An extraordinary day at Middle Varzuga

All of the 4 camps that we run on the river are linked by HF radio, the advantage of which is that it is an open radio meaning that we can all hear one another which is useful in many different ways.  Sometimes the radio reception can be patchy and in emergencies or when we really need to clarify something, we have satellite phones.  After radio call last night I asked Terry to call me on the sat phone as I was not sure I had deciphered his numbers properly.

Valerie J with her first salmon caught on a fly

The 12 rods at Middle Varzuga landed 262 fish on top of a further 111 they’d had on their first evening – simply extraordinary fishing and figures I felt were worth double checking.  Rather inevitably, there were some huge scores to individual rods and I shall just give a few highlights; the father and son team of David and Stephen C landed 52 between them, Jeremy H, Paul C and Lawrence R all had 30 each and one regular guest landed 38 in the day.

The ever smiling Igor with one of Michael S-D's fish

That the fish are being held up at Middle is good news for them but means that the team at Pana have to wait a bit longer than normal for the run to get to them.  They will but sadly they had not by yesterday and it was a quiet day up there.  We are lucky to have our Spanish friends in camp who had a bonanza in the low water of last year and know that this can be the way it goes.

Rhodri D with one from Duck

Kitza, perhaps predictably, completely altered on changeover day and the 10 rods had a great day landing 45 fish.  With new showers fitted on Saturday and plentiful fish across the beat, it does feel like a different camp – all in the space of 2 days.   Peter H was the top rod with 10 for his day and Bruce B had a really chunky fish of around 13lbs from Deluxe.  Brendan G went out this morning and has already landed 3 from the Heli pool so their day looks set fair. 

Will D at Bearlets

At Lower we had a really good day and finished with 49 in the book.  Tudor D just outfished his son Rhodri and they had 8 and 7 fish respectively with other son Will, close behind on 5.  Michael S-D and fishing partner Bob M matched each other with 7 fish each but the day’s biggest celebration was reserved for Valerie J who landed her first salmon on a fly.  It was not exactly a small one either and the many shots of vodka that were consumed last night may explain a slightly weary start this morning.

More tomorrow when hopefully I will have some pictures of Middle Varzuga as I am planning on going up there this evening.

Charlie White