The rain of Tuesday night continued most of yesterday, accompanied by an upstream gale in the morning. Pretty foul conditions and here at Middle Camp we kept the generator on all day in case anyone took an involuntary swim and needed a warming shower, we lit the fire and brought everyone back into the lodge for lunch.
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| Fishing in the mid-night sun |
The river rose slowly throughout the day, on the radio last night the camps reported the casting into the wind tricky and the fish fickle. The score sheets were down a bit with Kitza recording 45 salmon with the biggest of the day at 14lbs to Ed B. The river had risen by 3½” triggering a landslide at Clay View which coloured up the water for the lower beat so Tom moved the whole team up-river. This morning the water had cleared and they will be able to put a couple of rods below camp into the ever productive Sasha’s Pool.
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| A 14lber for Ian S |
Up at Pana the team of eight rods had 102 fish for the day taking them past an extraordinary milestone of 8,000 salmon landed and released in 21 years of fishing here. The river up there has risen 4” in the past 36 hours and all the lower pools remain accessible.
At Middle the fish were a bit dour, but I guess that statement needs to be put into a wider context – we finished with 78 salmon for 11 rods, not exactly a disaster in salmon fishing terms. Everyone one had three fish or more for the day, again Ian S, Richard L and Dominique C leading the way with double figure scores.
There was no doubt that the fish had their heads down a bit, after dinner the weather calmed so Ian S, Hugh and I took the boat down to Party Pool to experiment. Ian fished his trusty fly, The Mediator, on a very short slow sinking tip while Hugh and I took turns with either a Bomber or skated Sunray Shadow. In an hour and a half Ian landed four (one a cracker of 14lbs) and lost one; while not a single fish showed to the surface flies.
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| 1,111 salmon caught and released so far this week |
The river should settle down today, it is up 4” at Middle which gives us a bit more lee way for the jet boats, the weather is cooler and brighter and there is a light breeze. Everyone has been digging around in their fly boxes for Mediators and Hugh has been busy at the fly tying bench. We’ll see what happens today, so far this week 27 rods on the Varzuga and Kitza have landed exactly 1,111 salmon in four days. Not too bad!
Christopher Robinson
