The prescribed wisdom of the Varzuga is that the ice breaks in early May to leave a very high and very cold river. With that, the first major run of fish enters the system leading to incredibly productive fishing in early spring like conditions. As the season progresses, whilst fresh fish come in all the time, we would expect less fish to be landed but summer fishing with floating lines and skated flies means that catching them can be more fun.
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| Stuart H on Bear Corner |
How then, do we explain that we landed more fish yesterday than during any day of last week? 118 fish were landed across the camps with catches remarkably even for all rods.
At Lower and Middle, as well as catching more, we saw a lot more fish and whilst plenty were put in the book, an awful lot more were lost. Not a problem as this river is all about action and that is what everyone was reporting.
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| Nick W on Beach |
Steve and Jenny W were the stars at Lower with 13 fish between them. We normally toast the top rod each day but the toast last night was instead reserved for Ernie D who landed his first ever Atlantic salmon in the morning and then had another in the afternoon. 25 was the final tally for the day but Stuart H and Glynn D were not happy with that and went out and had 2 more after dinner whilst
Steve W has landed 2 from the Wires this morning before coming in for breakfast.
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| Jenny W on Wires |
Middle finished on 43 for the day. As is usually the case, the returning rods fared slightly better and it was Doug U and Ian H who put their knowledge of the beat to good use by landing 7 each. Jack reported a very happy camp last night and it sounded as if they celebrated fully.
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| Andrew B on Bear Island |
Kitza landed 26 but that figure is almost irrelevant compared to the next one. 96 year old (yes I typed that correctly) Dave W landed 7 salmon yesterday from Boggy Bank and the Corner pool whilst his 21 year old grandson Dylan landed 6 from Gold Mine and Beaver Pit. A brilliant family effort and a rather inspiring one.
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| Doug U with one of 7 he had yesterday |
At Pana they had a day much more as we would expect. 23 fish were landed to the 8 rods with James H-B landing 5 of those which was matched by Jack M. Ponzoi was fishing well as was Inspectors whilst Peter H landed his first Russian salmon. A fun day all round and Matt sounded very upbeat on the satellite phone.
It is damp and gloomy this morning – pretty much the exact opposite of the mood of the clients.
Charlie White
