Yesterday was a busy day in Murmansk as most of the Kola rivers are now open and as we all share the same charter from Helsinki the immigration hall was packed but within a couple of hours we were on the helicopter and ready to start a new week.
We can only hope that this week starts in the same way that last week finished. We had superb fishing across all of the camps and Kitza is now dropping in perfectly for the new group. The departing team had their best day of 45 fish from the river on Friday and David P went out last night to land 2 before dinner and they should have an excellent week over there.
 |
| Henry P on Moscoi Rapids |
At Lower we had one of our best days on Friday with 52 fish landed to the 10 rods. We welcomed Eoin Fairgrieve and Bill Drury with their very keen team of rods and supper last night was a quick affair as everyone was keen to get on the river. Stephen W was the one to get off to a flyer with 6 fish in a couple of hours from Wires but everyone who went out managed to land fish and the enthusiasm levels this morning are great to see.
Pana fished beautifully by the end of the week and the team of 6 finished with exactly 150 fish for their 6 days fishing. There is no doubt that their fishing got better and better each day and with a few fish already in the book from our new team, we hope that this trend continues.
 |
| Howard E last night |
At Middle the unthinkable happened. I did not believe that it was possible to catch more fish than the previous group had done as that was a record for the river in itself. I was wrong. The 12 rods finished their week with 1,377 bars of silver and amazingly, 8 different clients landed over 100 fish to their own rods. It was great to catch up with them all in Murmansk and it was clear that they all recognised that they had been part of something very special. “We will never see it like that again” was the overriding comment and I think that they have a point but I rather hope that they are wrong!
 |
| Bill Drury and Stephen W ready for action this morning |
The 10 rods who are there this week have already landed several before breakfast and there seems no sign of the run slowing down. However, we have a very strong and cold upstream wind this morning which is going to make life tougher for everyone but it will give Bill and Eoin ample opportunity to put their tuition skills to good use.
Charlie White
