A Good Start

A damp morning yesterday so we decided to have lunch back in camp. At 1 p.m. the boats came in and it had clearly been a productive morning for most of the rods. There was quite a bit of tackle talk and various lines were changed and adjustments made before all set off for the afternoon session. As we thought, the best combination at the moment is a floating line with an intermediate or slow sinking tip and a brass or aluminium tube fly of 1” – 2”.

Ken L and Sergei at Heli Pool

The water dropped a couple of inches and Sharks Tooth rock, here in Heli Pool at Lower Camp, is just beginning to show. By the afternoon the water temperature was up to 6⁰C, after a hard frost again last night it is back down to 4⁰C this morning.

At Lower Camp we landed 89 salmon to our 11 rods with four guests getting into double figures, notably Richard M with 16 and Robin M, who had not caught a salmon 24 hours ago, with 13. Indeed four of our rods caught their first salmon – a really encouraging start to the season.


Matt L with his second salmon

Above us at Middle Camp they had at least 60 fish to eight rods in addition to the 20 landed on Saturday evening, several had fished late last night (Sunday) and Hugh did not have a final score this morning but was more than happy with the first day. The ice walls have not hindered fishing to any significant degree and only the lower half of Clarkes and a section of Party are affected.

In a similar vein to last year, a number of regular rods commented on the size and great condition of the salmon this season. Michael H had a super fish of about 14lbs and there were several other real trophies in the record book at the end of the day.



Richard M with a real beauty - one of 16 for him yesterday

The rods were off promptly this morning - keen to make the most of the river in such good condition. After a reasonably mild day yesterday everyone is well wrapped up, the air temperature is 5⁰C although with a chill wind from the North East it feels quite a bit colder than that. We will have lunch on the river rather than haul back into camp and Maryke is busy preparing lashings of soup and a hot meal that we will run down the river for them.

An encouraging start! Tonight I will go up to see Middle Camp and will have a first hand report for you tomorrow.  

Christopher Robinson.

Let the Fishing Commence

Our first guests touched down 20 minutes early at Murmansk airport, we were soon on our way to camp and we were on the river for a bonus few hours fishing by 5 p.m. with a later dinner at 9.

Middle Camp yesterday - Generator, lower right, looking perfect

I know I have written the same comment for the last three years – but it really is great to experience the enthusiasm shown by the first guests as they get out of the helicopter and stroll (actually, it is more of a sprint if the truth be known) to look at the un-fished river loaded with spring salmon.


Here at Lower Camp we were quickly off the mark with Alan J landing the first fish in Heli Pool. Matt L and Robin M both had their first ever salmon, in fact Robin landed three in a busy hour in Larder and lost a couple. We had nine on the bank by dinner and although it was a mild evening, and we could have gone back out, we called it quits and hit the sack ‘reasonably’ early after a little celebration.

Alan J getting off the mark

At Middle the eight rods had 18 salmon before dinner with most coming off the lower section of Generator. Bear has some big ice walls on it but is fishable although only produced a couple of fish last night, but it will improve as we get progressively more access to it.
It started raining last night and today is pretty damp and grey, it is forecast to stay this way for the next 24 hours. The water height was steady overnight however I would expect some sort of rise over the next day or so. The water temperature continues to remain around 4⁰C which is perfect for this time of year. We caught fish on floating lines with intermediate tips yesterday evening which was encouraging. The text book would dictate a medium sinking tip but in this slightly lower water than normal it seems less important to get down really deep.

Robin M with his first salmon

As I type, at the dining table with a great view over the river, I have half an eye on Michael and Alan guided by Feodor on the opposite bank in Larder. Feodor has been quite active with the net so I guess they are doing well. I’ll update you tomorrow; in the meantime I think we might have a productive week!
Christopher Robinson

Wish you were here!

We had a wonderfully peaceful yet productive yesterday; being Victory Day meant that most of our Russian friends were in the village, so no helicopters coming in and out ferrying supplies, no jet boats running to and fro from the village - we turned off the insistent crackle of the HF radio in the kitchen and just enjoyed a quiet day getting the last bits in order.

Kari enjoying a quiet day

A ‘productive calm’ we called it at lunch – it may sound all a bit too chilled but the set up here is pretty frenetic and moments like this are welcomed. We have finally got the supplies sorted out, the flooded office and containers have been cleaned and re-occupied, and a lot else besides, so we decided to knock off at 4 p.m. and I then took Jamie in a boat to do another recce of the beats at Lower Camp.

