Back online!

My apologies for the lack of blog yesterday.   A combination of a trip to Umba to deliver new boats and slow internet speeds meant that I ran out of time.

Back here the news is that finally, finally, we have seen the sun.  I had almost forgotten what it looked like and the whole river feels like a different place with a bit of warmth on it.

A lively fish on Bear Corner

The fish are responding in kind although it does feel as if they are making up for lost time and are running very hard.

I have just spoken to Toby at Middle who said that yesterday was the first day that they have seen lots of fish moving, jumping and generally getting on with how we would expect them to behave.

And landed...

They have landed 62 fish for the past couple of days and again they have had some really good ones.
Phillip T landed a cracking 15lbs fish from Fortress whilst Ian H landed 6 from Peartiha and lost a further 6.  Keen blog watchers will note that it is the high water pools that are still the most productive.

Here at Lower we have seen great strides in the casting of everyone and whilst 24 fish for the past couple of days is not quite as many as we would have liked, we have had great fun in getting them.
With the water now, eventually, steadily dropping, there are more and more places where we can ambush the running fish and news of fish showing at Middle is spurring everyone on to intercept more of them before they get there!

The Arctic Terns have only just started to arrive

The fish may be showing at Middle but they are not yet at Pana.  We do need to water temperatures to warm up a touch to help them make the distance faster but I am sure that any minute now they will be there.

Kitza has slightly gone in fits and starts with John E having a great session on Sasha’s with 4 fish but some of the beats being rather more stubborn. They have banked 25 fish to the 8 rods over the past two days and again, dropping water will make the whole beat more fishable.

Our first picnic lunch of the season 

It is a warm morning today and it really does make putting on the waders a much more appealing prospect than it was when looking out onto snow showers.  More tomorrow when I hope we have dropping water, increasing temperatures and rising numbers of fish.

Charlie White