A damp morning yesterday so we decided to have lunch back in camp. At 1 p.m. the boats came in and it had clearly been a productive morning for most of the rods. There was quite a bit of tackle talk and various lines were changed and adjustments made before all set off for the afternoon session. As we thought, the best combination at the moment is a floating line with an intermediate or slow sinking tip and a brass or aluminium tube fly of 1” – 2”.
 |
| Ken L and Sergei at Heli Pool |
The water dropped a couple of inches and Sharks Tooth rock, here in Heli Pool at Lower Camp, is just beginning to show. By the afternoon the water temperature was up to 6⁰C, after a hard frost again last night it is back down to 4⁰C this morning.
At Lower Camp we landed 89 salmon to our 11 rods with four guests getting into double figures, notably Richard M with 16 and Robin M, who had not caught a salmon 24 hours ago, with 13. Indeed four of our rods caught their first salmon – a really encouraging start to the season.
 |
| Matt L with his second salmon |
Above us at Middle Camp they had at least 60 fish to eight rods in addition to the 20 landed on Saturday evening, several had fished late last night (Sunday) and Hugh did not have a final score this morning but was more than happy with the first day. The ice walls have not hindered fishing to any significant degree and only the lower half of Clarkes and a section of Party are affected.
In a similar vein to last year, a number of regular rods commented on the size and great condition of the salmon this season. Michael H had a super fish of about 14lbs and there were several other real trophies in the record book at the end of the day.
 |
| Richard M with a real beauty - one of 16 for him yesterday |
The rods were off promptly this morning - keen to make the most of the river in such good condition. After a reasonably mild day yesterday everyone is well wrapped up, the air temperature is 5⁰C although with a chill wind from the North East it feels quite a bit colder than that. We will have lunch on the river rather than haul back into camp and Maryke is busy preparing lashings of soup and a hot meal that we will run down the river for them.
An encouraging start! Tonight I will go up to see Middle Camp and will have a first hand report for you tomorrow.
Christopher Robinson.
