We had a wonderfully peaceful yet productive yesterday; being Victory Day meant that most of our Russian friends were in the village, so no helicopters coming in and out ferrying supplies, no jet boats running to and fro from the village - we turned off the insistent crackle of the HF radio in the kitchen and just enjoyed a quiet day getting the last bits in order.
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| Kari enjoying a quiet day |
A ‘productive calm’ we called it at lunch – it may sound all a bit too chilled but the set up here is pretty frenetic and moments like this are welcomed. We have finally got the supplies sorted out, the flooded office and containers have been cleaned and re-occupied, and a lot else besides, so we decided to knock off at 4 p.m. and I then took Jamie in a boat to do another recce of the beats at Lower Camp.
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| Glenn back in his container workshop |
Hugh from Middle came along for the ride as he had not seen the water below here. I asked them to bring their rods and we stopped at The Beach below Morskoy Rapids, the last rapid on the river, and they had a go for thirty minutes or so. A big run of fish came through and with the water temperature nudging 6⁰C we saw numerous fresh salmon showing. Let’s just say that they did OK and we sat on the side of the boat and wished that we had our guests here.
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| Wish you were here |
The water level remains steady; last night we had another really hard frost and the puddles in camp had a good ice covering on them by 11 p.m. At dawn this morning the water temperature was down to 3⁰C. A floating or intermediate line with a slow or medium sinking tip will work well. Flies of 1” to 2”, the colours of choice here always being red and orange, black works well too and there are others who swear by a Green Highlander. In any event, the spring salmon are here in good numbers and they tend to be less picky than their summer cousins regarding flies.
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| Green Bank last night |
Today I go to Murmansk to collect some supplies and to meet our first guests on Saturday. I will not post a blog on Saturday morning and normal service will be resumed on Sunday when I hope to have some photos of big smiles and silver salmon.
All here are much looking forward to getting the season under way – just wish you’d been here yesterday!
Christopher Robinson
