Main results described in this book are obtained during fishing trips of author and his friends in the Russian Federation (in its Europen part up to Volga river), Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, partly in Baltic countries, Poland and Germany, beginning from 1970s. The main part of field experiments have been carried out in Dnipro river, in Ukraine, in three localities: village Pekari (near the Biological Station of the Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University), Cherkasy region, Kyiv city (the capital of Ukraine), Kyiv region, village Nedanchychi (near the former Sports Base for Hunters & Anglers), Chernigiv region, as well as in Khorol river in one locality: village Khomutets (near the Castle of Ivan Murav’yov-Apostol), Poltava region.

In the book, these localities no longer appear.

Represenatives of the following families of fish have been observed and tested (mainly in the field): Cyprinidae, Gasterosteidae, Percidae, Gobiidae (many of the Black Sea gobiid fish migrate into the rivers of this basin, including Dnipro river), Esocidae (Esox lucius), Centrarhidae (introduced pumpkinseed, Lepomis gibbosus, mainly in Danube delta and lakes), Salmonidae (Salmo trutta), Thymallidae (Thymullus thymulls), Acipenseridae, Anguillidae (Anguilla anguilla), Gadidae (Lota lota), Siluridae (Silurus glanis), Ictaluridae, Cobitidae, Eleotridae (invasive Percottus glehni), Cichlidae, Characinidae and Poecilidae (in laboratory), Labridae and Belonidae (Belone belone) (in the Black Sea) as well as Clupeidae (including the Black Sea sprat, Clupeonella cultriventris, migrated in fresh waters up to Belarus rivers) and Syngnatidae (including black-striped pipefish, Syngnathus nigrolineatus, also migrated in fresh waters up to Belarus rivers).

The most abundant freshwater bentivorous common roach, Rutilus rutilus, and piscivorous common perch, Perca fluviatilis, are used as model fish.

Other invasive fish, first of all in Belarus, northern and middle parts of Ukraine (e.g., Semenchenko et al., 2009; Mastitsky et al., 2010; Slynko et al., 2011), in farms, artificial reservoirs, natural lakes and rivers, have been observed.

Basic References

Mastitsky S.E., Karatayev A.Y., Burlakova L.E., Adamovich B.V. 2010. Non-native fishes of Belarus: diversity, distribution, and risk classification using the Fish Invasiveness Screening Kit (FISK). Aquatic Invasions 5, 103-114

Semenchenko V.P, Rizevsky V.K., Mastitsky S.E., Vezhnovets1V.V., Pluta M.V., Razlutsky V.I., Laenko T. 2009. Checklist of aquatic alien species established in large river basins of Belarus. Aquatic Invasions 4, 337-347

Slynko Y.V., Dgebuadze Y.Y., Novitskiy R.A., Kchristov O.A. 2011. Invasions of alien fishes in the basins of the largest rivers of the Ponto-Caspian Basin: Composition, vectors, invasion routes, and rates. Russian Journal of Biological Invasions 2, 49-59

It is no secret that the most of amateur and professional anglers have not basic knowledge on fish behaviour, an area of fish vital functions that is studied by ethology. On the other hand, the most of ethologists do not know that an area of artificial fishing lures is the most extensive area of scientific, design and applied activity of human, where the numerous artificial stimuli are used.

The book "Fishing: an ethological approach” takes an intermediate position between these  extremes. The following main directions are developed in the book offered to your attention.

Elaborating the newest artificial, seminatural and natural lures, baits, groundbaits and attractants is the first direction. In the framework of this direction, you will know, for example, about the most strong  feeding attractants that can include up to 100 ingredients plus infochemicals, cannot be repeated artificially and knock down any other attractants, or about the most strong fish aggregators that allow to attract thousands of small baitfish and, in turn, tens of predatory fish.

The second direction is connected with the verification of new and available commercial lures, baits, groundbaits and attractants based on field or laboratory statistically grounded experiments. In particular, field testing commercial lures, baits, groundbaits and attractants show that the publicized effectiveness of many of them is falsfied or exaggerated, the use of groundbaits with ingredients alien to the freshwater environment leads to the eutrophication of this environment.

Finally, some general aspects of fish ethology and ecology form the third direction.

The content of the book is represented in the form of relatively short posts that are more readable than long articles. Short posts in e-format are easily edited and modified. This format leads to some repetitions, but these repetitions contribute to the better memorization of the materials.

The first edition of the book contains more than 100 posts. The book is written in language close to the language of the journal "Scientific America”.