The river starts to settle down

The warm weather continued through yesterday and last night was particularly mild, at breakfast this morning we had all the doors of the dining room open and the air temperature was 15⁰C as we started on our scrambled eggs and bacon.
I went up by boat to Middle Camp last night and was again struck by the extraordinary amount of water running down the small streams into the river. The river is quite dirty, especially below the Middle Camp Island and I’m sure that is what is making the fishing so tricky at the Lower Camp.

Water running off the tundra yesterday

Up at Middle they had a good day with 96 salmon landed to the eight rods. They were very cheerful and Jemima produced a fabulous dinner finished off with Crepes Suzettes flambé with the Grand Marnier she had asked me to find in Murmansk. Julian T continues to lead the score, I’m not sure quite how he does it, all our guests are fishing pretty much with the same flies and lines (a fast’ish sinking tip, short leader and a reasonably heavy large, bright fly). The general agreement over dinner was that ‘he presents the fly beautifully on each cast’ – I reflected on this coming back down the river and thought how nice it was to have a team of fishers who recognized that sometimes fishing is not just luck and that skill does play a part and that Julian deserved credit.

Freddie P and Misha at Middle Camp with a fit spring salmon

At Lower we had another difficult day, albeit we got into double figures with 10 salmon landed, David K-W getting the second hat-trick. Never, in all our time here, have I thought that just three salmon in the day to one rod would be a Varzuga Celebration. Jesse too had a go in a few places with no result – it has been really tough, unusually so in this unprecedented high water. We are seeing fish, and with the water temperature around 3⁰C to 4⁰C we ought to be catching them, but is just not happening. That said the river is now settling down and catches will increase each day.

Charlie and I took the decision that, for the first time for 21 years, we should fully refund the cost of the fishing to our 10 guests here at Lower camp - such is the nature of the huge spring flood we have had, coupled with the first two days being almost unfishable due to ice. Some of the team here, and I am thinking of Alan and Michael, have fished with me on this week since the early 1990's - never have we seen quite the size of river we had yesterday.

David K-W with one of his three from Moskoi Rapid

We have a wonderful, warm day here now, the streams are still running but much less so than yesterday and there is an air of optimism about the guides for the coming week. The water height is steady this afternoon - good news given the warm weather.

We leave for Murmansk early tomorrow, if we can we will update you this evening or early tomorrow. I suspect that on Sunday our new guests will have a a great start to their week and will wonder why we struggled.

Christopher Robinson

A big river

I thought that I may have made myself a hostage to fortune and I’m afraid I was right. We had a difficult day yesterday.

We had a gloriously warm day, really pleasant for this time of year, normally this would have been welcomed but it was this last thing we needed. With the air temperature up to 19⁰C by mid-afternoon the considerable amount of snow still left was melting fast. The little streams on the banks that we have hardly ever noticed in the past were roaring down and the river just continued to rise and it was pretty dirty.

9 May at Lower Camp - lots of snow

Middle landed 25 salmon for the day which was well down on the previous day of 70. At Lower we had to resign ourselves to fate – great credit to our guests, guides and Jesse who all stuck at it. It was indeed lovely weather to be out fishing in but there was little chance of the salmon responding.

A mild frost last night and warm again today – but the melt seems less, the river is steady, almost exactly the same height as this time yesterday and the old hands here feel that the worst is over. I saw Valentine last night, I’m sure that some Varzuga blog readers will recall him (our old friend with the accordion). Valentine knows the river better than most and he reckoned the worst was over – probably the highest river since 1995, and possibly higher than that.

Lower Camp today

With a river that seems to be settling down at last Middle Camp were into fish this morning and I hear were probably going to make a decent score today. It is still not easy on the Lower river and we are finding it difficult to catch fish, frustratingly a few are beginning to show, but they just will not take in the dirty water.

My guts tell me that the river will now drop, and I guess that next week could be excellent; it will still be high and probably cold, so be prepared for Spring fishing. With a modicum of good fortune I’ll be able to report a real improvement tomorrow.

Christopher Robinson

Middle Varzuga kicks off to a good start

If you will forgive the soccer analogy it was a game of two halves yesterday. Middle went out with some enthusiasm after a confidence building day on the training ground on Monday; here at Lower our team morale was somewhat dented by the high and still rising water which started the day stubbornly stuck at 0.5⁰C.

