Setting up...

The set up week here has been full of surprises, some good some not so good. Kit that we carefully put away last year has been dug out and inspected, the ‘last winter many mices’ have had a field day in the main store container - they must have been hungry as they have had a good go at anything with electric cables.


Keith

A huge re-supply of engine spare parts has arrived from the USA via St Petersburg. Boats and engines are launched and tested, a continual trickle of guides go to Keith in his workshop container with bits to be mended or replaced. After 14 years up here there is little that Keith has not fixed or made – last week Jemima (Middle cook) sprained her ankle badly but Keith soon had her up and running on home-made crutches.


Eagle Rock



I went up to Middle to spend some time looking at the camp, and more importantly to look at the whole beat. The river has dropped a few more inches and where the spring flood has left ice, there is room to get along the banks. Much of the beat is ice free; Birthday, Generator and Bear look excellent. Above the camp Eagle Rock, Snake Pit, Fortress and Beach are fishable. Clarkes has quite a bit of ice on the bank in the top half, the lower half is clear. Pasha’s and Scott’s also looked good.

  





Snake Pit



While Hugh and I looked at the river, Tiffy fished Generator and lost three in succession, all at her feet – using a 14’ rod, floating line with a sinking tip, short leader and a smallish black fly (about 1” overall) with a tungsten cone head.



Sviats

 Really looking forward to greeting our first guests tomorrow, the fish are here – now we need keen rods on the river!

Christopher Robinson

Visited Middle Camp

Snow flurries first thing yesterday morning and a decent frost overnight. A typical early May day on Varzuga, a mixed bag of weather and at times large snowflakes drifting over us on the wind, illuminated by bright sunshine – quite surreal.

During, these first few weeks we watch for Nature's signs of spring – last year one pied wagtail arrived, it was quite warm, the next day we saw four; shortly afterwards the ravens who nest opposite camp arrived along with the Middle Camp fish eagles. Yesterday I saw not even the one pied wagtail that was here on Tuesday, nor any of the saw billed ducks that will soon been feasting on the smolt run.

The lemmings are emerging from underneath the duck boards and the mice we turfed out of our storage container (they ate and nested in all the nice napkins I left last year!) are now eating the grass seed that has been scattered over our lawn damaged by the building work.



Loading up supplies for Middle Camp

We flew the first load up of supplies up to Middle this afternoon. The camp is just as we left it last year and looks good. While we were there Tiffy popped down to Generator and in 20 minutes landed one and lost two with quite a few other ‘pulls’. I was not able to take a run up river beyond the island, but the bank at Generator is clear of ice and very fishable. Later this week we’ll have time to take a look further upstream.



Generator bank, clear of ice

We have the same team of guides at Middle this year, Misha, Sasha, Sergi, Volva and the brothers Anton and Artum. Hugh Coulson is our camp manager and Jemima Palmer-Tomkinson the cook.



Middle camp from the air yesterday

On the fishing front it looks pretty good. Jesse and Feodor went down to Bear Island here at Lower Camp where they had ‘quite a few’ between them, Feodor lost a huge fish after 20 minutes, the biggest he’d ever hooked. A normal sink tip with a short leader and reasonably heavy fly seems to work well – that is what Tiffy is using. If you cast well a heavier sinking tip might be an advantage, in the cold water the fish are sitting just off the current and reasonably deep. Successful flies are 1” or bigger well dressed tubes of any colour. Jessie likes bright, I like black! - we agree to disagree.

Christopher Robinson

Work starts

Work started in earnest today to tidy up the Lower camp. Two new guest houses have been built; I saw them being started in August, the building work stopped for winter and now that the snow has just about gone there is the usual rush to tidy up.

I’ll get some photos for you of the new accommodation as soon as I can. It overlooks the river and has en-suite bathrooms with showers, all now with mains electricity and water from two bole holes rather than pumped out of the river. This must be the most comfortable fishing camp on the Kola.


The view from the new accommodation

I went up to the village in the morning to start topping up the camps with all the supplies needed for the season. Marina runs the huge village warehouse which is now full of the fishing season’s supplies and those needed by the village over the summer. Marina is a wonderful store person as she knows where everything is but prefers to store things than give them out. Watching us leave with a car load I thought Marina looked like a fretful mother very reluctantly watching her precious five year old go to school for the first time.

Anna, Marina and Misha in the warehouse

A cold downstream wind yesterday, the odd snow flurry but mostly bright. The river rose 1” overnight, was steady all day and is still 3⁰C. No fishing yesterday sadly, as a bit busy getting things sorted out for the camps.

