Sunday 16 June 2013

A New Week

We bade a fond goodbye to last week’s guests at Murmansk, there was lots of “see you next year” and I noted that of our 28 guests last week only 5 were on their first trip to the river, all of those 5 being invited by existing rods. Which I guess explains why it can be hard to get a slot on the Varzuga in mid-June.
Farewell from the team at Middle Camp
I met the three incoming groups in the usual controlled chaos of the small arrivals area but we were soon out of the airport and on our way to the camps. Shortly after dropping the teams off at Pana and Kitza I flew back over Pana on a supply run and was delighted to see the boats down at the bottom of Lagoon and guests already out fishing. They caught 8 salmon and retired for dinner looking forward to their week.

The view from the dining room at dinner
Over at Kitza the rods too were soon in action and they landed 5 fish, the most important catch being a first salmon for young Jamie R F, who at 12 years old is probably the youngest fisher we have had on the river.

We got into Middle a little later than the other camps, had dinner and then it was off to the river under a wonderful midnight light. Hugh S got us off to a good start with 3 cracking fish from Generator before the whisky came out.

Hugh with one of his three salmon last night
Today has dawned bright and clear with the prospect of cloud cover this afternoon and perhaps some rain in the next 24 hours. The rain of Friday night has shifted the water level up a few inches, not enough to change the boating regime at Kitza and Pana, however here at Middle Camp Sasha and Vova are going to try and see how far up Yovas they can get their boats today. The water temperature is steady at 13⁰C and we are all on floating lines and quite small flies, size 8 through to 12.

Generator Pool at midnight
More tomorrow.

Christopher Robinson