A breezy day yesterday, enough wind to keep any mosquitoes off but not enough to trouble the casting, a good light too with a high overcast sky and sunny at times. Good weather in which to enjoy the river.
The water height is holding up well, after all our concerns in early May about ‘a low water’ year mother nature has again evened things out and we are still getting the big boat here at Middle right through to Scott’s some 10 kms above Camp. Up at Pana, Head Guide Dima, a wonderful boatman, simply said ‘many rocks’ which is code for ‘I can get down to Ponzoi but I’ll take that Beat on myself’.
Tiffy P into a good salmon at Simmons
They had 23 at Pana yesterday, the best fish a fresh 14lber caught by Charlie McV in Choppy. Here at Middle, Mark M led the way for the second day running with seven fish. His magic fly is a shrimp pattern which Ash M reliably reports to be a Wilkinson’s Shrimp. No one else has anything like it and Mark is a bit cagey about how many he has in his fly box. They would certainly command a premium if placed on the market just now.
Anton, Tiffy and Donna running lunch up riverWe had reasonable numbers of fish splashing through here yesterday but finding taking fish was less easy - unless you had a Wilkinson’s Shrimp. After lunch I put a confident Dave, who knows the water well, into the tail of Snake Pit where grilse constantly showed all afternoon. I picked him up at 6 p.m. – “I’ve had my arse whipped” he said in his mid-western drawl, “those fish are playing mind games”.
Ash came back in with four fish under his belt including two in double figures – he had found an Apache Shrimp in box which seemed to work.
Bob C went out before breakfast this morning and landed three in Generator – encouraging news for those tucking into Donna’s scrambled eggs – but we are not sure what fly he was using. Rumour has it that it was a ‘shrimpy thingy’.
Bob C at Madonna's
Off to dig around in the depths of my fly box (for the umpteenth time) – I used to have a Foxford Shrimp – somewhere........
Christopher Robinson
