Great First Week

I will have to be brief today; I head back to UK tomorrow morning. Charlie White takes over up here for a couple of weeks and will keep you posted with fishing results and conditions on the Varzuga.

What an amazing first week! Low’ish water but the level is holding up well with the recent rain. The water temperature remains a constant 6⁰C, our only problem being some dirty water washed in by the side streams off the Tundra.

Craig P with his 90th salmon for the week

At Middle Arnaud F-M landed 24 salmon today taking him over 100 for the week. At Lower Craig P is still out there, on 97 and determined to get over the three figure mark. Henry G has retired gracefully on 73 fish for week, all caught ‘in office hours’.

Unless we get a really cold spell we should be on course to be on floating lines by early June.


Midnight this evening

Always a sad moment to leave the Varzuga, but I will be back in a couple of weeks – and to catch up with Tommy the Toyota – who awaits our next journey to Lakselva in Norway in late June. Local kids have written ‘Clean Me’ in Russian on him; I quite want to make it back to Hungerford with that still there. I suspect I will not - but I will take home more memories of this remarkable river.

Christopher Robinson

Storm

Yesterday started clear and cold, it just did not feel that ‘fishy’. We had an extraordinary sun captured well by Hugh at Middle.

A fierce sun above Middle camp

By the afternoon it was blowing a gale from the South, and then the rain came; really heavy, mixed with sleet and bitterly cold.

In poor conditions the rods struggled a bit. At Middle they had 81 to the nine rods and at Lower 25 to four rods. All relative in salmon fishing terms as I mentioned yesterday, no other river could match that score given the weather.


Simon P on watch


At Middle, Tim S tried a floating line all day, with a Sunray and had good success albeit less fish than he might have had on an intermediate line. With the water temperature still at 6 degrees we remain on the threshold putting on the floating lines. But that is what this river is about – a very rare opportunity to challenge yourself and the text book.

Anton landing yet another from Clarkes

Keith and I ran a boat up to Middle to take boat spares, see our guests and have general catch up with them all. An awful run home, the worst I have experienced, into the teeth of a gale and driving sleet. Hugh gave me a memory stick with his latest photos - really good.

A good scrap from Snake Pit

Christopher Robinson

P.S. This morning the after-storm calm. Overcast, mild at 10 degrees, river up 2” and still at 6 degrees. Craig P landed three salmon from Heli Pool before breakfast – think we’ll have a good day.

A perfectly formed springer

Rise in water

We had more heavy rain yesterday morning, much welcomed by us as the river is a touch lower than normal. The many streams feeding off the tundra coloured up adding peat to the water, at both Middle Camp and here at Lower we noticed the change in the water colour and we all felt it put the fish off in the afternoon.

That said – it is all relative up here – Middle had 98 salmon to nine rods and at Lower the four fishers had 43. Not bad in slightly adverse conditions!

Arnaud F-M led the way at Middle with 17 for the day. He has also kicked off our annual International Swimming Championships, taking two swims for France both of which required replacement life jacket gas canisters. Simon P had a paddle for the UK team with Hugh our Middle Camp manager, representing the Home Team, having a ‘bit of a dunk’ while exploring new water.

Clarkes Corner was reported to be ‘stuffed’ with fish waiting to go up the Yovas Rapids, Patricia S had 10 salmon in the afternoon there. Four rods went above the rapids to Scotts in the morning catching 17, proving that the fish are now on their way upstream to Pana.

At Lower there was some experimentation, Craig P tried a surface Bomber, on the limit with the water only at 6⁰C, he rose several fish, one of them three times, before changing back to a sub-surface fly to take them. Alan J stuck to his favourite Ally Shrimp and landed 9 from Janaways in the morning.

Yellow and black, tied by Jesse. Deadly!

The river came up an inch or so and remains at 6⁰C. Just on the cusp of floating line territory but not quite there yet. The most successful fishers are using sinking tips, a shortish leader and a fairly eclectic mix of flies ranging from the Green Highlander through the colour spectrum to black. The safe bets being Ally Shrimp, Cascade and Willy Gunn. Jesse reccomends a yellow fly with contrasting black, ask him for one of his specials - tied with a cone head. Deadly!

