Tuesday 27 May 2014

An extra week on Pana

Yesterday was as cold a day as we have had for a while.  A bitter and strong upstream wind made life uncomfortable and we had lunch in camp as opposed to our normal picnic on the riverbank.  It is so helpful to have Bill Drury with us here at Lower and he got around to all of the rods to teach them new casts to deal with the strong winds.  Even those who have not done it before were soon proficient in left hand up Circle C’s.

Tudor D with one of 31 he landed yesterday
All of which would normally lead to less than productive fishing – not so yesterday.  At Lower we put 106 in the book; the best day of the season and Tudor D had the day of his life landing 31 of those.  Larder and Bearlets were the most productive pools for him and it was striking that he landed all of those fish in “office hours”. 

Kitza continues to improve every day and yesterday the 10 rods had 54 fish on the bank along with numerous other encounters.  Brendan G is here for the first time but he put his extensive fishing knowledge to good use and had 9 for the day.


Hamish Mackie on the Wires yesterday afternoon
In the evening I went up to Middle and it is fair to say that I walked into a pretty happy camp.  They had had another amazing day and accounted for 258 between them.  75 of those fish were taken from Pertiha pool over the day and Brian W had 30 to his rod whilst Paul C landed 26.  None of the pools above Clarkes are really working yet which is yet another indication that the fish are being held up there before they start their major run up the river.

As a result I am afraid that Pana remains very slow but this late spring does allow us the chance to add another week of fishing at this legendary camp.

Pana is 80 miles from the White sea and it takes time for the fish to get there in big numbers – we would expect the week to average between 30-40 fish per rod but on similar dates in 2009, 8 rods averaged 63 fish per rod so it can be extremely productive in conditions such as these.

Pana camp at the junction of the Indel and Pana
We will keep the camp open this year for a fifth week, Saturday 21st to Saturday 28th June for a maximum of 8 rods – there is a minimum requirement of 5 rods for the week to run. The camp will be staffed by our own Roxtons manager and cook plus the regular Russian team. The cost is £3,800 per rod, including all drinks in camp. Flights to and from Murmansk and visa costs are not included.  
This opportunity is very much first come first served and please contact the office as soon as possible if you would like fish Pana this year.   

Rhodri D on Jannaways
Just to add to the feeling of a late spring, it is snowing here this morning and I suspect we will be having lunch back in the dining room again but if it means the same sort of numbers as we had yesterday then no one will be complaining.

Charlie White