Bear Pool yesterday

Up at Middle Simon P and Julian T won the toss and started on Clarkes Corner, the wonderful pool at the base of Yovas rapids, a classic resting spot for salmon in high cold water. They made the most of it ending the day with a score of 35 salmon between them of which six were around 15lbs.

Team coach, Hugh, reported this morning that they finished with 70 salmon to eight rods at Middle with an encouraging number over 10lbs. Fast sinking tips, short leaders and large flies of around 2”, particularly a heavy’ish yellow bodied Willie Gunn, doing most of the damage.

The Lower Camp kitchen team

I cannot I’m afraid report such a healthy score for Lower – Jesse had great hopes that his team might out-fish Middle, but it just was not to be. The water was still a touch murky with the ice, albeit much less of it, knocking dirt off the banks. Brian Anderson was our hero of the day with a hat-trick, three nice fish from the upper part of Green Bank.

Heli Pool this morning

The river rose all yesterday and, after a mild night, this morning it is up another 4” or so. The good news is that the water temperature has not dropped and remains 2⁰C. So it is still all to play for and the Lower team left promptly in the boats at 09.00 to see if we can do better today.

Another Sports Report tomorrow.

Christopher Robinson

Nearly there

I thought that we really might get fully under way on the fishing front yesterday, however the river is proving amazingly stubborn this year. With a cold Spring we have not had the usual big clear out of ice and very gradually and slowly the river rises, releasing more ice and snow off the banks. The frustration is that we know the salmon are here, hunkered down just off the main current.

Graham M fishing Duck Pool

At Middle Varzuga they had a respectable, if not an epic day, with 21 salmon to eight rods. I boated up there last night to find four of them still fishing Generator Pool at 8 p.m. Julian T had used his previous Varzuga experience to work out that conditions were improving and he had six fish late in the day which raised the camp spirits considerably.

At the Lower Camp it was, I fear, a bit of a struggle. The weather was much better, quite mild in the afternoon, but the salmon had their heads down and we managed to land two sea trout before calling it quits and retiring for another of Maryke’s delicious dinners.

Kitza, First Island from the air yesterday

Normally we get this blog posted first thing in the morning – I’m a bit late today as I got diverted earlier on to go up to the village to bring a repaired boat, engine and some stores back down river to the Lower Camp.

I returned to the good news that Middle Camp had landed 40 salmon this morning, I think with Simon P and Julian T leading the way with nearly half the catch from Clarkes. Brian A had two fish from Green Bank, right outside camp here at Lower Varzuga just before lunch and this afternoon everyone is back on the river with renewed enthusiasm hoping the Varzuga is now going to ‘switch on’ – I have probably made myself a hostage to fortune!

Kitza Home Pool

Really mild today, the air temperature is around 10⁰C and the water is up to 2⁰C. Good fishing conditions, we just need the river to settle down a touch more and I think we could be seeing some really interesting fishing.

I went over to Kitza with Tom and Donna yesterday - the river was loooking really good. I'll hear from Tom this evening no doubt, they have quite a bit to do over there but I'm sure Tom will find a moment or two to cast a line. I'll let you know when I have news.

Christopher Robinson

What a difference a day makes

A cliché I know but ‘what a difference 24 hours makes’. Yesterday morning was pretty miserable, we woke to a strong north wind and the snow of Saturday continued, the river was still rising and there was enough ice coming down to put us off boating.

Ice coming past Lower Varzuga yesterday

We had a TV crew here to film the opening of the season and the best we could do was to film fly tying in the warmth of the lodge and some casting practice on the ‘lawn’ – not exactly what we had planned but there really was nothing much to do other than sit it out and waiting for an improvement.


Joe L tying in preparation for better weather

In the afternoon a few intrepid fishers took to the river, Brian Anderson had a lovely fresh 8lber from Duck here in Lower Camp and in the evening Hugh at Middle reported that they had had a couple of fish off the island. Hugh and head guide, Misha, seemed enthusiastic about the prospects; despite the cold water temperature (0.5⁰C) they had seen fish running through Generator Pool and they had established that Clarkes, Beach, Snake Pit, Fortress, East Generator, Birthday and Party Pools were all well clear of ice on the banks.

Ready for action this morning

We had a sharp frost last night and this morning was crisp, clear and bright. The river has steadied off and there was quite a rush to get breakfast out of the way and the fishing started.  I look forward to bringing you news of the first full day of fishing tomorrow.

