A new week

Yesterday was a pretty busy day in Murmansk. We left camp at 7am and took our outgoing guests back to catch the charter flight back to Helsinki. Stories of fish landed, rods broken, sights that had been seen and a general catch up are a great way to start the day.

Lower Varzuga in the sun on Friday

The teams had a lot to talk about. The 12 rods at Middle Varzuga finished with 464 for their week. It sounds ridiculous but in some ways we all felt that the figure was a bit smaller than we might have expected. The 9 rods who fished Lower Varzuga before Kitza finished with 341 in the book whilst the "opposing" team of 10 rods recorded 407, remarkably consistent fishing.

Swans flying over us yesterday

Having waved goodbye to them, we awaited the incoming clients. It quickly became apparent that some had lost their bags. Not a good situation in anyone’s eyes and the team needed to think quickly on their feet. Several texts and phone calls later and everyone was kitted out and on the river. New waders, rods and jackets were sourced from our base camp and some remarked that they were going fishing looking a lot smarter than they had anticipated.

Maryke and Bill setting up lunch

As ever, a few fish under your belt makes most situations feel rather better and Michael S-D proved the point by going up to Wires last night and landing 5 before dinner.

Jamie K has also landed 5 fish before he meets his guide and with reports of fish landed from Kitza, Middle and Pana, the week has started as we would hope and I look forward to bringing you more news from here tomorrow.

Charlie White