Glenn back in his container workshop

Hugh from Middle came along for the ride as he had not seen the water below here. I asked them to bring their rods and we stopped at The Beach below Morskoy Rapids, the last rapid on the river, and they had a go for thirty minutes or so. A big run of fish came through and with the water temperature nudging 6⁰C we saw numerous fresh salmon showing. Let’s just say that they did OK and we sat on the side of the boat and wished that we had our guests here.

Wish you were here

The water level remains steady; last night we had another really hard frost and the puddles in camp had a good ice covering on them by 11 p.m. At dawn this morning the water temperature was down to 3⁰C. A floating or intermediate line with a slow or medium sinking tip will work well. Flies of 1” to 2”, the colours of choice here always being red and orange, black works well too and there are others who swear by a Green Highlander. In any event, the spring salmon are here in good numbers and they tend to be less picky than their summer cousins regarding flies.

Green Bank last night

Today I go to Murmansk to collect some supplies and to meet our first guests on Saturday. I will not post a blog on Saturday morning and normal service will be resumed on Sunday when I hope to have some photos of big smiles and silver salmon.

All here are much looking forward to getting the season under way – just wish you’d been here yesterday!

Christopher Robinson

Victory Day

An important National holiday in Russia today, Victory Day, celebrating the defeat of Fascism albeit with huge sacrifice. Sasha said last night “A day of celebration with a tear in the eye”. Most of the Russian team will be in the village today so we will have a chance to tidy up, take stock and have a bit of a breather after three very full on days.

Moving the last of the boats to the river

Nothing seems easy up here sometimes; we lost the mobile connection to Lower Camp for 24 hours and had to post the blog with our back up satellite system. The best place for the tiny portable satellite dish was on an ice berg with yours truly kneeing in the mud fiddling with a lap top in a light drizzle. Much mirth amongst the rest of the team!

Blogging Varzuga style

In Lower Camp we continue the drying out process of the ‘office’ and the containers and sorting the last of the kit to go out to the other camps. The main lodge and guest rooms are fully functional and better than ever; today we can re-occupy the office, get the floor back down and I think that by the end of the day we will be pretty much set up for the season.



Sasha, Tiffy and Maryke sorting medical supplies

Hugh and Jemima took a boat and more kit (including the long overdue new dining room chairs!) up river to Middle Camp yesterday and returned late in the evening really pleased with the camp. Jemima was thrilled to find 2 brand new large fridges, until it was explained that the bear that Hugh had photographed so close to camp in our last week of last season had apparently broken into the kitchen after we had left and demolished the old fridges. I guess that’s one way of persuading the boss to provide new kit – I’d love to see the insurance claim form. 

The photo you really logged in to see - Heli Pool this morning at perfect spring height

Enough of the admin stuff, and on to the reason you are reading this - fishing. The water height is steady; there is a large ice wall camped on top of our normal river height reference point known as Keith’s Nail so I can only explain it by saying that the river is on the edge of the Withy bushes in Heli Pool and not right up into them. Just about perfect really. The water temperature this morning is 4⁰C - we had a hard frost last night and the puddles are well frozen over. After supper yesterday, Hugh and Jamie popped down to Heli Pool and had a fish each before the air temperature dropped below freezing. Floating or intermediate lines with a medium sinking tip are the current recommendation.

Christopher Robinson

Supplies and Stuff

A warm bright morning, turning to heavy rain this afternoon, topped off by a chilly evening and brilliant sunset. We spent the day continuing the season preparations. Hugh, Sasha and I went up to Middle Camp to find Misha and his team hard at work on the cabins and camp.

Ice Walls

Thankfully the flood only reached just over the level of the floors in the main lodge and cabins; so no serious damage done and things are drying out well. The ice bergs parked themselves on the edge of the Island, luckily not in camp, but leaving some very impressive ice walls in places – the good news is that Generator looked perfect, we were itching to give it a cast or two but time did not permit. Honest!

Generator clear of ice

On the way up we witnessed the arrival of the pair of Fish Eagles that nest near the Island; mobbed by a pair of Ravens they swooped along the river seeming delighted to be back in their summer quarters. On return to camp this evening the first Pied Wagtail had arrived. The first big stone fly hatch happened this morning – just how these little birds time their arrival to the day defeats me. No Arctic Terns yet, they are due any day to feast on the smolt run having completed their annual 17,000 km round trip to Antarctica.

