End of the season review

As ever the season has simply flown by and it is hard to believe that it was only 6 weeks ago that our first guests got off the helicopter at Lower and Middle Varzuga.

From that first week it was clear that it was going to be a bumper season as those 13 rods landed an average of 61 fish per person. It can be cold at this time of the season but early on is when the big numbers of fish run and this year was no exception.



Guide Losha with an early season fish

 As the season progressed it was also clear that unless we had heavy rain it was going to be a relatively low water year. This is something that we generally welcome as it makes the river more defined and easier to read although it can make boating to some of the beats harder than we would hope. In the event we did have rain on the 3rd week of our very short season which helped somewhat but the last two weeks did involve some walking for some of the camps.

Midnight on the Varzuga

The amazing thing about the river is that it does not seem to be affected by sun, rain, wind or extreme temperatures. In conditions that would mean most rivers would not produce fish (we had one day of 30 degrees Celsius with a searing sun) the Varzuga continued to be remarkably productive.



A decent fish from Lower Varzuga

 We finished our season with a very healthy average of 37 fish per rod per week. The lower water also meant that we could access areas of the river earlier in the season than usual and this led to some big fish being landed. Several fish of over the magical 20lbs mark were taken with plenty in the high teens.

The Varzuga is not a river where you are likely to land a fish of over 40lbs but it offers an unrivalled opportunity to hook a very good number of salmon and I lost count of the number of people who commented on how much they had learnt about their fishing after a week on the river.

The new lodge at Lower

The new accommodation at Lower Varzuga is quite simply superb and with some finishing touches it will be the best lodge on the Kola by quite some margin. As we continue to invest in the boats, the accommodation and the training of the guides, the programme improves year on year and we look forward to our next 20 years on the river.

For 2012 we are excited to say that we are able to substantially reduce the cost of fishing at Lower Varzuga and Kitza for the prime weeks thanks to an exciting opportunity presented to us by our new Russian partner. Please contact me in the office for further details.

Middle Varzuga in June

It has been a wonderful season with an amazing total of 5,401 fish landed over the 6 weeks – there simply are not many places that can match these statistics in terms of Atlantic salmon fishing and I am constantly reminded as to how lucky we are to be able to fish there every year.



Could this be you next year?

 We will not update the blog any further until the start of the 2012 season but my thanks goes to all of you who fished with us this year and I will look forward to seeing you on the river next year.

Charlie White

The last day

The last day

A brief blog; sadly we close the camp down today and last night hauled all the boats out of the water and secured them well above (we hope) next Springs river ice break.

We ended the season on a happy note here at Middle Camp with another excellent day, although I know the fishing in this low water has been tougher than normal up on Pana.

At Middle Camp we had a strong upstream wind all day, not easy fishing at times and in Yovas Rapids there were strong gusts from all directions. Despite that our six guests landed 42 salmon with Richard D catching 12 to take him to over 50 for the week – not bad for a youngster who had only caught 3 salmon before he came here!

Ian C at Royal Dee in Yovas Rapids

Middle ended the week with 230 fish to six rods, much better than last year and well above the long term average. At Pana I’m afraid the team struggled slightly in very low water conditions, even so they had 119 for their team of eight.

Shortly the helicopter arrives to take our guests back to Murmansk and thence to home. Tiffy and I will go to the village this afternoon, find our car and retrace our steps back to Norway to see our friends on Lakselva.

This is always a sad moment – how the season flies by. A huge thank you to Genadiy Nagirniak and all the Russian teams in Kitza, Pana, Middle and Lower Camps for all their hard work, support and friendship this year. I look forward to being back in May next year.

Andy B with one of his 50 salmon for the week

 Charlie will summarise the season on the blog early next week. In the meantime we will all take home wonderful memories of this remarkable river, the stunning scenery and the warm hearted people of Varzuga village.

Christopher Robinson

Warm Water

Another bright day yesterday with a reasonable breeze that caught you out occasionally if your casting got lazy. Ian C and Andy B were first away, eager to get up Yovas Rapids. Ian, having fished the Varzuga with us for most years since 1991 has stuck to his Bomber pretty much all week, knowing that he might land more on a conventional fly but happy to experiment and have some fun. He came home having banked six salmon.

Peter and James D with Misha returning to camp

Andy B, in his first trip to Varzuga has been determined to make the most of the numbers of fish here and landed 9 yesterday using an intermediate sink tip and his special killer fly. The fly is of his own tying and he brought three with him, one he kindly gave to James D, a pike dealt with the second yesterday so, on his last day he has one left. Not too much of a problem as he is not one to knock off flies on rocks when casting.

The last of Andy B's special flies

The water temperature crept up to 17⁰C yesterday and the level continued to drop, the salmon have started to move out of the slower and medium paced flow into the fast stuff. This was very noticeable yesterday and caught us out a bit in the morning.

Hugh landing Jemima's first salmon

With only two days left here, Hugh took Jemima out in a boat to see if she could land her first salmon – which she duly did, a nice 8lber from Simmons - celebrated with a banya and a swim in the river!

The first salmon smile

We ended the day here at Middle Camp with a creditable 32 salmon plus Jemima’s first. The Pana team struggled with the warm water and bright sun and had 15.

Our last day today – the season has just flown by, it is cloudy and quite windy again. Overall good conditions but tough casting I suspect.

Christopher Robinson

Just around the corner

The water level continues to drop and as it does the pools are becoming more attractive and defined. We haven’t seen the water as low as this in June for many years and exploring new spots is fascinating and often rewarding.

