It is great to be back. We look forward to the season starting as much as anyone else and it is always fun to kick the trip off in Helsinki with a few beers and mounting excitement.
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| Boarding the new Titan jet - very comfortable, quiet and fast |
We got to Murmansk in blazing sunshine and with just two camps open it took very little time to get through immigration and customs. By 3:30 we were all in camp after the long heli ride; during which we did not see much snow but did notice that most of the lakes on the tundra were still frozen.
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| One of the many frozen lakes we flew over yesterday |
Everyone was keen to get going but with a strong upstream wind it was not the easiest of starts and for most people it was simply a chance to get on the river again and iron out any rustiness.
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| Ken L with his first fish of the season |
Graeme Y however has clearly been practising at home as he made the whole thing look very simple. 5 fish before we sat down to dinner and 1 afterwards was a great start to his week and showed everyone the way.
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| Neil C, tackling up moments after the heli got to Lower |
At Middle it was a similar story with the team raring to go and they landed 10 fish before Donna called them in. Duncan F had 3 of those from Lower Generator and Simon R was up before breakfast this morning to land 1 from the same place.
The river is low for this time of the year and the water temperature is about 8 degrees so we are fishing sink tips and on occasion just intermediates with ½ inch tubes.
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| Mike H and Feorder, fishing together for the umpteenth time |
It remains very bright this morning and I could have made a lot of money out of sun cream sales as none of us were expecting it to be this warm but there is no doubt that the levels of anticipation at breakfast demonstrated just how good it is to be back.
Charlie White