For those interested in the drive up here. It is 2,351 miles from Hungerford (plus the UK to Demark ferry). Driving time at the wheel - 45 hours 20 minutes. The Scandinavian roads are great - no pot holes, road works or mad drivers (a pleasure compared to our crowded island) until you get to Russia when the roads can be ‘less good’, but that is the challenge of a decent journey.


The road from Kirkenes to Murmansk

Tomorrow we move Hugh and Jemima up to Middle Camp so I’ll have a chance to see the river there. Will try and get a photo of the river.

Christopher Robinson

P.S. Wednesday morning – snowing and cold. Don’t forget hat, gloves and warm undergarments. Water temperature still 3⁰C. But, in the snow, the first real sign of spring - a pied wagtail has arrived and sits on the roof of the office looking for stone flies.

Arrival - River Clear

Welcome back! Another fascinating season on the Varzuga is about to begin, we’ll try and post a blog every day for the next two months.

I first saw and fished the Varzuga in June 1991 and to celebrate 20 years of fishing this stunning river, I decided to drive up here this year. There were a few Doubting Thomas’s who thought this a mad idea when relatively easy flights exist. Never people to turn down a challenge, Tiffy and I left Wiltshire on Sunday 1st May in faithful 'Tommy the Toyota' and reached Murmansk on Friday 6th May. Jenna (Lower camp cook and logistics guru) joined us for two days' scurrying about Murmansk obtaining the last supplies needed.

On Sunday evening we picked up Hugh and Jemima (Middle Camp) Jesse (Lower) and Keith (14 years as our mechanic, friend and repairer of anything) and drove South along the frozen White Sea coast to the village, arriving midday yesterday.

The new roadside memorial to Sviat

We stopped to say a prayer at the site where Sviat tragically died last August. A sad moment for us all. Tiff and I scattered the first of the rose petals from home this spring.

Huge hugs awaited us as we arrived by the river to unload. Misha, Feodor and Losha were there with the boats to greet us after the 10 month break.

Unloading 'Tommy'

The river broke steadily over a number of days in late April and early May. It is now running a touch lower than I would expect – but not unusually low - and is 3⁰C which is perfect this time of year. Misha says the river is rising at the moment as the mild air melts the ice on the lakes. There are some ice walls on the banks but, with only a few exceptions, the best beats at Lower Camp are fishable – and they look really good at this height. The next few weeks look promising.

Perfect water height

Tiffy had a chance to fish before supper and very quickly secured the first bright salmon of the season.

The first spring salmon

Today we get a chance to really assess the amazing new accommodation here at the Lower Camp and to look at the river in more detail. I hope to see Middle Camp on Wednesday - I’ll keep you posted.

In the meantime, if you are coming to join us on 14 May – it looks pretty fishy to me!

In slight haste after a busy arrival day – more tomorrow.

Christopher Robinson

See you next year

Our Varzuga season is short and sharp, starting as soon as the snow melt clears the river ice in early May and finishing in late June or early July. Always intense and exciting it seems over in a flash, hard to think that our first post on this Blog was just eight weeks ago.

We started with unusually warm weather in May, our reserves of snow vanished early and there was a degree of concern over water levels later in the season. As so often is the case, nature balanced out the result; early June brought enough rain to hold the water levels up nicely. In fact, we ended with water levels a touch above average.

We landed just under 4,000 salmon to 144 rods, not a vintage year by Varzuga standards (an average year would have produced around 5,500 salmon) but an extraordinary result compared to any other salmon river.

There were many highlights for us, too many to mention here, but to pick a couple - Sir Gordon Linacre caught the biggest salmon of the season at 25lbs from Pana, at the youthful age of 89! Secondly, the wonderful smiles and grins from over 20 guests who landed their first Atlantic salmon. Guests new to the river could not believe how good it is, older hands had to try harder this year and realized just how good it can be.

Thank you to all who joined us this year, we really enjoyed seeing you on the river and look forward to seeing you all again next year, and we also hope we will welcome new guests who have been watching this Blog.

And of course, a big thank you to Mikhailovich Kaliuzhin and all our friends and supporters from the village of Varzuga who work on the programme and make it happen.

We will open the blog again next May when we commence our 20th season on the Varzuga. Until then farewell and good fishing.

Christopher Robinson and Charlie White

The last cast

We got away to a good start, Bob C had caught a salmon and lost one before breakfast on his morning outing. A warm and calm day, really bright in the afternoon again - lunch at Snake Pit was the first time we have had to under-take mosquito defences.

