Yesterday was busy day with a lot of traveling around. After watching our rods leave for their morning session, a few of us flew to Kitza to see how the setup of that camp was progressing. Very well was the outcome with the new dining and sitting room looking really smart and it will be a big boost to this wonderful camp.
 |
| The new lodge at Kitza |
The water levels over there are holding up really well which is not unusual with the two big Kitza lakes providing a steady and reliable source.
 |
| Looking upstream at Kitza - it looks pretty much perfect |
Whilst flying over there it was interesting to get an aerial view of our beat here at Lower and I am not sure that I have seen Moscoi Island so obviously out of the water by the 16th of May before.
 |
| Moscoi Island clearly visible in the bottom left of the picture |
After dropping off various supplies at Kitza, our pilots announced that we were to go on a rescue mission. It transpired that in late April, one of our Russian friends had managed to ditch a skidoo into a river which was being hidden by a snow drift. Completely stuck they had to walk out and leave the skidoo where it was. The tundra is a big and featureless place but after 30 minutes of flying roughly where they thought it was, we spotted it and tried to land on the boggy marsh. After a few attempts we hovered near the skidoo, jumped out (which made us all very wet) and hauled it into the back of the helicopter. Riding a skidoo, inside a helicopter, is not something I have done before and I was not going to miss the opportunity!
 |
| Just another day in the office |
After which I went up to Middle Varzuga for dinner to find a very happy team. It had been a slightly slower day than it had been the day before and they finished with 43 salmon to their 10 rods. Mark G, on his first trip here, landed 9 of those and had a smile a mile wide.
 |
| Jonathan B with a lovely fish from Moscoi |
Donna cooked us a delicious supper and we got back to Lower just after midnight following a stunning drive back in the bright sunshine.
Given all of that I was hardly here yesterday but gather from Bill that it was a similar story to Middle in that it was a good day but not quite as productive as before. 47 fish are recorded in the book with Graeme, Yuri and Ken being the top rods. Peter C-G had a cracking fish of around 15lbs from Bear Corner and the lower beats are still the most productive which indicates a building run of fish which is as we would expect.
 |
| Ken L on Heli |
This morning offers no change in the weather with cloudless skies and high temperatures. We are still fishing quite heavy sink tips but if this keeps up it will not be long before we start to move up the water column and decrease the fly sizes.
Charlie White
