Sunday 18 May 2014

Great to be back

Friday night in Helsinki is always something that I look forward to.  Everyone is always full of excitement and catching up with so many familiar faces is a lot of fun. 

An early start on Saturday morning meant that we got to Murmansk at 11am and by 4pm everyone was in camp.  It seemed as if we waited in Murmansk for ages but a 3 hour transfer time to the helicopters was relatively rapid movement.
Craig P into the first of the season
In glorious and warm sunshine we flew over the tundra and whilst there is a lot of snow still remaining, the huge lakes that dot the landscape were beginning to thaw and it felt much more like a normal spring than perhaps it has for the past two weeks.
Arrival into camp is normally pretty full on as we all catch up and discuss the time since we last saw each other but it does not take long before all that is put to one side and the rods start to be assembled. 
A good one to kick us off
Craig P was the man to open the scoring at Lower with a chunky fish caught just in front of camp.  The hot weather of the past two days has meant that the river is rising really quite quickly and it is pretty dirty at the moment as all of the snow, ice and mud is washed into system so getting your fly down and in front of them is going to prove crucial for the next couple of days.

At Middle the team were predictably into waders as soon as the helicopter touched down and they landed 28 fish in their first foray before dinner with Peter W taking no time at all to land 5 fresh fish from Generator.
Mark and Ken offering "helpful" advice to Craig
At Kitza, Tom reports that the camp is in great shape.  Our wonderful and long serving Russian staff have done a brilliant job to get everything up and running in such a short space of time.  The radio this morning was poor but I gathered from him that, like us, the river is rising very quickly and is sediment heavy.
John M raring to go this morning
Dirty and rising the river might be but after a seemingly interminable wait, all of us are looking forward to the first full days fishing of the season and it is great to have the camps full of eager and enthusiastic clients.

Charlie White