Christopher Robinson

The shopping trip to Murmansk went well and amongst much else I found great new Magi-mixes for the girls in our four camps– on return I got a massive thank you hug from Maryke when I delivered it to the kitchen. I am not sure that type of simple generosity works outside the remoteness of Varzuga – I think the girls really want handbags or shoes!

Arriving at the Middle Camp

We had a speedy turnaround at Murmansk airport and were in the camps by 3.30 p.m. – however the weather was really foul – heavy snow and driving wind all day. At Lower we hunkered down in the new, warm lodge and enjoyed dinner; at Middle they had a brief foray to try fishing but soon retired to the comfort of the log fire, content to sit the weather out and wait for better conditions.

Even Kari elected to get under cover

The river has risen considerably over the last 48 hours and is up almost two feet. The rise in water is shifting more ice off the banks and this morning ice flows continue to come past us, it is also still snowing hard and blowing a gale from the north, so I suspect we will wait out the morning and look for an improvement in both weather and river conditions.

Glenn still at work despite the weather

It is great to have our guests in camp, albeit in poor weather, but frustrating that the river is being so stubborn to clear out the ice this year. Bizarrely the first Pied Wagtail appeared on the lodge balcony this morning, always a good sign as they normally arrive with good weather to feast on the first large hatches of stone flies from the river, we just hope that it knows more about the weather than we do!

Our first dinner of the season

Looking forward to getting you some fishing photos when we can. In the meantime we are staying warm and the fly tying bench is occupied in anticipation of better things to come.

Christopher Robinson

I’m afraid there will be two short blogs coming up, today and tomorrow, Saturday. I’m going back up to Murmansk this morning with the helicopter, I can buy some last minute bit and pieces and then meet our first guests on Saturday morning.

Jesse and Glenn in the workshop

We went up to Middle Camp yesterday with a huge load of supplies, all was well and in the evening Hugh called us to report that the boats were in the water and ready to go. There is quite a lot of snow in camp, however it is melting fast and last night the temperature did not drop below 4⁰C, the river continues to rise and although we still have some ice coming down we should be pretty clear of the worst of it by the end of today.

Middle Camp yesterday

For this coming week at the Lower and Middle camps we are expecting quite a high river with low water temperatures which suits us really well for spring fishing. It will be sinking lines or tips of various types and large bright flies.

Lower Camp from the helicopter yesterday

Hopefully I’ll be able to post a blog from Murmansk tomorrow morning, and by Saturday evening we will be up and running with both the camps full of eager fishermen. All the guys here are keen to get going, the prep work is done, the river is looking good and there is an itchiness to get serious fishing underway!

Christopher Robinson

Victory Day

We have had the rise in water we hoped for and yesterday, Victory Day in Russia, the river started to disgorge the ice out into the White Sea.

Hugh setting up a time lapse camera over the river

Our Russian friends celebrated their National holiday while we had a productive day putting the last touches to the camp and preparing equipment for the Middle Camp which we will fly up to later this morning.

We now have a boat in the water which will make life a great deal easier and we can start ferrying more kit down from the village.

Watching the ice going to the White Sea

I will fly up to Middle Camp in an hour or two with Hugh and Jemima (manager and cook) who were there last year and are much looking forward to welcoming their first guests on 12 May. We will try and get some photos for tomorrow’s blog. I saw the camp's head guide, Misha, in the village a couple of days ago and he reported all was well, I think we have the same team of guides but will find out exactly how things are when we get there.

Kate, Jemima and Tiffy sorting out the medical boxes

No chance to fish yesterday but the river looks good today; we expect it to continue to rise over the next few days and it might warm up a bit but I would think that we will start on 12 May with a water temperature of around 1⁰C – 2⁰C.

The river at Lower Camp this morning

A bit of a brief blog today – tomorrow I will give you a full update on how Middle Varzuga looks.

Christopher Robinson

The first day

Yesterday was our first full day in camp with much to do. Before he had even set sight on our boat engines, Glenn in his first day here as our MMAT (Mechanic and Mender of All Things) was plunged straight into his new role helping the guides mend one of the Russian Skidoos. The ice is gradually clearing from the river, however we will not launch the boats for a couple of days yet and until then we depend on the skidoos to run supplies to camp from the village a few miles upstream.

Kari guarding Feoders skidoo

One of my first tasks each year is to get the office printer up and running and, as always, the mice had adopted it as their home over winter. Every year they make a nest of chewed up paper in the back of it and it takes a few print runs to clear the bedding and droppings out of it!

