Yesterday was as smooth a changeover as I have known. We left camp early and were in Murmansk by 9am. Having waved goodbye to a very happy homeward bound team, we moved terminals to meet the incoming clients.
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| Lee B who had a happy knack of landing the bigger fish |
They reported a good night in Helsinki but to be honest I don’t think they had slept much as there was a very definite air of excitement amongst everyone. Fair enough really as last week gave them much to look forward to.
Our 11 rods at Middle Varzuga achieved their aim of landing over 100 fish on the last day which put their final tally over the 500 mark – 508 to be precise. It was great to hear them all being so enthusiastic about their week and it was clear that Holly had done an excellent job in the kitchen.
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| Tom A with one from Middle |
Our 7 rods at Lower had their best day of the week on Friday and landed 70 between them which meant that they finished with 257 bars of silver for their 6 days of fishing. Just a great fun week and we look forward to welcoming them back next year.
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| Lee B with another |
Having taken no time at all to clear immigration and to load the helicopters, we were all back in camp by 2pm and in haste, waders were being donned and rods being put up. We only fish the home pools on the Saturday afternoon as we normally get back later than 2pm and it is the guides’ day off so any fish are really just a bonus. 68 fish felt like quite a bonus…
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| Guide Ura from Middle |
The first mini session at Kitza produced 12 fish to the 8 rods which is a fantastic start with 4 of the team landing their first Russian salmon. Here at Lower, Alex A was our star player with 6 taken in quick succession from Coconut Corner in a total of 21 whilst at Middle, 35 fish were landed.
One of our regular rods at Middle landed a fish last night which meant that he has now landed over 7,000 salmon from this river – a simply mind boggling statistic.
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| And again with another cracking fish |
This morning has dawned bright but very cold with a bitter wind. We will have lunch back at camp but the cold has done nothing to dent the enthusiasm and layers were being added in quick time so that everyone could meet their guides at 9am on the dot.
Charlie White
