Yet again, it did nothing to dampen the fishing despite the
water temperature dropping to 6c. On
their last day before flying to Kitza, our 10 rods at Lower landed a further 87
for the day to put their 3 day total at 242 fish – an excellent result. Mark M put his extensive knowledge of the
beat to good use and was top rod with 21 but Tim J proved that he could pick up
a thing or two quite quickly and landed 12.
Michael G had what he described as the best days fishing of his life
whilst also finishing on 12. We lost an
awful lot of fish yesterday as the colder water seemed to make the salmon take quite
short.
A close up of one of Brendan's fish - they are in great shape this season |
In the evening we flew over to Kitza where we met a very
happy team of rods. They had added 44 to
give them a half term tally of 143.
Peter H had 10 to his rod yesterday whilst Brendan G is putting in the
hours and is being regularly rewarded.
The river is still quite big but is dropping by about 6 inches every day
and it is becoming more and more defined as time goes on.
Rhod D on Morskoy Island, the first time it has been out of the water this year |
Middle Varzuga had another stellar day and landed 237 fish
to the 12 rods. This puts them on a running
total of 852 for the week; amazing stuff and they are on course to break their
own record which they set in in 2012 which was an eye watering 1,377. David C and Chris C were the top performers
in a pretty high achieving team and they each landed 31 in the day.
Val J on Morskoy in the afternoon |
Our team at Pana are sadly not having the fishing we would
hope for them. At the risk of bemoaning
the weather at every turn, the combination of a late ice break, followed by a
heat wave and then followed by a cold snap has ensured that the fish are moving
up river quite slowly. They are boating
a long way downstream to try to intercept them but so far they have had no
luck. It will change and when they do
hit fish they will surely hit quite a lot as the run seems very strong and they
must be stacked up somewhere.
Hamish Mackie studying the Arctic Terns |
I spent the morning on the coast of the White Sea with
sculptor Hamish Mackie. He is out here
to study the Arctic Terns and the other Kola wildlife before collating an
exhibition in 2016. Having taken over
1,300 photos of terns yesterday, his mind is running wild with possibilities and
it will be very exciting to see what he can come up with.
Charlie White