Great fishing so far – and only 4 days into the season.
 
Christopher Robinson

The river settles down

We woke up to heavy rain yesterday, a damp but warm start to the day. Craig P went out here at Lower before breakfast and landed his customary 3 salmon. Up at Middle, Didier F-M managed to bank 7 salmon before his bacon and eggs.

The weather gave me an excuse to catch up in the office whilst Feodor’s faithful camp dog, Karai, sat on the office step looking mournful as the rain dripped on to the veranda. The milder damp air brought on a huge hatch of stone flies. The pied wagtails, now here in numbers, feasted on them. So did my printer and this Saturday's helicopter manifest has half a dozen stone flies imbedded on it. Last week we had mouse droppings in the printer. Such is life up here; close to nature.

The river steadied off; I guess a combination of the rain and the slightly milder air releasing the water frozen in lakes and soil. For those who know Lower Camp,the water is 5” below the top of Sharks Tooth rock. The water temperature is constant at 6⁰C. Really great conditions for Lower and Middle.

Up at Middle they landed 106 fresh salmon for the day. Today Hugh and Misha will send two teams further up to try Pashas and Scotts, we all want to open up those great top beats – such wonderful fishing up there. The run up through Yovas rapids really re-enforces the feeling of being so fortunate to have miles of freedom and space on this wonderful river.

Losha at Bear Island

Here at Lower our 4 guests landed just under 40 salmon, with the guides having a few too. It really is so rewarding for us to see clients handing a rod the guide and saying ‘go on, have a go’. David H gave his rod to Losha for 10 minutes down at Bear Island (our current hot spot) and bingo! Losha landed a great looking 14 lber, straight off the tide. He is still wearing a smile 18 hours later.
 

Our new accomodation lodge 



After dinner Anna took the guests up to the village where Sviat's legacy is evident in the restoration of the three churches. Well worth seeing when you are here.

Our new accommodation at Lower is a huge success – really comfortable, warm and with great views over the river. No doubt the best on the Kola.

Christopher Robinson

P.S. Mild again this morning. Air temp 9⁰C and water 6⁰C, water height steady.

Mild weather, great fishing

Yesterday was a perfect fishing day. Our first ‘soft’ day after 10 days of early spring weather, the biting cold breeze dropped, cloud cover came in and the air temperature remained above 10⁰C well into the evening. Our guests at Middle and Lower made the most of it, what a great days fishing!

David H at Lower Camp

At Middle camp they landed 99 salmon to nine rods, with the catch very evenly spread between all of them. To date they have fished from Clarkes Corner down steam, below the Yovas rapids which tend to hold the fish up this time of year. I chatted with Hugh our camp manager at Middle last night on the radio, head guide Misha feels that it will soon be time to explore further upstream. I’d like them to go up to Scotts today, but the fishing is so good on the lower beats I’m not sure they will venture that far yet.


Craig P with one of his 26 for the day

At Lower camp we saw the first massive run of fish of the season. The four rods here landed 58 between them with Craig P again leading the way with 26. All the beats are fishing well with the exception of Duck which we have left out of the rotation as it is best in high water. The water level continues to drop slowly, another 1” down over night. It is quite low for this time of year, providing almost perfect conditions for those here now and next week; might need some rain later in the season to keep the level topped up.

Meanwhile in camp Keith has moved his workshop table outside to enjoy the warmer air and Jenna, just back from 10 weeks in Antarctica, is training to climb Mont Blanc in late June, Keith’s container door provides part of our new gym!

Jenna training in our gym/workshop

A great start and today looks good too. Overcast, little wind and the air a mild 10⁰C at breakfast. Craig P had 3 before breakfast in just 30 minutes - you will seldom have seen scrambled eggs go down so quickly as everyone rushed to get out to the boats!

More tomorrow.

