Thursday 1 June 2017

They’re here

Thankfully, yesterday’s confidence was not misplaced.  We had a much better day at Lower Varzuga and it is clear that the main run of fish has now started to arrive.

It was very evident that fish were running in pods and you had to be there at the right time but when you were, the action was electric.

Adrian D on Upper Sviats
This was best shown by Adrian D who had a red letter session in Upper Sviats and landed 8 fish in the afternoon.   John G had 6 for the day whilst Brendan G continues to fish all hours he can whilst also catching fish during them.

We finished on 33 for the day which is by no means a big day when it comes to Lower catches but it is a very big step in the right direction.

Paul C with a good fish from Middle
I went up to Middle Varzuga for dinner which is a journey I normally really enjoy (about 50 minutes by boat) but I have to say that it was utterly freezing last night.  There is still a lot of ice on the banks and snow on the ground so any wind has a real bite to it.

They had a very good day and landed 80 fish to the 12 rods.  Everybody had contributed equally but the interesting thing I discovered was that the home pools have not yet started producing in a major way.

The new dining room at Middle
Middle normally scores very highly thanks to these home pools and the out of hours fishing that the team do but practically all of the fish they have caught this week have been in the guided hours.  This is very encouraging for the strength of run as it implies that they have caught the first run of the bigger fish and the grilse will start to stack up from here on.

David C on Clarkes
Sadly, Kitza and Pana did not fare so well.  The cold spring has affected their catches and without reward it is increasingly difficult to motivate the team to fish hard.  Kitza finished with 4 fish and one of the guides at Pana caught a fish just outside of the camp last night so some fish have got there and we hope that today brings them better fortune.

It is another bitterly cold day but Brendan has landed 2 fish this morning from the Heli pool which got everyone going and it was a prompt start here this morning.

Charlie White