The guides, Jesse and Glenn got five boats up and running and they now sit on our camp lawn on top of a couple of feet of snow ready to launch later this week. Sadly for us there was no chance to fish yesterday, one of the Fish Inspectors went down to Heli Pool with a spinner and soon had a welcome 10lb supplement to his rations on the bank.



Tiffy, Jemima and Maryke having lunch watching the ice go past

The river remains low and not yet in full Spring flood, it rose a couple of inches yesterday then last night we had a hard frost which slowed down the melt. The water temp is a chilly 0.5⁰C – good news for the Lower and Middle Camps as the salmon will not push on fast upstream at the moment.

A large ice flow coming past camp

Today has dawned bright and clear, already the air temp is up to 10⁰C so we should see a further rise in the water level by the evening. The first birds arrived yesterday, the pair of ravens that nest opposite camp greeted us with a cacophony of calls from the pine trees across the river. No sign yet of the Pied Wagtails which are always my marker that Summer is truly on the way.

The boats ready to go

If you are coming on 12 May you should expect to find quite a bit of snow and probably ice on the banks and although it is highly unlikely you will have to do much deep wading, a pair of fleece leggings or ‘long johns’ under your waders would be advisable. Large, bright flies 1½” to 2”and a fast or medium sinking line or tip will probably be the best tackle.

P.S. Glenn has just measured the water height – up 3” overnight despite the frost – good news.



Christopher Robinson

Welcome to Varzuga 2012

Welcome back again! Full of anticipation we got to Varzuga yesterday, and what a contrast to the green England I left last week. An interesting drive here with a great deal of snow on the road, the last 100 km took us over 5 hours ; we stopped by the memorial to Sviat to lay some flowers and remember him, we admired the White Sea icebergs littered on the beach by the dropping tide and finally arrived at the village to meet our many friends after a year away.

The memorial to Sviat

Varzuga has seen a much later Spring and, this winter, had a great deal more snow than for quite a few years. The river ice is just breaking up now, there are reaches of the river flowing clear including the rapids by the Lower Camp and the Heli Pool, however there is a good deal more ice yet to come down in the next few days and as I type this a section of the ice, the size of a couple of football pitches, has ground its way past us.


The White Sea coast yesterday

Yesterday evening there was the usual scramble to see who could catch the first salmon. It is a testament to this remarkable river that it is not a question of ‘Can we catch a salmon?’ but ‘Who will catch it?’. Hugh the Camp Manager at Middle Camp immediately lost two then had a solid hook up and proudly landed a fat, bright silver 10lber straight in from the sea.

The first salmon!

Today we have abandoned any idea of fishing and it is a busy team here preparing the boats and equipment for the coming season. A bright day, about 8⁰C with the river height slowly rising as the Spring melt continues. I will keep you updated on the fishing outlook – at the moment expect true Spring conditions with cold water temperatures and snow on the banks, but hopefully lots of salmon!

Preparing boats this morning

More tomorrow.

Christopher Robinson

End of the season review

As ever the season has simply flown by and it is hard to believe that it was only 6 weeks ago that our first guests got off the helicopter at Lower and Middle Varzuga.

From that first week it was clear that it was going to be a bumper season as those 13 rods landed an average of 61 fish per person. It can be cold at this time of the season but early on is when the big numbers of fish run and this year was no exception.



Guide Losha with an early season fish

 As the season progressed it was also clear that unless we had heavy rain it was going to be a relatively low water year. This is something that we generally welcome as it makes the river more defined and easier to read although it can make boating to some of the beats harder than we would hope. In the event we did have rain on the 3rd week of our very short season which helped somewhat but the last two weeks did involve some walking for some of the camps.

Midnight on the Varzuga

The amazing thing about the river is that it does not seem to be affected by sun, rain, wind or extreme temperatures. In conditions that would mean most rivers would not produce fish (we had one day of 30 degrees Celsius with a searing sun) the Varzuga continued to be remarkably productive.



A decent fish from Lower Varzuga

 We finished our season with a very healthy average of 37 fish per rod per week. The lower water also meant that we could access areas of the river earlier in the season than usual and this led to some big fish being landed. Several fish of over the magical 20lbs mark were taken with plenty in the high teens.

The Varzuga is not a river where you are likely to land a fish of over 40lbs but it offers an unrivalled opportunity to hook a very good number of salmon and I lost count of the number of people who commented on how much they had learnt about their fishing after a week on the river.