The season starts

We had another really hard frost on Saturday night, no cloud cover at all and the air temperature plummeted to - 5⁰C. Despite the chilly air our new guests were determined to give it a go. At Lower, we persuaded Craig P to come back inside at midnight, his reel frozen and line iced up to the rod rings; but he had landed 7 salmon in a few hours and seemed pleased to take a break and warm up. The radio came to life at midnight to report that Julian T had just come in from Bear after landing fresh run 15lber.

Anticipation

Yesterday was our first full day on the river and the boats left on time, our guests eager to get fishing. The water temperature started at 3⁰C, a bright day with a chilly breeze from the North, fairly typical for this time of year. By the evening the water had risen to 5⁰C and had dropped an inch or so.

Result

On Middle they had 60 odd fish to 9 rods with Tim and Leticia S, guided by Misha, leading the way landing 18 salmon between them, mostly off Clarkes which, as old hands know, can be a hot spot this time of year.

Henry G at The Wires

I went up there last night to see them all for dinner, a really happy team, delighted by the first day and looking forward to the rest of the week. The slight rise in water temperature at the end of the day had made the running fish more active and they reported quite a large number splashing through the pools on their way upstream to Pana.

At Lower, Craig P continued his success of the previous night landing a total of 20 fish for his first day. Bear Island and above it, the 3 ‘Bearlets’, fished particularly well as did Larder, Green Bank and of course The Wires. Moskoi Rapids and the Beach were a bit disappointing, we thought we’d have more from there. We ended up with 50 salmon landed at Lower on the first day to 4 guests. Not a bad start.

Bearlets

There is a huge sense of relief to have the season now under way – a great deal of hard work goes into getting the camps opened, staffed, supplied, and running. Now we can settle into a routine and really enjoy this quite remarkable river.

Christopher Robinson

P.S. This morning we have sent Henry G down to Moskoi, at the last count (11 a.m.) he had landed 3 and lost 3 which sounds quite encouraging.

Blog out!

We had a Blog Out! - apologies - the main Google Blog site crashed for some reason on Friday, yesterday I went to Murmansk and now, Sunday, have finally settled down, our first guests are out fishing and I have a chance to catch up.

Friday was pretty busy putting the finishing touches to Lower Camp; the ‘lawn’ in front of the new accommodation is, frankly, a mess, but that is what happens after a major construction project. We have done our best to level it and we hope the grass seed will take soon when the weather warms up, if the lemmings have not eaten all the seeds by then.

Sergei with an 11 lber off the tide

Jessie took our the new guide at Lower, Sergei, down to Bear Corner for more instruction and familiarization. On his third cast Sergei landed a fresh 11lber!

Tiffy, Anna and I drove a spare outboard engine to Kuzamen in Tommy the Toyota – his first experience on sand dunes – sand dunes with deep snow on them are bizarre, and quite tricky driving too; pleased I put a decent set of new off road tyres on before leaving UK.

Kuzamen, two wild ponies grazing on dried winter grass

Kuzamen is as remote as it gets, there are 30 residents living in nowhere amongst the sand dunes at the mouth of the Varzuga. The White Sea light and air is always extraordinary – it seems to the visitor (and there are very few) to be on the edge of the world, I guess it nearly is.

'Tommy' with his back wheels in the White Sea (I nearly got bogged getting out!)

We met Ura on the White Sea beach and boated up to Kitza camp to be met by Sergei, Victor and Luba. The camp looks great, lots of new paint, all the boats and engines up and running and some salmon are already up to Heli Pool and beyond. Wonderful to be back at Kitza and to meet our friends there – a very special place looked after by even more special people.

Luda gave me this shot of the Kitza river ice breaking up on 28 April. If you have never seen this, believe me, it is noisy, awesome and frightening.

Kitza ice breaking on 28 April

Yesterday we flew to Murmansk to collect our first guests and they were all putting up rods by 6 p.m. I have not heard the Middle Camp first result yet, but here at Lower, Craig P landed 7 salmon after dinner last night and had 3 more before breakfast – not a bad start.

A bright blue sky today but chilly after an overnight frost of -5⁰C. Water temperature remains at 3⁰C. I’ll have much more on the fishing front tomorrow when we hear how everyone has got on today.

Christopher Robinson

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