Monday 28 May 2018

Summer levels

I have been fortunate enough to have been coming to this river for 16 years and yet, every year it still surprises me.  We have essentially gone from some of the highest water we have ever seen to summer levels in less than two weeks.

It is difficult to explain how much it changes and the only way to really do it is by photos - even they don’t really do it justice.

Lower this morning - 2 weeks ago the water was lapping at the yellow bin
All of which is a heads up to those coming later in the season that we may not be able to access all of the beats all of the time with the boats.   I am going up to dinner to Middle Varzuga tonight as I think this could be the last day of the week that I will get up there.

The fishing yesterday was remarkably similar to last week with some individual highlights thrown in.

Shark's tooth rock. Fully under water 6 days ago, now stranded
At Kitza they landed 16 and Ollie tells me that the party over there really enjoyed their day.  No doubt bolstered by the fact that Fred G caught his first ever salmon and then went on to land another one – not a bad way to start your career with your first day on a river!

At Middle, the 12 very experienced rods recorded 37 with catches very evenly spread.  This team would expect more than that and it will be interesting to see if today is a better day given slightly kinder conditions.

Generator - falling quickly
Pana landed 9 for their day which is about what we would expect for the first day of their season given the ice break date.  They only landed fish of over 10lbs and their run will steadily build and build.

Jamie K on Bear Corner
At Lower we landed 22 with Brad B having a great afternoon on Bear Corner landing 5 of those.  The big discussion this morning amongst the guides was the route they need to take down the rapids and I have a suspicion that Glenn, our resident mechanic, may soon be rather busy dealing with rock damaged engines.

A much brighter day today and warmer conditions give hope for a better day and with water temperatures at around 12 degrees, we look set fair.

Charlie White