight admixture of silt. In some places there are places with a completely muddy or stony bottom. Water in Aydykul is rather turbid (in winter visibility is usually 1.5-2 meters, in summer - no more than half a meter). The shore of the lake is swampy with reeds.

Located on one of the branches of the most ancient Scythian route connecting Asia and Europe, the lake Aydykul assumed its name from two Scythian words: "hell" - stop and "kul" - wet pasture, wet meadow, pond, pond lake. Settled here in the XVIII century, Alyn Bashkirs began to call it Eilean, or Lunar, lake (from the word "Ai" - the Moon).

Like other Chelyabinsk lakes, Aydykul is famous for its fishing. The main fish is carp and crucian carp (there are so-called golden and silver). Caraci here are small - on average they weigh about 300 g, carp can be up to 2 kg. Only for one summer season is caught about 170 tons of crucian carp. Also in Aydykul there are whitefish, ripus, peled, pike.

To get to Lake Aydykul, you need to go along the Chelyabinsk-Ekaterinburg highway to the turn on the north. Kunashak (about 140 km from Yekaterinburg or 60 km from Chelyabinsk), turn north and move towards Lake Uelgi. At the junction before n. Etc. It is necessary to go to Takhtaly east to the north. Halitovo settlement. Having passed this settlement, after about 6-7 km of traffic, if you can call it so, the country road and Lake Aydykul is located. It is best to move along a forest path that runs along the main path.

For a stop there is a recreation center on the west side. The lake is leased, but because to fish, you will have to purchase a voucher, preferably without limiting the catch. There is also a fee for entering the parking lot.

On weekends on the shore of Aydikulya many fishermen gather. Almost any flat piece of land turns into a tent city or a parking lot. On the water the same place is enough for everyone. Fishing is carried out mainly from boats at a distance of up to 100 m from the shore. At the same time one likes to catch in the reeds, and the other - on clean water.

Going to Lake Aydykul, it is better to take firewood with you, since it is rather problematic to find them on the spot.