Honour was partly restored last night, the sun came out for an hour or so and Jessie popped down to the Heli Pool and landed our first fish. Not huge it must be said, as the Russians constantly reminded us (theirs was indeed a cracking 12lber), but a fish all the same and quite correctly celebrated with Vodka.The fog has gone and we had a bright, warm day today. About 10°C, possibly more – we were working in shirt sleeves at times. The river rose another few inches over night, and this evening has really come up and is now pretty high. I suspect it will not drop off that fast and with the water temp likely to be in the range 1°C – 4°C next week it will be proper high water spring fishing, and good conditions for us. The fish will be really concentrated and we have had some of our best catches when the river is like this.
If you are coming next week make sure you have a line that can get down. A fast sinking tip or even a Teeny Line (I use a Teeny 300). If you need advice and/or kit quickly, call Brian Fratel at Farlows (020 7484 1000), Brian has fished with us on this week for 14 years and will give you excellent advice and can provide the kit.
Dave (on the left) our mechanic and Garth the Middle Manager (on the right) and I went up to Middle today. Big Misha and Volva were there with a team getting the camp looking ship shape. Luda was in the kitchen keeping us all going. There is quite a lot of ice on some banks, but much is clear and several places looked really inviting – Beach, Snake Pit and parts of Fortress. We took the boat all the way up to Clarkes Corner to have look. Clarkes is clear of ice and looked wonderfully fishable, opposite is quite a wall of ice, the sun was out and the scene was pure magic.
Christopher Robinson