Hugh and Jamie drying out electrical kit

The river was a touch up today and is now at 4⁰C - Feodor the Head Guide at Lower Camp went out for a couple of hours and had 5 springers and lost a couple.  He had a great day as he then boated home with a shiny new 90HP jet out board that Glenn had fitted for him. A very happy man!


Sunset last night

As I type this up at breakfast time Jamie has just walked in with two cracking silver 8lbers from Heli Pool caught on fast sinking tip and large bright fly, we kept one fish to go into gravadlax for next weeks guests. The water is up 12.5 cm (5”) overnight and steady at 4⁰C.

Christopher Robinson

Welcome To Varzuga 2013

Welcome back to the Varzuga blog! Another fishing season beckons on this extraordinary river.

The great news is that we arrived yesterday to find the Varzuga at a perfect spring height. Our concern, as we rattled south from Murmansk to the village, was what damage we would find following a huge flood on 30 April.  We had been alerted that the river ice had created a massive dam below the village, the water had backed up fast and it had flooded both our Lower and Middle camps. The spring melt carries with it huge ice bergs and while water damage is bad enough, ice berg damage can be “Maybe a little bit catastrophic” as Ura over at Kitza would say.

Water flowing through Lower Camp

Eighteen houses in the village were severely damaged by ice, but miraculously both camps have escaped with only water damage. Our Russian partners have done an amazing job in sorting things out and while we have some drying out to do we will be in fine shape when the first guests arrive this Saturday.

It is standard practice to store as much of our important kit as possible above ‘flood level’ and this paid huge dividends this year. Our biggest problem has been the kit stored in the containers; they floated off their mountings, then filled with water and settled back down at crazy angles. We spent yesterday sorting out a jumble of wet, muddy equipment and jacking the containers back up to a tolerably level state.

Moving kit into camp

By the evening we called a halt and Hugh (Middle Fishing Manager for the third year) and Jamie (Lower Fishing Manager for the first time) spent a well earned hour ‘checking that the salmon are here’. They are! The water temperature is 3⁰C and the clarity clear – perfect for this time of year.



A real cracker to start the season



Today we plan to boat up to Middle Camp where Misha and his team have been repairing minor damage. We will try and get some photos for you as I know that the Middle Camp fishers will be keen to see them.

It is wonderful to be back here on this magic river and a great relief to find things less of a problem than we might have expected. Lucky? – Yes. But a massive Thank You to our Russian friends and partners who have worked around the clock to sort out two damp and muddy camps in just a few days.

More news tomorrow.

Christopher Robinson

Quite simply a phenomenal season

The 2012 season on the Varzuga will go down as one of our very best in the 21 years that we have been running the programme. More fish than ever before, a bigger average size of fish and salmon throughout the season that were in immaculate condition led to some epic fights.

It did not start as we would hope. Our main aim is to have rods on the river about 5-7 days after the ice has broken and whilst this year the ice break was 4-5 days later than we would hope, the portents were good as our first clients flew into Murmansk. We expected a tough couple of days but then were very confident that the main run of fish would reach the beats and the fishing would improve exponentially.

This is exactly what happened at Middle Varzuga and the 8 rods there landed 329 salmon for their week with the latter half of the week fishing better than the first. Unfortunately at Lower Varzuga, the rods suffered from an unusually quick melt of the snow which coloured up the water and the fishing was exceptionally difficult. We decided to refund these rods their fishing package as we have always said that if we cancel the first week then you will get your money back. It seemed fair as even though the river was essentially clear of ice, the conditions had made the Lower camp unfishable for 4 days.

From that moment on, the season was a stellar success. We broke every Atlantic Salmon record that has been set and we know this because most of the records were originally set on the Varzuga. One of our clients landed 67 salmon in a day which is the most that has ever been recorded, two separate teams of 12 rods landed over 1,300 fish in their week, 8 out of 12 rods in one camp landed 100 salmon or more to their own rod for a week and we had endless people landing their first salmon, their first Russian salmon, the first time they had landed more than 10 in a day and so it went on.

The bare statistics make for extraordinary reading. In our short 6 week season, we landed over 8,500 salmon which meant that the seasonal average was over 50 fish per rod per week – these are numbers of salmon that are simply not found on any other river in the world. As ever, averages are just that. Some people will have landed a lot more than 50 fish in their week, some will have landed less. Skill, time on the river and sometimes just the fishing gods mean that there will always be some disparity in the numbers but it does show what the river is capable of.

