Nomad Trails Mongolia — Taimen fly-fishing expeditions on the Shishged

The taimen program

Three ways to meet the river

Small groups, licensed taimen water, experienced river guides and camp crews. Every trip includes permits, transfers from Ulaanbaatar, camps and all meals on the river. Two anglers per guide; guides rotate daily so you fish with the whole team.

9 nights · 6 days on the river

The Float

Raft the Shishged camp-to-camp, fishing new water every single day and never covering the same run twice. The classic taimen trip.

6 full fishing days, 2 anglers per boat
Wild camps struck and set ahead of you
Max 6 anglers per departure
Rafts carry all gear — you fish, not haul

US$3,900 – 5,900 / angler

8 nights · 5 days on the river

Base Camp

A heated ger camp on a proven beat — real beds, hot showers, a cook — with different water reached by 4x4 and drift boat each morning.

Comfort without leaving the wild
Works for mixed angler / non-angler groups
Max 8 guests
Shortest travel day in and out

US$2,900 – 4,900 / guest

A large fish held in a net at the water surface

For content creators

12 nights · filming-first

The Creator Expedition

The Float, rebuilt around a shoot: light-first scheduling, a dedicated boat for camera angles, and every permission handled before you land.

Filming & drone permissions arranged
Fixer-translator with the crew throughout
Camp power, charging & Starlink on request
Optional second act in the Gobi or the Altai

custom quote · tell us the project

About these prices. The ranges are guide prices per person, two sharing. Where your trip lands in the range — and whether it can move — depends on group size, dates and season, and on what we buy in each year: taimen permits sold at annual local auction, fuel, charter rates and the tögrög–dollar exchange rate. Your own price is fixed in writing in the booking contract and does not change after signing. Message us for a firm quote.

Prices, dates, what's included →

Where we fish

The Shishged, above Tsagaannuur

Most taimen trips sell you "northern Mongolia". This is the specific water, and why we chose it.

Khövsgöl aimag · Tsagaannuur soumThe Darkhad depression — a high basin ringed by the Sayan mountains, on the far side of Khövsgöl lake. Roughly 24 hours overland from Ulaanbaatar, or a domestic flight to Mörön plus a 4x4 day.
Up the Shishged, into the TengisThe stretch above Tsagaannuur is the one local river people rate most reliable for genuinely big fish. The Tengis joins it out of the taiga — that confluence complex is the heart of the program.
Very little pressureNo road follows the river. Access is by raft and horse, which is exactly why the fish are the size they are — and why the logistics are somebody's full-time job.
Permits are real, and we hold themTaimen licences are allocated by local auction, and Tsagaannuur sits inside a border zone that needs its own travel permit. Both are arranged for you before arrival. Fishing without them risks fines, confiscated gear and deportation.

A river winding between forested northern mountains

Taimen water across Mongolia

Taimen run in rivers right across the north and east. We fish the Shishged system as our home water and can build private trips on the others where permits allow.

Shishged · home water

Tengis · home water

Delgermörön

Selenge

Orkhon

Tuul

Onon

Kherlen

When to come

Taimen feed hardest as the water cools. June fishes well and is the greenest month; the fish get seriously aggressive from mid-August, and the last weeks before ice are the ones the guides book for themselves.

June

Open, green, high water

July

Warm — trout & lenok focus

August

Peak from mid-month

September

Prime · the big month

Early Oct

Prime · cold, best fish

Book early. The established operators on these rivers are sold out roughly two seasons ahead — the reference outfitter on Mongolia's taimen water is fully booked through 2027. Departures are capped at 6–8 guests, so a season fills in a handful of enquiries.

The deal, in plain terms

What your money covers

Same structure every serious Mongolian operator uses: everything from the moment you land in Ulaanbaatar is ours; getting yourself to Mongolia, and insuring yourself while you're here, is yours.

Included

From arrival at Chinggis Khaan airport to departure

✓Two nights hotel in Ulaanbaatar (arrival & departure), single room
✓All airport and ground transfers, met by driver and guide
✓All transport between Ulaanbaatar and the river
✓Taimen fishing permits, protected-area fees and border-zone travel permits
✓All camp accommodation — ger or tent-tipi, two anglers sharing
✓All meals on the river, plus soft drinks, tea and coffee
✓Guides, cooks and camp crew — two anglers to one guide
✓Flies and terminal tackle; boats, rafts and camp gear carried for you
✓Camp power and nightly charging for cameras and batteries

Not included

Guests arrange and pay for these themselves

✕International airfare to and from Ulaanbaatar
✕Travel, medical and evacuation insurance — mandatory, we will ask to see it
✕Mongolian visa fee, where your passport requires one
✕Meals, drinks and personal spending in Ulaanbaatar
✕Personal fishing tackle — rods, reels, lines, waders, boots
✕Alcohol beyond the camp allowance
✕Gratuities for guides and camp staff
✕Laundry, phone, data and other personal expenses
✕Any activity or extension not listed in the itinerary

See the full trip details

Built for filming

Bring the story home

We've hosted shoots before. The difference between good footage and a wasted trip is logistics — that's our half of the deal.

