Pastovys

In the direction of the Tauragna downstream, just several dozens of meters from Tauragnas lake there are two interesting lakelets: Pastovys or Tauragnas (area 4.9 ha) and Pastovėlis. In dry summers both lakelets become dry and the water does not flow at all and the ford between the lakelets becomes so dry that if you drive on the bed of the lake dust gets into the air.

In spring the area of the first lakelet becomes about 1 ha, of the second one a dozen ares.

Here, local people catch eels with their naked hands. Don‘t believe that? You think eels are slippery and fast? You have to sit on the bank of Pastovys and wait till it becomes dry. Local people watch the lakelet through the windows of their houses, so have certain advantages. Eels come here in squads from Tauragnas lake and finish their journey to Sargasso Sea in mud.  

A shallow Pastovys does not smell well. It is something similar to the mixture of smell from a sewage pit, outside toilet, rotten algae and old water from the kitchen sink at the same time. Eels for eating are prepared by smoking them, so the unpleasant smell usually disappears, if you smoke them using wood from an apple tree. Before wading into the mud, take off your clothes as it is not always possible to wash them. Put your arms deep in mud, and spread out fingers and grab for eels. As soon as you grab them, throw them on the bank. Local inhabitants complained that this Aukshtaitian way of catching eels has already nearly vanished. If in the past you could catch several buckets of eels a day, now it is ten times less.   When Pastovys has already been waded far and wide, it would be a mistake to think that no more eels were left. However, those remaining ones start dying, since there are no chances to survive in the rotting mud. Now the time for wild boars comes. Their sensitive nose is perfect that enables to detect their prey deep under the thick layer of mud. After the feast of wild boars, the bed of the lakelet is left with plowed ditches.