Water Height

Pana and Kitza are enjoying the extra water this year. Ollie over at Kitza reported 28 salmon for the team yesterday with the additional great news that Mark L, who had not caught a salmon before, landed five on his first day of salmon fishing. The water level is perfect at Kitza, the entire river is accessible to our jet boats and with some rain forecast over the next 24 hours they should be fine this week.

Danya with one of J-C's salmon at Party Pool

Up at Pana they had another excellent day with 48 salmon on the bank to add to the 21 they caught on the first evening. The water height means that they should be able to boat right down to Ponzoi all this week – hopefully for longer than that, but it will depend on just how much more rain we get.

Tim P and Vova at Clarke's

Here at Middle Camp I could do with less water! It is well over a foot higher than I might expect at this time of year – not a massive difference I know, but our upper beat at Yovas is so much better in low water. Ian S, who knows the river as well as anyone, went right up to Scots yesterday and with Chris M fished all the way down to Blue Rock. Ian had five salmon but felt that the water was just a bit too high to really make the most of it.

Harry P and a cracking hen fish yesterday

We landed 19 for the day, not a great score for the Middle Camp, but good to see Harry adding a further two to his fishing book having caught his first salmon the evening before. We have changed tactics a bit and today will try slightly larger, heavier flies – that said Ian and Chris are determined to try skating and have booked me for the afternoon session. I have the tail-out on the left hand side of R’s Folly in mind for them. Normally I’d put money on that place – but in this height I’m not quite as confident as usual. I’ll let you know how we get on.

The vast watershed and wilderness around us on Varzuga

We will see what this new weather system brings us in terms of rain over the next 48 hours, after that it looks pretty settled. I know that those coming to Pana and Kitza next week will be happy with another good dump of rain. Here at Middle we have had enough thank you!

I’ll keep you posted – now I’m off to dig out the box of Bombers and Sunrays to prep for the afternoon with Ian and Chris.

Christopher Robinson