Much is made of the numbers and it is difficult to get away from them when people are landing so many fish but the reality is that 99% of the clients remember the numbers as being about the 6th most important part of their trip. Fun, hope, expectation, time spent with friends in extraordinarily wild and beautiful surroundings are what really stand out. Combine that with the chance to really practise salmon fishing as opposed to a casting holiday and it is easier to understand why the Varzuga is such an alluring prospect.

Until you have been there it is impossible to imagine how much fun a week can be on the Varzuga and one of the great joys of the job is seeing the huge smiles that are flashed around the camps every evening as people recall their day. I must thank all of our staff and our Russian partners who all work very hard to ensure that every rod enjoys themselves to the full.

As is our policy, all of the rods who fished with us this year will be offered the first right of refusal to their rods for next season but if you would like to join us please contact me to register your interest.

Charlie White

The Last Day

It was still a bit chilly yesterday, a light northerly wind and the odd shower, but that did not deter our team at Middle Camp who put 40 salmon in the book; James F struck gold up at Pashas where he landed nine in an hour and a half before generously handing the rod over to his guide Sasha. A really great team this week – and for us here so rewarding to see new guests trying salmon fishing – some young some a tad older but all soaking up the Varzuga experience.

A great photo by Hugh last night

Talking of gold, our young dog Zlata (gold in Russian) is finally learning her trade as a camp guard dog and last night, for the first time, started to bark and move off a large bear that came close to camp. About five of our guests had a good view of him from 25 yards or so before Zlata suddenly kicked into her role and after ten minutes or so had seen him off the island.

 Up at Pana the water rose all day after Thursday’s rain and their catch was down to just under 40, however they should be on about 300 salmon for the eight rods this week. Kitza had another good day with about 45 landed and I guess they will finish with over 300 salmon for the week – a great result.

Farewell from Varzuga

This morning we leave early for Murmansk and home. It is always a wrench to leave both the Varzuga river I have known for many years and of course our Russian friends who are so much part of it and who truly care for it. What a wonderful fishing season we have had on Varzuga, one of the best.

Until next May.... dosvidaniya.

Christopher Robinson

Camp Life

There is a wonderful team of local Russians here at Middle Camp whose work, often in the background, goes un-noticed. Luda comes every year to run the kitchen and her grand-daughter, Sonya, keeps us all amused playing with the new camp dog Zlata who, being only seven months old, has taken to stealing socks from the laundry room - much to the annoyance of Julia and Julia whose roles are to keep the camp tidy and clean. This week Luda has been known as Doctor Luda as she has tended to three minor injuries and there is a queue at the kitchen table in the morning as cuts and wounds are dressed.

Luda tending to one of her patients, David B

Iliya, Luda’s grandson, runs the generator overseen by Sergei, in the evenings after supper the guides do an hour or so camp work; the latest task is to finish a new wood shed to keep the fire wood dry over winter. A great deal goes on in the village as well to support all the camps, from supplying the tons of fuel we need to keep the generators and out-board engines going through to ordering and dispatching the supplies we ask for from Marina in the Varzuga store.

Zlata with sock

As always it has been a pleasure to work with our Russian friends and partners this season and we are really grateful to them for all the assistance and hard work that goes into making the fishing programme such a success.

We had one of the coolest days for a couple of weeks yesterday and the air temperature struggled to get higher than 10⁰C. It was damp too with drizzle and rain from the North and, with a rising river, the fish were off the take a bit. That said we had a pretty reasonable day at Middle Camp landing 41 salmon with David S leading the way again with eight to his rod.

Sonya

Kitza had another excellent day and the Spanish team landed 53 with the fish well spread throughout the river from Sasha’s below camp right up to Rackmanns at the top. The Pana count for the eight rods up there dipped a bit and they recorded 49, encouragingly the fresh salmon are still running right through to Pana and they had several bright, fresh salmon yesterday.

David and Anthony ready to go fishing this morning

Tomorrow we leave for Murmansk and home – it hardly seems possible that only six weeks ago we were digging our way in through the spring ice and snow – it has all gone far too quickly.

We will post a quick blog tomorrow before we leave and next week Charlie will post a roundup of the season.

Christopher Robinson

Mid Week

With a group at Middle Camp most of whom are new to the water here, and with some guests in the early stages of their salmon fishing careers, it takes a day or two to settle everyone into the fishing. It is always very rewarding for us to have guests who take advantage of the remarkable fishing here and who use the time with us to experiment, learn and improve their skills.

Hugh S with a bar of silver

We had an excellent day yesterday even though it did not feel particularly fishy and was still and muggy – however it was great to see the younger members of the team really getting into their stride with Jamie G landing five salmon in the day, Hugh S three and James D with a great score of 10. David S also had another good day with 10 on his score card from the Yovas Rapids beat. The total for the twelve rods was our best for the week so far at 52. With little breeze we had some mosquitoes about so lunch was on the boats, anchored together as a floating pontoon.

Lunch 'on the river'

The fishing was good at Kitza too and Tom radioed in this morning to say that they had landed 55 with a few from Sasha’s but most coming from the higher beats. Head guide, Ura, had taken advantage of the water height (which remains good for boating) and had pushed even further upstream than normal as far as Rackmanns where Emilio RG landed 7.



James D and Sasha in the newly named Bomber Ally by Snake Pit

Up river from here the group at Pana landed 59 yesterday with the fish pretty evenly spread amongst the team. We had heavy rain last night and this morning the water was up 2” at Pana and I guess we will get a small rise here later today. It is a lot cooler today with a chilly downstream breeze from the North and with a grey, overcast sky it does not feel at all like mid-summer.

A record day for James D 

I hope the weather warms up as we are planning a mid-summers night drinks party on the gravel bar, mid-river, at the suitably named Party Pool.

More tomorrow....

Christopher Robinson

Back to Summer Height

After the heavy rain last week the river rose steadily peaking on Saturday. Since then it has dropped in slowly and we are almost back to summer height. As the Varzuga drops so we are adjusting our tactics to suit the changing conditions. On Sunday there was just a sufficient weight of water to suggest that an intermediate tip and larger fly would be best, by yesterday afternoon our guests were using longer leaders and smaller flies on floating lines.


Peter and James D setting of with Sasha

Last night after dinner we experimented in Party Pool, fishing small copper tubes very slowly through the draw at the end of the pool. James F and James D were well rewarded with four good salmon all of which took the fly so softly we thought they were parr or grayling until the line fully tightened and they exploded into a strong fight.

One of David S's nine salmon yesterday

At Middle Camp we landed 42 fish, David S had his best ever day with nine to his credit. Jamie G who had never caught a salmon until 24 hours ago proved that his first two were not just luck, he is really getting the hang of it and put three in the book yesterday. At Pana they are still able to boat down as far as Ponzoi, they landed 60 to the eight rods with the salmon well spread out through all the beats. Our Spanish guests at Kitza had a cracking day catching 49 salmon with Emillio RG landing 13 for his best ever day the day.

David S and Anton

It remains calm and overcast and to the South we can just see banks of sea mist over the White Sea coast, quite good fishing conditions. With the water now lower we are back into our Summer routine and 2 pairs of rods, Anthony, James F, David S and John have gone up Yovas rapids for the whole day where Anton and Sergei will barbeque a fresh salmon for lunch.

Christopher Robinson

Boating

Only four out of the 12 rods here have fished at Middle Camp before and after their first day settling in they set off with enthusiasm yesterday to explore more of the masses of river available to them. The water height remains perfect for getting the jet boats about so Sergei took Hugh and Jamie up Yovas rapids to see if Jamie G could get his first salmon.

A very happy Jamie G with his first salmon

Sure enough Jamie landed two in the morning, from Dunkery Run and Deeside, and Hugh put up the Union Flag on the boat in celebration. In fact the celebrations ran well into last night and breakfast this morning was rather later and quieter than normal!

Hugh S ran up the Union Flag

I try, every evening after dinner, to take a boat out with a couple of guests for an hour or so; it has become a bit of a routine and one I much enjoy. Generally I take one of our larger boats, 19 feet and with a wide, flat plywood floor. A very stable and comfortable platform to fish from and with the advantage that no waders are required; the guests simply grab their rods and a jacket and jump in.

From the boat last night, James F hooked up as Hugh S looks on

It is a wonderful way to spend an evening hour, the light can be extraordinary – more so as we approach mid-summer – it is totally peaceful and quiet and the casting easier without the hassle of wading. It took five minutes to the top of Generator where some fish were splashing through and in the hour James F had two really good fish to the net to take his tally for the day to five.

