Thursday 30 May 2013

Another day in the sun

With the sun beating down yesterday it was difficult not to feel slightly lethargic and it seemed as though the fish were in a similar mood. The story of the day across all of the camps was that we hooked and played as many fish as we could possibly hope but that actually landing them was a different thing altogether. They were not quite going for the fly in the same aggressive manner as they have been in the past few days but once hooked they fought incredibly hard and many were lost.

Bruce B in the brightest of conditions at Larder
At Middle the 12 rods landed over 90 fish and again catches were spread evenly across everyone. Boating up there is fine at the moment and Hugh still has the big boat going up and down the beats which indicates that they have found plenty of channels to cover the whole river.

Whilst the water temperature is up to 12-13 degrees (which would normally mean floating lines are the best option) we are finding that an intermediate tip and a weighted fly is actually working the best. It seems as though the fish are just dropping down in the water column to keep away from the very bright conditions up top.

Phillip L-J below the Wires - not a monster but it took him well into the backing
The 8 rods at Pana also lost a lot of fish but they are hugely enjoying fishing water that is completely new compared to their previous experiences. They landed 35 for the day with Ponzoi (where they can still boat down to) being the most productive pool which would indicate that the bulk of the fish that we have seen down here has not quite got there yet.  Benjamin B landed the biggest fish of his life at 18lbs to continue his run of landing the larger salmon that are always at Pana.

Bob M and Mark M took joint top honours for their day at Kitza landing 9 apiece. Bob was fishing the very bottom of the beat and Mark the very top – great to see the whole river producing fish and they ended with 51 in the book.

Yesterday's picnic on Jannaways - hard to beat
Here at Lower we celebrated Lucy M’s best days fishing yet with 3 fish in her morning session from Bear Island. Her father Joe also had a great day landing 8 from Bear Island and Jannaways. We finished with 43 fish to the 9 rods but there was a serious lecture at supper for John G-H and Joe to ensure that we can have a picture of one of Lucy’s next fish for the blog.

Despite the heat, ice walls remain on the bank
The weather today? You guessed it – bright blue skies, soaring temperatures and the exact opposite to that you are having at home. Whilst some rain and some cloud cover would be nice, it is hard to deny that it is stunning being here in these conditions and as long as the fish continue to play ball, there will be very few people here who want to change it very much.

Charlie White