2018 will not go down as one of our more stellar years but
finding reasons as to why that should be the case may be harder than it looks,
although being fishermen, it will not stop us trying!
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| The ice breaking at Lower Varzuga |
Every year we await news from our Russian partners about the
ice break and state of the river and after the disappointing reports we endured
in 2016 and 2017 (ice breaking too early followed by the ice break being
massively delayed) it was with considerable relief that our advance team got to
the river to find “normal” conditions a week before our first clients where set
to arrive.
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| The first heli of the season coming into Lower Varzuga |
The river was still frozen at that stage but nothing we have
not seen before and with temperatures warming up it all looked good. As it transpired, whilst we had ice coming
down the river for the first day of fishing, we were into fish immediately
although Lower Varzuga took longer to get going as the water was bank high and
access was tricky.
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| Ken L with a cracker |
A final score of 392 to our 11 rods at Middle set a very
good benchmark for the first week of the season and with some noticeably bigger
fish being landed, it looked as though we were set for a bonanza.
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| Jonathan B on the beginnings of Bear Island |
It didn’t work out like that. Whilst we continued to land some cracking
fish, it became abundantly clear that the grilse run just was not in
evidence.
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| Gareth C at Middle |
I was based at Lower Varzuga for its 4-week season and every
day there would be something that made you think “here we go, they are here
now” such as someone landing a good number in a session on our lowest beat or
seeing fish suddenly appearing to fill up the home pools but every time these
proved to be “false hope” events. The
initial euphoria of seeing the river in perfect ply turned into concern that,
with perfect conditions, the run of fish that we would expect just hadn’t
materialised.
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| Jamie H who never stopped smiling all week |
It is easy when you are on the Kola to get a little insular
and wrapped up in the daily drama of life in the middle of nowhere. One person struggling on the river feels like
a personal tragedy whilst someone suddenly reporting that they landed a hatful
of fresh fish feels as if all is right with the world and nowhere could be more
fun. As is often the case, the reality
is somewhere in between.
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| Jim A down at Beach |
Our season was nowhere near as productive as we would expect
or hope for. Having said that, we still
managed to record over 2,400 fish in our books over our 7 week season.
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| Our very own Lynsey Mair having fun on the river |
It is not for me to say what is good and what is not good
fishing but I do believe that figures like that, in what we can all call a
disappointing season, do point to a river that is generally extremely
productive.
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| Rob T on Clark's |
It is a magic experience to be up there and the focus on
numbers of fish landed don’t really do the whole trip justice. The helicopters, isolation, peace, fun,
laughter and a feeling that the rest of the world doesn’t exist for a week is
something that has to be experienced to be fully appreciated.
All of us know how lucky we are to call our time up there
“work” and we hugely enjoy sharing it with our clients and understand that it
is thanks to our Russian friends that it is possible at all.
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| Laughter is never very far away |
As the rest of the world is discovering, the Russian
nationals on the ground couldn’t be more hospitable and being able to see that
first hand is genuinely uplifting and tends to make a mockery of what we read
in the newspapers.
People’s expectations and hopes of what their week will
produce, in terms of the numbers of fish and the overall experience, varies
from individual to individual but fishing in Russia is something that everyone
remembers for a very long time.
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| The sun sets on another season |
We will of course be going through our strict first right of
return policy but if you would like to have more details for our 2019 season
please do not hesitate to contact me.
Charlie White