Post lunch

As the water drops so the higher beats and those up the Yovas Canyon are fishing better. It is glorious water to fish at this time of year, not the easiest wading, but no doubt the best looking and most interesting fishing on the river.

Ueli Z with a fish from the top beat

Simmonds fished really well again, Mark M had a 15lber out of a total of eight from that beat today. We finished the day with 23 salmon landed and closed the week content that we had fished well and enjoyed this extraordinary river.

We said goodbye to some of the staff tonight, some to return home to the village, others to fly with us tomorrow. It is always hard to leave Varzuga, and for those who are here for several months even more so.

A huge thank you to all those who have helped up here this year, and of course to those who have fished with us.

We will post a blog, early next week, with a brief synopsis of the season. In the meantime I prepare to leave the river having worked, as always on Varzuga, with a wonderful team – thank you all so much.

Christopher Robinson

Sometimes She Sleep

The early bright sky quickly clouded over during breakfast yesterday and we had perfect conditions in the morning. Bob C had again given us encouragement with two salmon before his scrambled eggs and toast and the boats roared away at 9 a.m. prompt.

Tudor lands his fifth salmon of the morning

Tudor D and Mark M led the way with eight between them from Simmonds by lunch time; Mark had lost his last Wilkinson’s Shrimp so joined the Green Highlander brigade. Tudor, I’m afraid, lowered the tone in fly selection by going the Ally Shrimp route – not pretty but I guess effective.

A bright afteroon at Middle Camp

At lunch time it looked like we were heading for our best day of the week. What happened in the afternoon is a bit of a mystery, it was very bright, but other than that the weather seemed settled. Someone had turned off a switch, and we really struggled until the sun dipped down in the evening.

The triumph of the afternoon went to Roma, now 17 and in his fourth season helping out here at Middle. He took his newly acquired fly fishing kit up to Bear and extracted a nice grilse on the fourth cast!

Roma (right) and Anton with the afternoon triumph

We finished on respectable 25 for the day. I went for a chat with Vova, “The river died on us”, I said.

A long pause. “Varzuga river never die” replied Vova, “Sometimes she sleep”.

Christopher Robinson

P.S. This season Espen Myhre at Guideline http://www.guideline.no/ supplied us with four Guideline ACT rods with reels and the Guideline shooting head system for our clients to use. They have been a great success, easy to use and they really cover the water well – many thanks Espen!

Guideline ACT rod, ReelMaster LA and shooting head

Bigger Fish

Another windy day with a good blow downstream from the North, Bob C started us off well with two before breakfast, one a lovely fresh fish of around 10lbs. By lunch time it was clear that the pods of grilse had been joined by a run of bigger salmon, Tudor D was chuffed to have had two of 14 – 15lbs from Fortress.

Green Bank in the Yovas Cannyon at Middle camp

We ended the day here at Middle camp with 23 fish to nine rods of which nine were fresh salmon in the 8lb – 15lb bracket. There was a degree of fly experimentation throughout the day with the Green Highlander now favourite closely followed by P F-A’s Mediator. Smaller sizes being the best in the warm water which remains at 16°C.

Fishing Generator at midnight

The fishing at Pana remains consistent and they too had 23 salmon to their team of eight.

Snake Pit

Today is bright again after a cold, clear night, with a light breeze to keep any mosquitoes away. The scenery here is stunning with the translucent greens of the silver birch contrasting with the vivid blue of the water and sky. The wild flowers are at their peak and fish eagles soar overhead. Sadly it dawns on us that we only have two more days here before we return to reality - all the boats left camp promptly this morning to make the most of it.

Christopher Robinson

Varzuga International Swimming Championships

A sunny day yesterday with a perfect downstream breeze, although too bright and not ideal conditions we all enjoyed soaking up the wonderful scenery on Mid Summers day.

Ueli Z with a nice salmon from Fortress

Bob C led the way at Middle with five fish, and again came into breakfast this morning with two on the bank and one lost from Generator - which had also fished well last night once the sun went down. Small Shrimp patterns continue to be favourite on floating lines.

Up at Pana Guy Rasch had seven out of 19 salmon landed, I hear he has been top rod two days running.

