When we arrived on Saturday night it was raining lightly and Sunday morning was damp and dull but it is clear that there must have been a lot more rain in the catchment area overall. From Saturday evening to this morning the river has risen by around 4-5 inches which is a huge amount for a river of this size.
Yesterday morning was relatively difficult for all of the camps but the river levelled off by around 3pm and suddenly everyone started catching fish in the numbers that they had been on the first day.
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Ueli Z with one of the 10 fish he had yesterday |
Here at Lower Varzuga we had 60 fish to the 10 rods and Ueli Z, who has been coming out here for many years, had his first ever double digit day and landed a round total of 10 fish to his own rod. The other notable feat is that we have had 3 clients land their first ever salmon - Bill D, Gwyn D and Rhodri D are all on the score sheet and continuing to land more.
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Rhodri D with his first salmon |
Kitza had another great day with 50 fish landed to the 8 rods. Ian E and Peter H were top scorers with 14 and 13 fish respectively. It is strange, that with such an early break in the ice, the fish should be appearing in their numbers as late in the season as this but it is good to see that the run is as strong as ever. We will fly over there tonight to do the mid week changeover and their team will be here for the next 3 days.
Pana had another very good day and 35 fish were put in the book by the 8 rods with Jose F-M at the top of the charts with 9 fish. More big fish were a feature of the day and it sounded as if as many fish were lost as they were landed.
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Bill D with his first fish - not a great picture but a great feeling |
I took my father up to Middle Varzuga last night (it takes about an hour by boat) and we had an excellent dinner with the 12 rods there. Paul C and Jeremy H were the top rods on the day and they had had 15 fish each. A total of 115 fish for the day was excellent but they all felt that the strong upstream wind had probably had a detrimental effect on the overall score.
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It's official, the blog is bribeable - one for Janet! |
Sink tips remain popular but we have a very bright and warm day today, albeit with a very strong downstream wind, and it won’t be long before the sink tips prove less effective than a full floater.
Charlie White