The new lodge at Lower

The new accommodation at Lower Varzuga is quite simply superb and with some finishing touches it will be the best lodge on the Kola by quite some margin. As we continue to invest in the boats, the accommodation and the training of the guides, the programme improves year on year and we look forward to our next 20 years on the river.

For 2012 we are excited to say that we are able to substantially reduce the cost of fishing at Lower Varzuga and Kitza for the prime weeks thanks to an exciting opportunity presented to us by our new Russian partner. Please contact me in the office for further details.

Middle Varzuga in June

It has been a wonderful season with an amazing total of 5,401 fish landed over the 6 weeks – there simply are not many places that can match these statistics in terms of Atlantic salmon fishing and I am constantly reminded as to how lucky we are to be able to fish there every year.



Could this be you next year?

 We will not update the blog any further until the start of the 2012 season but my thanks goes to all of you who fished with us this year and I will look forward to seeing you on the river next year.

Charlie White

The last day

The last day

A brief blog; sadly we close the camp down today and last night hauled all the boats out of the water and secured them well above (we hope) next Springs river ice break.

We ended the season on a happy note here at Middle Camp with another excellent day, although I know the fishing in this low water has been tougher than normal up on Pana.

At Middle Camp we had a strong upstream wind all day, not easy fishing at times and in Yovas Rapids there were strong gusts from all directions. Despite that our six guests landed 42 salmon with Richard D catching 12 to take him to over 50 for the week – not bad for a youngster who had only caught 3 salmon before he came here!

Ian C at Royal Dee in Yovas Rapids

Middle ended the week with 230 fish to six rods, much better than last year and well above the long term average. At Pana I’m afraid the team struggled slightly in very low water conditions, even so they had 119 for their team of eight.

Shortly the helicopter arrives to take our guests back to Murmansk and thence to home. Tiffy and I will go to the village this afternoon, find our car and retrace our steps back to Norway to see our friends on Lakselva.

This is always a sad moment – how the season flies by. A huge thank you to Genadiy Nagirniak and all the Russian teams in Kitza, Pana, Middle and Lower Camps for all their hard work, support and friendship this year. I look forward to being back in May next year.

Andy B with one of his 50 salmon for the week

 Charlie will summarise the season on the blog early next week. In the meantime we will all take home wonderful memories of this remarkable river, the stunning scenery and the warm hearted people of Varzuga village.

Christopher Robinson

Warm Water

Another bright day yesterday with a reasonable breeze that caught you out occasionally if your casting got lazy. Ian C and Andy B were first away, eager to get up Yovas Rapids. Ian, having fished the Varzuga with us for most years since 1991 has stuck to his Bomber pretty much all week, knowing that he might land more on a conventional fly but happy to experiment and have some fun. He came home having banked six salmon.

Peter and James D with Misha returning to camp

Andy B, in his first trip to Varzuga has been determined to make the most of the numbers of fish here and landed 9 yesterday using an intermediate sink tip and his special killer fly. The fly is of his own tying and he brought three with him, one he kindly gave to James D, a pike dealt with the second yesterday so, on his last day he has one left. Not too much of a problem as he is not one to knock off flies on rocks when casting.

The last of Andy B's special flies

The water temperature crept up to 17⁰C yesterday and the level continued to drop, the salmon have started to move out of the slower and medium paced flow into the fast stuff. This was very noticeable yesterday and caught us out a bit in the morning.

Hugh landing Jemima's first salmon

With only two days left here, Hugh took Jemima out in a boat to see if she could land her first salmon – which she duly did, a nice 8lber from Simmons - celebrated with a banya and a swim in the river!

The first salmon smile

We ended the day here at Middle Camp with a creditable 32 salmon plus Jemima’s first. The Pana team struggled with the warm water and bright sun and had 15.

Our last day today – the season has just flown by, it is cloudy and quite windy again. Overall good conditions but tough casting I suspect.

Christopher Robinson

Just around the corner

The water level continues to drop and as it does the pools are becoming more attractive and defined. We haven’t seen the water as low as this in June for many years and exploring new spots is fascinating and often rewarding.

Yovas Rapids, Royal Deeside pool

Lawrence and Richard D walked up Yovas Rapids yesterday, I explained that there was no need to go all the way to Scotts as the lower and middle section was fishing well and full of fish (the beats here are so long that it is seldom all the pools can be covered in a day).  In fact they did walk all the way to the top and came back with 21 salmon between them, most from the area of Scotts. