Off To The Races

Yesterday, our second day of fishing this season, it all started to come together. Between the 15 rods on the two beats that we are currently fishing our guests landed over 100 bright, fresh spring salmon. It is still not warm, the water temperature was 3⁰C, the river is quite high and although it is dropping in nicely we had a brisk upstream wind. Not perfect conditions – but good enough - and everyone made the most of this most productive river.

Robin M with a cracker at Lower Camp

Upstream from here at Middle Camp they had a really excellent day with Clarkes Corner, just below Yovas Rapids being the usual early season hot spot. Likewise Morskoy, the lowest rapid on the river, was the hot spot at Lower Camp. That said, the salmon are now pretty well spread out and with the water level slowly dropping each day more pools are coming into their own.

Digby F at Middle with a lovely fish from Clarkes

I miss-reported yesterday – at Middle we had three ‘first salmon’ on our opening day, Giles, Tim and Charles all landed their first salmon. A great start for them. I saw the Middle Camp last night and they were all delighted with the way the week was developing, the score was still being assessed when I left but it seemed that the seven rods had caught over 70 salmon for the day. Returning to Lower Camp I saw our Fishing Manger, Bill Drury, who was delighted to report 41 salmon for the day, including another first for Neil C; I understand it was suitably celebrated at dinner!

Terry and Laura at Middle

The numbers actually landed at Lower Camp somewhat underplay the action, for some reason the fish were taking short, just not really taking the fly aggressively enough, as a result we lost a lot. Ken and Geoff landed 19 between them, but they lost 43! By ‘lost’ I mean rod well bent and the thought turning to landing the fish – not just an ‘on-off’. The long inquest has not produced any meaningful explanation – such is salmon fishing.


Heli pool at Lower this morning

The river is down again this morning, we are getting towards a really interesting spring height. A brighter day this morning, not too cold and all were on the water right on time eager to make the most of it. I hope to get over to Kitza today and if so will get a photo or two for the blog. Our first guests arrive there this Saturday, Ura reports that the river looks good and he has all his boats in the water.

More on Kitza, and an update from Middle and Lower Camps tomorrow, in the meantime with the river looking really quite good, Spring in the air, and salmon running in earnest there is a distinct fishing optimism here.

Christopher Robinson

The First Day

After an evening’s unpacking, settling in and a cast or two for the keenest on Saturday evening we commenced fishing yesterday in earnest. It was not the easiest day weather wise with a brisk, cold upstream wind and here at Lower we made sure that the Banya was fired up to warm up our guests when they got it from the river.

Ken and Geoff at Bear Island

The river had dropped over night and through the day continued to do so. At Lower camp we struggled a bit; dirty water was coming in from the Sobacci stream which was in full spate and with the river still high the wading in the withy bushes was not easy. After lunch Sergey took Geoff and Ken out in the boat and roping down on the anchor by Bear Island (still well under water) they picked up four bright silver spring salmon.

Generator Pool at Middle Camp

Up at Middle, Terry reported that water was much cleaner and the seven rods there landed 35 salmon. Leading the way was Laura H who showed the men how to do it by landing eight fish from Peartiha. Generator fished well too and Tim D landed his first ever salmon there to much celebration.

First salmon for Tim D

So – not a bad start at all although we would have liked to have contacted more fish here at Lower Camp. In the afternoon Michael and Alan fished Moskoi with Feodor and though they only had a few takes that did not convert they saw fish showing as they came in from the sea. Overnight the river has continued to drop and it looks a great deal more manageable today and I’m sure we will see the score here at Lower much improved.

Jonny and Laura H

The weather looks pretty settled for the coming week, it might be a bit chilly but no real rain is forecast so we can expect steadily improving conditions. I look forward to updating you tomorrow.

Christopher Robinson

The first Finair charter aircraft of the Kola salmon fishing season arrived yesterday at Murmansk from Helsinki, on board were our guests for both Middle and Lower Camps. With only 18 on the first flight this year they cleared through immigration and customs quickly; as always it took a bit of time to sort the bags out and make sure the helicopter was loaded correctly, however by just after 2 p.m. we were all in camp. A point to note - the time zone has changed this year - Russia is only 2 hours ahead of UK time.

Middle Camp and arrival helicopter in the background

The weather in Murmansk was pretty foul, about 4⁰C, grey and drizzly, but once into the Varzuga water-shed we arrived to a wonderfuly warm, sunny, spring afternoon. At Middle Camp Terry and Donna had laid out welcoming drinks, coffee, soup and the ever present Middle Camp bloody mary jug on the veranda. At Lower the fire was lit and Markye’s home made chocolate chip biscuits made us welcome.

Midnight last night

Since I left on Friday morning the river had dropped at least a foot. At Middle it was running clear, at Lower we had a touch of colour still in the water, but the trend looked good.

Tackling up this morning - quite chilly and a real contrast to yesterday

Our arrival day is not really a full fishing day. In other words if we get into camp early enough, of course our guests can put up their rods and have a go. But is also the guides’ day off, so it is a bit of self-help (bonus) fishing. Up at Middle they landed a handful of salmon, inevitably from Generator. Here at Lower we fished Heli Pool only and did not manage to land one, but we all noted the dropping river and at dinner we were chatting about the improving prospects for the week.

Michael H ready for action this morning

This morning, Sunday, the river has dropped steadily over night; it is not yet at the optimal spring height, I think we need a couple more days, but it looks increasingly better. After the bright, warm spring day of yesterday this morning the weather has turned again; we have a cold upstream wind, it is grey and dull and really quite chilly. Although not really pleasant to be out in at least it will slow down the snow melt and we can now commence fishing knowing that each day increasing numbers of salmon will come in.

Christopher Robinson

Settling In

We had a domestic day here at Varzuga and are settling into our camp routine. We have had a really busy and constructive 24 hours setting up both the Middle and Lower camps. Terry and Donna went back up to Middle Camp with two boats loaded with supplies; here at Lower Camp Glenn, Bill and Ollie Maxwell (the Kitza camp manger) got on with giving our boats and engines a really good service. We had towed Skylark back down here on Wednesday, the big boat from Middle who after many years of loyal service had an engine issue late last season, and she now has been given a well deserved re-fit and is ready to go back up this afternoon.

Unloading supplies at Lower Camp - note ice free bank at Larder Pool opposite

Tiffy and Maryke got on with sorting out the advance order of food supplies which arrived in the village by truck yesterday. It is now all ready to go out to the camps today and finally the main lodge sitting and dining rooms can be tidied up ready to greet our first guests tomorrow.

Our helicopter arrived last night and in an hour or so I will return with it to Murmansk – inevitably the girls have given me a shopping list - and so has Glenn – so I guess I face another happy afternoon in Murmansk chasing down the last pots of curry paste (and fresh herbs!) for Donna and Maryke and some more spark plugs and spanners for Glenn.

Terry and the team at Middle Camp

The river too is settling in – good news – I suspect that the big spring flood is just starting to drop off. Bill reckons the river is down a centimetre or two this morning and it is looking much clearer. It will be pretty high when we start fishing on Saturday evening, but within a day or so it should now drop back to a much more manageable height. The salmon will be here, Terry is very enthusiastic about the prospects at Middle, a high river but little or no ice left and yesterday evening Generator looked really inviting.

Maryke and Tiffy sorting supplies - the dining room will be clear by tomorrow!

At Lower we will have fewer options until the river drops a foot or so, but there is more than enough room for our 10 rods – I’m pretty confident that by Sunday morning we will have a much more benign and accommodating river.

I fly to Murmansk shortly and the next blog will be on Sunday morning and I look forward to updating you then.

Christopher Robinson

Rain

Yesterday, Wednesday, we had the weather we really did not want. Rain. We have a lot of snow this year in the watershed and, ideally, we’d hope that it melted slowly over the next few weeks. Nothing shifts snow faster than rain and by mid-day it was overcast and damp with steady rain right through to the late evening.

Middle Camp yesterday morning

The river is now really high, pushing through the withy bushes in Heli Pool at Lower Camp. The forecast looks a little cooler and with little or no rain for the next few days, so the river should settle down by the weekend. In any event next week we are going to be fishing a high, cold river - true Varzuga spring conditions and although not an ideal height we will find the fish. We will not have all the beats in play at this height, but the salmon will be tucked into ‘laybys’; I chatted with head guide Feodor this morning and he felt that Heli Pool, Bear Corner, Janaways and Sviats should all produce fish. When the river comes off a couple of feet we will have much more room.



Donna at Middle

Terry, Donna and I went up to Middle Camp and met the team up there who were opening the camp up and getting the boats in the water. The camp looks in good shape, Misha has made a new table for the extended veranda, quite a bit of woodwork has been painted and Donna has made new curtains for the Main Lodge. We have the same guiding team too and they seem to be itching to get going on the river.

Sasha, Daniel and Vova at Middle, Lower Bear in the background

At Middle we ran up the river as far as Beach and the banks look clear of ice – at this height of water almost all the ice is washed out and some spots looked pretty fishy. Peartiha, Snake Pit, Lower Bear, Fortress and of course Generator all looked good. Today Terry and Donna will run back up to Middle and will continue opening up. Sasha and I go shortly to the village where more supplies have arrived. It is all coming together quite well at the moment. Our helicopter is due to arrive this eveing and we can start moving more supplies and kit about. Next week we go over to Kitza - Ura reports a high river over there, but a good clean out of the ice.

Getting ready for our first helicopter

More tomorrow.

Christopher Robinson

Big clear out

We are getting a really good wash out of the winter ice this year. It was a mild day yesterday with some rain and drizzle in the afternoon. It did not freeze overnight and the river was still slowly rising in the evening, so before we turned in for the night we hauled the boats up as far as we could and made them fast to a strong silver birch. This morning the river can be called ‘high’. Under a mild, grey sky the snow is slushy and disappearing fast. To put it all into perspective - the river is a foot or so lower than the big river we had in May last year and now running much clearer. Ice is still coming down, but there is much less of it – the river is cleaning out pretty fast.

Going shopping!

Each year the melt is different. So far it seems a ‘normal’ ice melt and there is a tangible relief amongst all of us that we have had no ice blockage on the river or any flood in the camps; you really do not know just what dice nature will throw – so far it seems a throw in our favour.

Yesterday the ice continued to come down, sometimes the river was clear for a few minutes then we would get some really quite big stuff passing silently by. Big Misha, the Middle Camp manger, told us to wait it out until today and looking at the river this morning we should probably be able to get through to the island camp. So I hope to get some photos for you from Middle and get them on the blog tomorrow.

Spring painting

There were gaps in the ice flow coming down yesterday and a run up the village seemed OK so the Girls Team went up to see Marina in the store while the Boys Team remained in camp and got on with sorting the boats and engines out. We now have five more boats parked on the slush and brown grass ready to go into the river. The Girls Team came back with welcome supplies and there is now a large pile of bags all tagged up and ready to go out to the various camps as soon as we can get going on the river.

Maryke making bread

I have no ‘hero shot ‘ with a salmon in hand for the blog today; we have not had a cast yet although a couple of rods have been put up and sit waiting on our office veranda. There is some itching amongst us to have a cast but actually no one is any rush, we have a full season to come – just give the river a couple of days to settle in and then the fishing can commence.

Dragging the boats to the river

If you are coming out on 16 May expect a high, cold river. Proper spring conditions. A selection of sinking tips will be useful and my guess is that a largish fly, say 1 ½" to 2 ", fly will do the trick.

More tomorrow and hopefully a picture or two from Middle Camp.

Christopher Robinson

Welcome back to the Varzuga Blog

Welcome back to the Varzuga Blog! We will try and post a report from this remarkable river every day through to the end of our season in early July. We squeeze it down a somewhat tenuous internet connection so apologies in advance if we have had to reduce down the size and quality of some of the photographs in order to post the blog from ‘the middle of nowhere’.   

The Varzuga breaking on Saturday

I met the advance party at Murmansk airport on Sunday evening and after the time honoured reunion celebration with Russian champagne in plastic pic-nic mugs in a bright but windy car park we set off for Varzuga. Arriving at midday on Monday we found the river unfrozen and flowing freely, albeit with plenty of ice coming down. We had had reports over the weekend that the ice was breaking and as always it was a great relief to come over the hill into sight of the village and to see, in the distance, a long dark ribbon of open water rather than a frozen, white landscape.

Feodor and the team of guides had two boats in the river but getting to camp by boat took a bit of time as we waited for patches of clear water between massive rafts of ice. By mid-afternoon we were all installed with our kit in the familiar and warm surroundings of the Lower Camp – Sobacci as it is known by the locals.

Sasha, Tiffy, CR, Donna, Terry, Maryke, Ollie, Bill and Glenn

The weather is pretty mild for the time of year; overnight we had a light frost and this morning the air temperature is a balmy 8⁰C with little or no wind. The river came up about 8 inches yesterday and has settled overnight – it is high, and for us that is just perfect as there is a steady stream of ice coming down and we are getting a really good clear out which I hope will leave few of the precarious ice walls on the banks of favourite pools that dog us some years. 

Waiting for a gap in the ice flows

If the normal pattern prevails the river will stay high for a day or two yet and then slowly settle in and the fun can commence. Today we will get up to see Marina who looks after the vast store in the village where our supplies are kept – and, if the ice flows diminish, this afternoon we will take a boat up to Middle Camp to see how that looks. In the meantime there is masses to do here and the camp is a hive of activity; the rest of the boats are being dragged to the river, and the lodge being prepared for our first guests who arrive on Saturday.

Heli Pool this morning

‘So far so good’ as they say – I look forward to updating you tomorrow.

Christopher Robinson

A Vintage Year

2014 proved to be our best year on the Varzuga since we first arrived there in 1991. 8,916 salmon to 174 rods was a remarkable result over a shortened six week season, shortened as a result of having to cancel the first weeks at Middle and Lower camp due to ice. Apart from one very hot spell right at the beginning of the season (which was bad timing for us) the weather was on our side this year. Overall it remained cool and settled, adding to our good fortune and our guests enjoyed both excellent conditions and a really strong run of salmon and grilse.

Christopher Robinson and the advance party arrived at Varzuga on 5 May but found that the river was still frozen. With the forecast remaining cold, it was immediately clear that the first week of fishing at Lower and Middle camps could not go ahead. By the time we started on 17 May, the river was perfectly clear and an excellent height but then the weather changed and three days of unseasonably hot weather led to an unusually fast snow melt and a high river.
 

The first three days at Lower camp and Kitza were tricky in the high water but the river settled in towards the end of the first week and although Lower and Kitza had below average catches the Middle Camp started strongly with 866 salmon landed to 12 rods. Pana opened a week later on 24 May and in the high water up there the team also experienced tougher than usual conditions. Lower down the river the bonanza really kicked in from about 22 May onwards and over the week of 24 – 31 May the 32 rods in the three camps landed 2,070 fresh spring salmon. It was particularly rewarding for us to see some excellent fish caught by the increasing numbers of lady fishers in our groups.

 

Once we were through the hiccup caused by the hot spell and fast snow melt, the season soon developed the regular pattern; slowly dropping and warming water. For the third year at the Lower Camp, we held our instructional week with Bill Drury and Eoin Fairgrieve and again it proved a great success. The 11 rods had two of the finest casting and fishing instructors at their side plus plenty of fresh salmon running the river to reward their improving skills; they landed 319!

 

The mid-season weeks, which offer true summer fishing are much sought after, so much so that between 7 and 21 June we had 52 rods fishing in three camps but only three of those rods had not fished the Varzuga before. With rain on 16 and 17 June to top the river up we had perfect conditions right into late June. There were some remarkable scores, notably Pana recorded its record week with a staggering 876 salmon to eight rods.

Kitza, with the lake system upstream to keep the water height and temperature steady, fished wonderfully until we finished there on 21 June. The last three weeks were very consistent with catches of 407, 391 and 413. As always Kitza had a number of fish in the 20lb range with three of that size landed in the last week.
 

 

Middle Camp also continued to fish consistently right to the end and to give some sense of that it is worth pointing out that in our final week of the season we landed 485 fish to 10 rods. There simply is nowhere else that this is possible and is one of the reasons why we continue to only offer such a short season – we wish to focus on the best of the very best.
 

 

It was a truly vintage season and for us it was very rewarding to see so many returning guests making the most of it and really appreciating just what an amazing salmon river the Varzuga is. A big thank you to our many Russian friends from Varzuga and the local area who make it all happen and of course to our Roxtons staff both on the river and in the office.
 

Next year we will start fishing on 16 May, and we look forward to opening up the blog shortly before that. If you would like to join us next year on the Varzuga do please contact me.

Charlie White

P.S. We have a couple of rods available to join weeks hosted by myself and Christopher Robinson this coming September on Varzuga. Whilst it will be our fourth year doing these weeks, they are still exploratory and must be approached with an open mind but for seriously good value Autumn fishing they are hard to beat.

Farewell to a Small Island in the Middle of Nowhere

The fishing has been excellent all week, and despite the gale for two days, very consistent. In the first four days the scores for salmon landed were 66, 63, 74 and 70 – and virtually all our ten guests have exceeded their personal best for a day’s salmon fishing. Everyone has made the most of the fishing here, all are experienced enough to realize just how good it is. Terry and I have much enjoyed watching them and helping them (I hope!) experiment with Bombers, small skaters and hitched Sunrays.

Yesterday morning was pretty chilly and it did not feel really ‘fishy’, however by lunchtime the weather had softened and we had a tremendous afternoon, with all the beats, top to bottom, fishing well – and with the added bonus of a run of fresh grilse splashing through.

Simon R repeating his lunch time trick of catching a salmon in front of us all, with Gordon B

We had our best day since 12 June and recorded 103 salmon in the book to take us over 400 for the week so far. With one day to go the total for Middle Camp this year stands at 4,814 salmon to 67 rods, beating the previous record set in 2012. We leave tomorrow and this will be the last blog post from here. Next week we will post a summary of what has been one of our best salmon fishing seasons on the quite remarkable Varzuga.

Midnight last night on Party Pool

It is not just the wonderful salmon fishing that has captivated our guests this year. We fish in a pristine wilderness in the middle of nowhere; yesterday we saw Fish Eagles, a Merlin, Waxwings and even a Little Gull (rare up here). Steen P has now recorded 48 species of birds over his years here. Last week Freddie P and I sat in the sun on the Slabs up in Yovas canyon – we drank in the silence, the fresh air, the river running by our feet. We agreed that it was a privilege to be there.

Arina, Jenna and Sonya with Zlarta

There is a great team of local Russian friends here, some behind the scenes, who make it all work. Vova on the generator, fire wood, the banya and other camp tasks. Luda, always in the kitchen, dawn to dusk. Jenna, and her daughter Arina, cleaning, washing up, making beds and running the laundry. Sonya, of course, skipping along the duck boards, collecting flowers and playing with the dogs. Zlarta, our bear dog and her two well grown pups who welcome us home in the evenings. And the guides, Misha (the camp boss), Anton, Danya, Vova, Ivan and Sasha (who we reckon has netted over 1,000 salmon in 6 weeks).

A huge thank you to them all.

Tomorrow we will drag ourselves onto the helicopter, reluctantly homeward bound to reality outside this small island in the middle of nowhere.

More next year!

Christopher Robinson

Trials and Tribulations

Of the 67 guests we have had fishing with us this year at Middle Camp only seven have not fished Varzuga before. With so many fishers returning year after year as they get to know the river and its challenges inevitably they get bolder in their fishing and particularly in their wading. The slightly higher water this season has caught quite a few out. I have not reported on the Varzuga International Swimming Championships on this year’s blog as we have had so many entrants it is difficult to keep up with the scores. What I can report is that the gold medal will go to two guests from Belgium who worried their trusty guide by going for the Synchronized Swimming competition and floated gracefully past as a pair.



Yesterday's mystery entrant in the swimming competition

We had lunch at Snake Pit and Donna brought up two roast chickens with all the trimmings to reward the mornings hard work. We relaxed for a few minutes and tried out various rods and lines with Terry talking us through the various set ups and their merits. Inevitably Simon R hooked a fish in front of the gallery which was duly netted by Bent H.

Simon R and the lunch time gallery

Just when Terry and I thought we would get through the season without a boat breakdown the starter motor on Skylark, our big boat, decided to fail up at Clarke’s – so we lashed her to my new Alumacraft and recovered her to our island camp to await Glenn’s attention next May. As always we have spare boats and engines here, but we are sad that faithful Skylark (launched in 1994) did not make it through to the end this year.


Recovering Skylark down Simmons

Up on the top beats Finn the Fish was finally out fished by his fishing partner Steen P, the score was eight to Steen and seven to Finn; all 15 salmon were taken from Scott’s which is fishing like a dream at the moment . Not to be out done Finn went out after dinner to level the day at 8:8.
Overall it was another really good day’s fishing, the total of 70 salmon was pretty evenly spread with Simon R into double figures with 10. We had hoped for a good evening after dinner, but the cloud cover vanished and under the chilly, clear sky we only managed three from Generator so we called it quits early to get a good night’s sleep and be fresh for the last two days.

Bear Pool at a perfect height yesterday

The weather remains settled in from the North, not so windy today and with a mixture of sunshine and clouds; but still quite chilly, it is 10:00 here now and the air temperature is only 6⁰C – not a mosquito in sight!

Christopher Robinson

Perseverance Pays

I mentioned the strong North wind in the blog yesterday. It was a real blow, Steen P has fished here for 17 years and had not seen anything quite as strong before. It whipped the door on the laundry room clean from its hinges and broke large silver birch trees on the banks of Generator. It was going to be a challenging day even for the most competent of casters.



Storm damage

It was not warm either, so we gave our guests the option of lunch back at camp. I thought that those right at the top, on Scott’s and in Yovas, might vote for that and make the run back down the rapids to hunker down in the Lodge by the fire. But they decided that fishing up there was such a wonderful chance, it was mad to waste the opportunity, even in a gale. Those fishing the closer beats did come in for lunch – late – which surprised me; Donna filled them full of carbs in the form of her ‘cold day’ fare of pizza and stuffed baked potatoes and they were off again in no time.



Refuelling

I confess that we had expected a few to have a snooze by the fire in the afternoon and wait for the wind to drop. We underestimated them.

Despite the gale, and a water temperature that was down to 9⁰C, Gordon B and David B stuck to their Bombers and had 12 salmon between them. After dinner they asked me if they could try hitched Sunrays in Party, so we took the big boat down to fish the pool, dropping down off the anchor. It was not easy as the wind was so strong casting was really difficult and the gusts threw the boat so much that the anchor kept slipping. We rose three salmon to great surface takes, lost one that seemed to take the Sunray on the way down after coming at it like a Polaris missile, and after 45 minutes returned to the warmth and Michael H’s generously administered whisky.

Gordon B 'Sunraying' from the big boat last night in the normally calm Party Pool

Simon R had another good day with 11 salmon landed and Finn S (known as Finn the Fish) was top again with 14. We celebrated the teams remarkable achievement of 74 salmon landed in pretty atrocious conditions. Perseverance did indeed pay off.



Perseverance and enthusiasm  

Slowly the wind is dropping, but it remains strong still and I suspect this gale will not blow itself out until this evening. Our water temperature is down to 8⁰C this morning and the river down 2". Most are back on intermediate tips with the hope that for the last two days of the week they can go back to full floaters.

More tomorrow.

Christopher Robinson

Generator

The Middle Camp on Varzuga lies on an island called Pond Ostrov. Our main home pool, on the East side of the island, is called Generator (years ago, when we had a tented camp, our generator used to be on top of the bank overlooking the river). If you made a reconnaissance of the 12 kms of river we fish here you would probably overlook the pool, certainly it would not be top of your list. Generator is a long, even draw, quite shallow and 1 km long; in high water all of it fishes well, in low water some sections are less productive, but having an even flow and a mass of underwater rocks and boulders it is highly productive.

Generator under the midnight sun

We tend to keep Generator out of the beat rotation system and it is fished mainly ‘out of office hours’ by those keen enough to have a cast or two before breakfast or in the evening. Generator flows South and the evening the light on it can be extraordinary as the Arctic sun sets to the North and the pines high on the banks are illuminated by a rosy glow.

This year at Middle Camp we have caught, so far, 4,567 salmon to 67 rods in just six weeks, of which 786 have come from Generator (for those looking to question the figure this does not include East Generator!). Many of those salmon have been caught by fishers experimenting in the evening with skaters, Bombers or odd flies that have lain in their fly box for years out of lack of confidence to use them elsewhere where salmon might be scarce.

At the weekend our real generator started to play up - badly so. Anton and the guides went down to the village to collect the spare that has waited for a few years in the store just in case we had a crisis. It weighs half a tonne; how they got it into the boat, let alone up the river in the 15’ boat is quite beyond me, but they did. To shift it from the bank onto site took the usual clever use of Tundra Technology - rope, planks, canter-levers and the ever present Russian strength.

It was a surreal sight – a half ton generator being manhandled up the bank, with one of our guests playing a salmon in the background in Generator Pool.

Tundra Technology and Russian strength

Yesterday we landed 63 salmon, with Simon R banking 15 of them including another 16lber as well. Clarkes, which has been a bit quieter than usual suddenly was full of fish and all beats continued to fish well; in the morning more pods of grilse splashed through. The water height and temperature is spot on at the moment, the only blot on the landscape is the strong North wind we have this morning, downstream thank goodness, but it is quite chilly so we are bringing the guests into camp to warm them up at lunch time.

Despite the North wind Gordon B came into breakfast with a huge smile having landed two salmon in Generator and lost a really good fish that took him well into the backing before doing an aerial cartwheel which threw the hook.

Fishing Snake Pit yesterday

This North wind seems set in for today and tomorrow - so I am off to get in more fire wood from the store and the banya is being lit.

More tomorrow

Christopher Robinson