Luke C-M drying out after Duck Diving practice

With the water quite warm at 16°C and the fish holding well out in the river our fishers have been bolder at wading these last couple of weeks. Last week Charlie’s team from Belgium set some swimming records here at Middle, rumour has it they were practicing for the Synchronized Swimming competition. We are catching up, Mark M from Team Wales caught the judges eye with a 40 yard graceful back stroke down Blue Rock, Luke C-M tried Duck Diving and Piers F-A continues to impress for the ‘Wading like a Baby Giraffe’ award. The Swiss and Irish teams have been practicing in the shallow end but to date we have not seen their full potential.

This morning I found, deep in Tiffy P’s fly box, a very rare commodity – the last Wilkinson’s Shrimp on the Kola (shown below) tied for me last year by Peter Nightingale on an experimental aluminium tube.

I got some stick I must admit for Tiffy had suggested she start with this fly three days ago. A suggestion I dismissed out of hand in favour of a Dee Sheep. I am now eating very humble pie – I have been sacked as Tiffy’s guide and confined to camp, the Wilkinson Shrimp has been taken on an outing to Madonna’s. Tiffy has recruited two new guides for this mission, Anton and Dave, to land the many fish she will no doubt catch.

More tomorrow

Christopher Robinson

Mind Games

A breezy day yesterday, enough wind to keep any mosquitoes off but not enough to trouble the casting, a good light too with a high overcast sky and sunny at times. Good weather in which to enjoy the river.

The water height is holding up well, after all our concerns in early May about ‘a low water’ year mother nature has again evened things out and we are still getting the big boat here at Middle right through to Scott’s some 10 kms above Camp. Up at Pana, Head Guide Dima, a wonderful boatman, simply said ‘many rocks’ which is code for ‘I can get down to Ponzoi but I’ll take that Beat on myself’.

Tiffy P into a good salmon at Simmons

They had 23 at Pana yesterday, the best fish a fresh 14lber caught by Charlie McV in Choppy. Here at Middle, Mark M led the way for the second day running with seven fish. His magic fly is a shrimp pattern which Ash M reliably reports to be a Wilkinson’s Shrimp. No one else has anything like it and Mark is a bit cagey about how many he has in his fly box. They would certainly command a premium if placed on the market just now.

Anton, Tiffy and Donna running lunch up river

We had reasonable numbers of fish splashing through here yesterday but finding taking fish was less easy - unless you had a Wilkinson’s Shrimp. After lunch I put a confident Dave, who knows the water well, into the tail of Snake Pit where grilse constantly showed all afternoon. I picked him up at 6 p.m. – “I’ve had my arse whipped” he said in his mid-western drawl, “those fish are playing mind games”.

Ash came back in with four fish under his belt including two in double figures – he had found an Apache Shrimp in box which seemed to work.

Bob C went out before breakfast this morning and landed three in Generator – encouraging news for those tucking into Donna’s scrambled eggs – but we are not sure what fly he was using. Rumour has it that it was a ‘shrimpy thingy’.

Bob C at Madonna's

Off to dig around in the depths of my fly box (for the umpteenth time) – I used to have a Foxford Shrimp – somewhere........

Christopher Robinson

Settling In

The enthusiasm in camp is always infectious on the first day, yesterday dampened only a bit by a gale blowing directly upstream. Luckily it was a warm wind and conditions were pleasant if not blustery. The blow was sufficiently strong to make fishing Birthday and Party impossible so we concentrated up stream, particularly in the Yovas Rapids canyon where we found some shelter.

Peter and James D setting off for the first day

Mark M led the way landing five salmon for the day but losing six; lost fish seemed to be the theme and with the water temperature up to 15°C and pods of fresh grilse moving through quickly we found them nipping the fly or taking short. We ended up with tired shoulders, 17 salmon banked and as many lost. The end of the day banya was most welcome! Today we will try smaller flies and see if that helps.

Lunch at Snake Pit

On Pana Aaron reported a ‘howling wind’ which challenged most rods and they had 19 for the day. They were able to get right down to Ponzoi, at the moment all beats in both camps are fully accessible to the boats.

Piers F-A into a salmon at Beach

Today the wind has dropped, it is still from the South and gusty but a great deal easier to deal with. Some single handed rods are coming out and we might be able to try some skated flies.

Overall a good start, the first day of the week with 18 rods on the river and only one failed to make the scoreboard - not many salmon rivers I know can do that in a gale.

More tomorrow

Christopher Robinson

Back in Fishing Paradise

Two weeks back in UK just flew past and yesterday I returned to the Middle Camp with an enthusiastic and experienced party of 10 rods. The camp looks amazing, the meadow is now a blaze of blue and yellow flowers and at midnight the summer light on the river reminded us all how lucky we were to be back up here on the Varzuga.