Yovas Rapids, Royal Deeside pool

Lawrence and Richard D walked up Yovas Rapids yesterday, I explained that there was no need to go all the way to Scotts as the lower and middle section was fishing well and full of fish (the beats here are so long that it is seldom all the pools can be covered in a day).  In fact they did walk all the way to the top and came back with 21 salmon between them, most from the area of Scotts. Lawrence explained that as they walked up they’d see a pool and mark it to be fished on the way back, then the fisherman’s inherent curiosity kicked in and they walked to the next corner to have a look – another fabulous pool – so, inevitably, they were drawn further on. They hardly fished the middle and lower sections and the two groups going there today are champing at the bit to get going.

James D and Misha with one of James's four salmon yesterday

We completed a great day with an after dinner Bomber demonstration on Generator by Ian C where he rose, hooked and landed a fish for the gallery. That took us to a tally of 36 – not bad for very bright conditions.

Pana reported 20 yesterday with a really nice fish of 15lbs falling to Alistair M in Lunch Pool.

Madonna's

Andy B broke his rod on Tuesday and borrowed one of our Guideline ACT 4 rods kindly supplied by Guideline Director Espen Myhre. He rated it very highly and had seven salmon on it from Simmons, one of which was a cracking 10lber straight in from the sea.

Andy B in action with the Guideline rod

Only a light wind today thank goodness, quite warm and overcast – looks good.

Christopher Robinson

Mid Summers Day

Mid Summers Day announced itself with a weather front of howling upstream wind and rain, the team knew casting into it was going to be tricky at best and enthusiasm for the day ahead was somewhat subdued.

Andy B and Ian C took the Royal Deeside area of Yovas Rapids where, despite the conditions, Andy had nine fish by 2 o’clock before his double handed rod broke. He struggled on with his light single handed in the wind and came back in the evening with his mind querying what the score might have been had he been able to cover the water. Ian C had 10 fish from Green Bank and Royal Dee, four on a bomber and the rest on Sunrays; he declared the beat ‘heaving with fish’.

Tired but happy after a long day in the wind

Opposite them Peter D had six salmon before he too broke his rod - it was one of those days. Lawrence and Richard D drew the ever productive Simmons and landed 13 between them and we finished the day with a remarkable 40 salmon to six rods in pretty atrocious conditions.

Midnight at Middle Camp

Up at Pana the team again had 30 fish, yesterday evenly spread amongst the team. The water up there is really clear and low and a certain amount of experimentation with flies is going on, today they will try blue – not a colour we usually use here.

Tim Scott Bolton painting at Green Bank

We had the artist Tim Scott-Bolton out here for a couple of weeks and he has created a wonderful collection of paintings of the river and Varzuga village. His exhibition will be held at the Tryon Gallery from 6-9 December.

A typical 'big sky' on Varzuga

The wind dropped last night, looks much better today although quite bright. More tomorrow…

Christopher Robinson

Another good day

The forecasters delayed our expected rain for 24 hours and we had a bright, sunny day. Pretty good conditions which were only marred by a strong up-stream wind that kicked in about 2 p.m. By the time we finished fishing at 6 p.m. it was blowing a gale. For the first time in many weeks no one fished after dinner, preferring a banya followed by arm chair fishing by the fire.

Lawrence D in action

At Middle Varzuga our team of six landed 31 salmon. The fish seem evenly spread throughout this long beat and here were no particular hot spots, other than Simmons again from which James D had 5 fish. Lawrence and Richard D put in a long day, walking with Hugh our Camp Manager up from Blue Rock to Scotts and fishing back down. They had six salmon apiece and returned tired but happy.

A beautifully marked salmon for Richard D

The fishing at Pana picked up and they landed 31 for the day with Charlie McV and Paddy D-P top scorers with seven each. With a ferry boat now in the Lagoon, access to the lower fishing is easier.

A happy father and son

We had quite heavy rain last night and the Longest Day of the year has dawned damp and very windy. Hoping for a clearer evening as we are planning a midnight BBQ, and some fishing on Generator of course, to celebrate mid-summer just 6 km short of the Arctic Circle.

Christopher Robinson

Mixed Blessings

Low water brings mixed blessings here at Middle Camp on the Varzuga. On the plus side the pools become more defined, fishing effort can concentrated on the more obviously productive salmon lies and the river looks stunningly beautiful. On the down-side boating is tricky to say the least. Yesterday we all clipped rocks in a couple of places so today there are two shallows where we shall get out and walk the boats through, it does not take long and is well worth the effort.

Lawrence D below Pic-nic

We had a great start to the week; having landed eight fish in Generator on their first evening our six rods set off with the sort of enthusiasm that deserved reward. Andy B and Ian C walked up from Blue Rock to Scotts – their effort paid a handsome dividend in the form of 21 salmon between them. Ian experimented a bit and had four on a Bomber with numerous others risen. Andy stuck to his Mediator tied specifically to Jim Fisher’s instructions and finished his ‘best days fishing ever’ catching four more out of Simmons on the way home - giving him a total of 17 salmon for the day. The team finished with 44 in the book, the biggest at 13lbs for young Richard D.

Richard D with one of his 10 salmon since Saturday evening

The low water hampered the experienced team at Pana. They just got into double figures, with the float trip again yielding the best results. Today we are adjusting the pre-positioning of the boats which should improve access to the lower beats.

Simmons in low water - nine salmon were caught here yesterday afternoon

Rain is forecast today, no sign of it yet and anyway unless we have a massive amount the desperately dry tundra will just soak it up. Pana would welcome even a shower, here at Middle I suspect the team would prefer to enjoy the river as it is.

Christopher Robinson