The New Week

It is always a sense of relief to have all the in-coming guests into camp on Saturday evening in time to relax, enjoy a cold beer or a glass of wine, assemble the rods, have dinner, and for those keen enough, a chance of an hour or two down the home pool under the constant day light.

A happy group last night after Hugh S caught his first Russian salmon

The transition through Murmansk airport gets easier each year. All the major operators share our Kola Charter from Helsinki, we all know each other well and there is a refreshing degree of co-operation and banter as we meet our respective guests and make sure the luggage goes to the correct helicopter.

At Middle Camp after dinner Hugh S caught the second salmon of his life from Generator and James F had one from Bear on his single handed rod. We have some less experienced fishers this week, all really enthusiastic to make the most of the river, so this morning Hugh has taken them off to Generator Pool to refresh the casting skills and settle into six days fishing on the amazing Varzuga.

Some of our guests wish to remain anonymous

The river has stopped rising and it should now continue its steady drop throughout this week. We had a blisteringly hot day yesterday and the water temperature climbed to 18⁰C, a touch too high to be perfect however the forecast looks like cloudy weather most of the week so hopefully it will go no higher.

Radio reception was poor this morning, if the other camps have an issue they can call in on their satellite phones, otherwise we rely on the HF radios, all can listen in and there is a good degree of fishing chatter. Both Pana and Kitza reported salmon caught last night but the detail was hard to hear.

David and John setting off this morning

Last week was an exceptional weeks fishing, marred only by the rain on 13 June which although welcomed put the salmons heads down a bit as the river rose through the latter half of the week. All camps recorded above average catches with Kitza at 276 salmon for eight rods, Pana just under 700 for eight rods and here at Middle a great score of 540 for 11 rods. All commented on the size of fish this season, their aggressive takes and fighting strength.

The Pana camp from the helicopter yesterday

The new teams will settle in today and I will let you know how they have got on tomorrow.

Christopher Robinson