Yesterday in Murmansk we said goodbye to the Pana team and
the Kitza team. Both were looking a little worse for wear but not nearly as bad
as I had expected. Matt, Beanie, Ollie and Lucy are all now safely back to
their respective home countries (well Matt is probably in transit still) and we
are the last remaining camp here at Middle. We have a reduced Russian team
having said goodbye to Ivan, Vova and Sasha on the helicopter yesterday.
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| A lovely Kitza salmon from last week |
Last week here at Middle the river continued to rise and we
landed only 3 fish on Friday leaving us with a total of 48 for the week. Jon P
had one from Bear… again and Gordon M had one on a 1 inch Willie Gunn. Despite
tricky fishing conditions with bouts of heavy rain, howling wind and flat calm
mosquito time everyone fished hard by day and played hard by night. Certainly
the largest dent in our beverage stocks of the season and some hilarious jokes
to claim as my own!
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| Kitza camp in full bloom |
Pana finished up on 56 fish with a respectable 12 on the
last day. Everyone seemed pretty up beat in Murmansk as they had enjoyed a
really fun week with a few fish each and some great memories as ever.
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| Kitza grilse |
Kitza ended up with 94 to 5 rods, many of which came from
Paul R’s rod effort. The last day they landed 16 fish with Jose M getting 9.
The Kitza team were very happy with their week’s fishing and they reported
landing sea-liced fish even on the Friday. Whilst Kitza is very much a later
river, on account of it being colder water from the lake, it’s nice to see the
run still coming.
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| Final change over of 2018 |
We are down to 4 rods here and 4 very determined and skilled
rods they are. Paul R had a fish from the pot above Bear before we arrived back
to camp (especially impressive since we made it back in double quick time).
Everyone set out to fish last night with Gordon B heading to Bear and Sean M
and Paul P coming to Generator with me. They fished hard before supper and Sean
had hold of one.
After supper Paul P and Sean M headed back out and landed 4
fish making a Saturday total of 5 to 4 rods. Paul P had 3 of them. This morning
before breakfast Sean M landed one more fish so we are already doing pretty
well for one afternoon and evening. This morning everyone is off up river splitting
the beats left and right and allowing for the whole of the rest of the river
down to the island should things be slow up top.
Despite Friday evening blowing a howling gale and nailing it
down with rain the river only came up another inch and is now pretty clear. The
water temperature is 16 degrees and we have blue skys and hot sun. Small flies
and long leaders are this team’s special skill so I am hoping we should see a
reasonable return this evening.
Jack Selby
