Tuesday 14 May 2019

Steady as she goes

After a few days of rising water it does now seem as if the river has peaked and is beginning to drop away.  It has been difficult to find spots to get into the beats and our rods have been fishing in some strange places to access fishable water but we are starting to get to the point where we can find stretches to fish rather than just small parts.

Tim T on Janaway's
At Middle Varzuga, the obvious high water pools such as Clark’s and Peartiha are as productive as we would hope but as yet, the home pools are proving tricky to get into as the ice walls stubbornly hang on.

Brian McL was fishing Clark’s in the morning and made the most of it as he landed 6 fish to his rod but the rest of the catches were evenly spread.  A few rods were missing in action thanks to a fairly major kitchen party the night before and it was a tired team who went to bed last night.  24 fish to those who were fishing was good going and Jack reports a revitalised team this morning who are keen to get going.

David B with one from Peartiha
Here at Lower we doubled our catches to land 14 fish for the day.  Everyone saw masses of fish but again, they are creeping up the edges and are difficult to hook.  There was a magical hour down at Beach in the afternoon where Neil C and Jonathan B hooked 10 fish between them and fish were simply everywhere.  A major pod of fish were running through and they were in the right place at the right time.

Rob W with a very precious first salmon
As ever, we want everyone to catch fish but a first ever salmon is a special moment and our vodka toast last went was raised to Rob W who landed his first and then his second fish yesterday.  If we could have bottled his delight we would all be very rich indeed.

Jack finally got his photo of the eagle
I hear reports of fish being landed before breakfast at Middle this morning so either Generator or Bear are becoming more accessible and with a gently falling river we are keen to see what the day produces.

Charlie White