We fished briefly last night landing a couple of salmon in Bear and one in Generator. The water height is still fine at Middle and we should be boating to all beats for the next few days.

Middle Camp last night

I dropped off the Pana team of eight, all bar one of whom know the river really well and they were soon on the river landing nine salmon last night. They may struggle to get a boat right through to the very lowest beat later this week so I hear they are going to fish down stream fairly hard for the next day or two.

The water temperature was 12°C this morning, a warmish day with a strong Southerly wind (upstream), so not the easiest wind for the first day.

A happy Tim P last week

Charlie returned home yesterday with three happy and content teams from Middle, Pana and Kitza; the guides here at Middle had thoroughly enjoyed having a mix of experienced and new rods last week and were chuffed that all six new comers to salmon fishing did so well – we hope to see you all back next year!

Christopher Robinson

A beautiful day but tougher fishing

Yesterday was a magical day to be on the river and when having a picnic at Snake Pit, sun shining and a light breeze, it was hard to think of somewhere better to be.

Gregoire De S playing a fish on Green Bank

However, it didn’t help the fishing much and it was a tougher day across all of the camps. Here at Middle we took 21 for the day with Hans K having a great morning on Fortress landing 4 fish.

At Kitza they had 22 fish and the star performer was Peter D with 8 fish, 6 of them from Old Dam where he had his big fish earlier in the week.

We have been seeing ospreys all week

Up river at Pana they had 37 with Charlie T and Ashton C combining to land the majority of the day’s total.

A quick tally shows me that we have so far caught around 3,500 salmon this season which is pretty amazing but perhaps the most amazing thing is that it will not go down as a vintage year for numbers on the river. We have had years with more fish but we have certainly had bigger salmon this season than in the past and I can’t remember another year when so many people have landed their first salmon. It is also hard to remember a year that has been more fun.

Kitza Camp in the sun

As ever, the last day seems to have crept up on us and tomorrow I will fly home for the final time this season and Christopher will be running things for the last week. Endless thank yous go to all of the camp staff and our Russian friends and partners; we are very lucky to be able to come here each year.

Charlie White

Did you hear it?

After 3 days of effort, enthusiasm, Gallic curses, lost fish and a lot of laughs, Joseph C beached his first fish yesterday morning and then proved it wasn’t a fluke by landing another one in the afternoon. The celebrations were long and loud and his valedictory speech was Oscar worthy.

Not the biggest but much deserved

That is 6 rods this week at Middle who have landed their first salmon as well as at least one I know of at Kitza – where else in the world of Atlantic salmon fishing is that possible?

Our conquering hero waves to his press

We ended the day with 27 on the bank with Tim P as top rod with 4 fish. It was a pretty awful day weather wise but everyone was wreathed in smiles when they came back in and all of the rods headed to the banya to ease aching muscles and warm up.

Jean Christophe fighting a fish on East Generator

The day at the top of Kitza was a great success with all rods enjoying the stunning scenery that is up there. They had 31 for the day whilst at Pana the 8 rods had 53 for their day.

Today is a much nicer day on the weather front but it is very bright. The fish might have their heads down so we are going to try some bigger flies through the deep pots in the rapids and will leave the skaters until this evening.

Charlie White

Skated flies prove their worth

Yesterday was a slightly tougher day, possibly as a result of bright sunshine throughout. Those who experimented did better as it was not really a day for tried and tested tactics.

Doug U and Ron S decided that Sunrays and skated mini Pot Bellied Pigs would be a fun way to spend the day and they were rewarded with 3 fish apiece. One on Upper Birthday came clean out of the water to take Doug’s fly which it duly did on the way down. On Clarks in the morning, Ron had a fish attack the Sunray 4 times before deciding enough was enough – a very exciting way to fish and a great way of finding fish.

Doug U with one from Birthday

We finished the day 22 fish with twice as many lost. Bill P was the top scorer on 5 but the Belgian Olympic swimming trials were the main talking point as I think we are averaging around 8 swims a day – there are not many spare canisters left!

Gregoire De S trialling for London 2012

Kitza took 16 for their day and they are leaving camp early this morning to get as far up river as possible in order to try some different water and to also fish in what is amazing surroundings. With the picnic packed and Tom carrying the wine, it should be a great day.

Vova enjoyed his lunch

Pana had 43 with fish being caught on the float trip, which is up river and also down as far as Northumberland Avenue so all beats are producing good fishing.

Today is more overcast and the river dropped an inch last night so it looks like a better day for fishing, let’s hope someone told the fish...

Charlie White