We had another really hard frost on Saturday night, no cloud cover at all and the air temperature plummeted to - 5⁰C. Despite the chilly air our new guests were determined to give it a go. At Lower, we persuaded Craig P to come back inside at midnight, his reel frozen and line iced up to the rod rings; but he had landed 7 salmon in a few hours and seemed pleased to take a break and warm up. The radio came to life at midnight to report that Julian T had just come in from Bear after landing fresh run 15lber.
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| Anticipation |
Yesterday was our first full day on the river and the boats left on time, our guests eager to get fishing. The water temperature started at 3⁰C, a bright day with a chilly breeze from the North, fairly typical for this time of year. By the evening the water had risen to 5⁰C and had dropped an inch or so.
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| Result |
On Middle they had 60 odd fish to 9 rods with Tim and Leticia S, guided by Misha, leading the way landing 18 salmon between them, mostly off Clarkes which, as old hands know, can be a hot spot this time of year.
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| Henry G at The Wires |
I went up there last night to see them all for dinner, a really happy team, delighted by the first day and looking forward to the rest of the week. The slight rise in water temperature at the end of the day had made the running fish more active and they reported quite a large number splashing through the pools on their way upstream to Pana.
At Lower, Craig P continued his success of the previous night landing a total of 20 fish for his first day. Bear Island and above it, the 3 ‘Bearlets’, fished particularly well as did Larder, Green Bank and of course The Wires. Moskoi Rapids and the Beach were a bit disappointing, we thought we’d have more from there. We ended up with 50 salmon landed at Lower on the first day to 4 guests. Not a bad start.
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| Bearlets |
There is a huge sense of relief to have the season now under way – a great deal of hard work goes into getting the camps opened, staffed, supplied, and running. Now we can settle into a routine and really enjoy this quite remarkable river.
Christopher Robinson
P.S. This morning we have sent Henry G down to Moskoi, at the last count (11 a.m.) he had landed 3 and lost 3 which sounds quite encouraging.