Permits, sorted

Filming permissions, drone clearances and the border-zone paperwork arranged in advance — you shoot legally.

A fixer on the crew

English-speaking fixer-translator for herder families, Darkhad and Tsaatan hosts, local officials and everything between.

Power in camp

Generator plus battery bank charging every night. Starlink uplink available on request.

Light-first schedule

We fish and travel around golden hour, not around lunch. Guides understand a shot list.

Camera boat

On float trips a third boat runs for angles — nobody has to choose between casting and filming.

Fast, wet releases

Hero shots are choreographed in advance so every taimen goes back strong — and it reads on camera.

Conservation

The fish outranks the trip

Taimen are endangered and slow-growing — a metre-long fish may be thirty years old. We fish licensed water only: single barbless hooks, no bait, fly and light spin, every fish released in the water it came from.

Mongolia now allocates taimen licences through local auction, which caps how many rods a river sees in a season. We think that is the right instrument, we bid for our permits in the open, and we run non-motorised boats and leave-no-trace camps with no permanent structures. A share of every booking funds river wardens on our home beats.

If that ethic doesn't fit the trip you have in mind, we're not the right partner — and we'll say so early.

Beyond the river

Add a second act

Nobody flies 6,000 km for one story. Each of these pairs cleanly onto a river trip — we handle the connection, so the two halves feel like one journey rather than two bookings.

Blue alpine lake below forested mountains

6 days · Khövsgöl aimag

Khövsgöl, the Blue Pearl

The obvious add-on, because it is on the way home. Mongolia's great alpine lake — 136 km long, drinkable to the bottom, rimmed with larch and reindeer country.

Boat day on the lake and a night on the east shore
Ride to a Tsaatan reindeer-herder camp in the taiga
Ovoo at Mönkh Saridag, the sacred northern peak
Fly Mörön–Ulaanbaatar instead of the long drive back

Best: June – September · Pairs with: any river trip, no extra flight

7 days · Ömnögovi

The Gobi, end to end

The hardest possible cut from the river: green taiga to red rock in one flight. The Gobi is not empty, it is just enormous, and it films like nowhere else.

Khongoryn Els — 180 km of singing dunes, camel day
Bayanzag flaming cliffs, where the dinosaur eggs came from
Yolyn Am, an ice-floored gorge that holds snow into July
Nights in ger camps with hot showers and a cook

Best: May – early October · Pairs with: any trip, 1.5 h flight from UB

5 days · Arkhangai

Steppe horse trek

Mongolian horses, Mongolian pace, ger to ger across the Orkhon valley — the old imperial heartland and a UNESCO landscape.

Ride 4–6 hours a day, no experience required
Stay with herder families, not in tourist camps
Orkhon waterfall and the Tövkhön hermitage
Kharkhorin — Chinggis Khaan's capital, and Erdene Zuu

Best: June – September · Pairs with: river trips, overland en route

4 days · Bayan-Ölgii

Golden Eagle Festival

Kazakh eagle hunters in the Altai, first weekend of October — which lands exactly at the end of the taimen season. The single best-timed add-on we run.

Two festival days: eagle calling, tug-of-war, kokpar
A day out hunting with a berkutchi family away from the crowd
Altai high country and Kazakh embroidery workshops
Book by June — the aimag runs out of beds

Best: first weekend of October only · Pairs with: late-season river trips

3 days · Töv aimag

Nomad short course

For guests with a tight schedule or a non-fishing partner: the essentials within a half-day of the capital, so nobody burns a week in transit.

Gorkhi-Terelj — granite tors, Turtle Rock, an easy hike
The 40 m steel Chinggis Khaan statue at Tsonjin Boldog
Hustai National Park for wild takhi horses at dusk
A working herder family, milking and all

Best: May – October · Pairs with: everything · Also: good non-angler day trips

Custom · by helicopter

The VIP expedition

Wild Mongolia without the road days. Helicopter transfers, a private lodge, and the extreme stuff done with proper crews — for guests whose limit is time, not budget.

Helicopter charter to the river — an afternoon instead of two travel days
Private lodge and camps held exclusively for your group
ATV days in the Khövsgöl taiga and lakeshore
Dune riding and sandboarding at Khongoryn Els in the Gobi

Best: June – early October · Priced: on quote, per group

Custom · your rivers

Private water, built to order

A club, a film crew or a family that wants its own dates and its own river. We scope it, price it, and secure the permits — or tell you honestly that the season doesn't work.

Onon, Kherlen, Eg, Selenge, Orkhon or Delgermörön
Your own dates, your own group, no shared departures
Lenok, Amur trout, grayling, Amur pike and asp as targets
Scouting trips for producers and travel buyers

Best: depends on the river — ask us · Lead time: 6 months for permits

Chase the largest trout on Earth.