We always have the option to put a guest into a boat to fish, some prefer to wade while others, particularly those of more advanced years, like a combination of wading in the easier places and fishing from a boat if tired or where the wading is more tricky. I also like to take beginners in the boat to settle them into fishing for salmon – the casting is much easier, they can see what the line and fly is doing and can really concentrate on learning how to fish the fly in a salmon tempting swing.



A good fish for James F

Pana reported 68 salmon landed on Sunday and 63 yesterday and on Kitza our Spanish team had 36 yesterday before celebrating their win over Croatia.

We had some rain last night and this morning is rather mournful with a low, damp mist. The rods have gone out, some with sore heads, particularly the younger members of the party who quite predictably ended up around the kitchen table last night with the younger Russian guides. Great to see the bonding going on - I suspect it will be an early night for some this evening!

Christopher Robinson

Learning

We had a really bright, warm day yesterday, the wind was just enough to keep any mosquitoes away but annoyingly just strong enough to make the casting less easy on the more exposed pools. The water temperature rose a smidgen to 19⁰C which is warm enough to make the salmon a bit dour.

Lunch on the rocks yesterday

Pana reported around 60 fish landed yesterday, I will try and get a fuller report from them tonight, the radio reception being poor at the moment. Our Spanish friends got off to a keen start at Kitza and when I spoke to Tom last night at 19:45 they were still on the river and our cook, Donna, was fretting about the soufflés she always does as a starter for dinner on Sunday. Tom reckoned that they would have about 30 salmon in the book for their first day.

Wonderful light at mid-night

At Middle we landed 34 with Anthony C leading the way with seven fish. Hugh S continued his good run and by the evening had landed three salmon having only caught one before he came here. Jamie G came very close to landing his first salmon unfortunately losing three during the day, after supper I went out in the boat with him to see if the next fish would hold on. Sadly it was a quiet evening for him, but we enjoyed the peace of fishing under the wonderful midnight light and returned late to camp sure that today would bring success.

Jamie G and Hugh this morning

After breakfast Hugh held a brief refresher casting session by the boats and our novice fishers headed off with their guide Sergey full of confidence. A number of people raise an eyebrow about novice fishermen and ladies coming to such an amazing river as the Varzuga, however I can think of no better place to start your fishing career. Casting can be taught on any river, but you can only really learn about fishing if you are catching fish. On Varzuga there is every chance of that happening, mistakes can be made and lessons learnt in the pretty certain knowledge that you will have a chance of another take from a salmon and the opportunity to get it right next time. Where else does that happen?

Anticipation

Cloudy today, a nice breeze and a chance of rain, a much better day for fishing and I will let you know how we get on tomorrow.

Christopher Robinson

The New Week

It is always a sense of relief to have all the in-coming guests into camp on Saturday evening in time to relax, enjoy a cold beer or a glass of wine, assemble the rods, have dinner, and for those keen enough, a chance of an hour or two down the home pool under the constant day light.

A happy group last night after Hugh S caught his first Russian salmon

The transition through Murmansk airport gets easier each year. All the major operators share our Kola Charter from Helsinki, we all know each other well and there is a refreshing degree of co-operation and banter as we meet our respective guests and make sure the luggage goes to the correct helicopter.

At Middle Camp after dinner Hugh S caught the second salmon of his life from Generator and James F had one from Bear on his single handed rod. We have some less experienced fishers this week, all really enthusiastic to make the most of the river, so this morning Hugh has taken them off to Generator Pool to refresh the casting skills and settle into six days fishing on the amazing Varzuga.

Some of our guests wish to remain anonymous

The river has stopped rising and it should now continue its steady drop throughout this week. We had a blisteringly hot day yesterday and the water temperature climbed to 18⁰C, a touch too high to be perfect however the forecast looks like cloudy weather most of the week so hopefully it will go no higher.

Radio reception was poor this morning, if the other camps have an issue they can call in on their satellite phones, otherwise we rely on the HF radios, all can listen in and there is a good degree of fishing chatter. Both Pana and Kitza reported salmon caught last night but the detail was hard to hear.

David and John setting off this morning

Last week was an exceptional weeks fishing, marred only by the rain on 13 June which although welcomed put the salmons heads down a bit as the river rose through the latter half of the week. All camps recorded above average catches with Kitza at 276 salmon for eight rods, Pana just under 700 for eight rods and here at Middle a great score of 540 for 11 rods. All commented on the size of fish this season, their aggressive takes and fighting strength.

The Pana camp from the helicopter yesterday

The new teams will settle in today and I will let you know how they have got on tomorrow.

Christopher Robinson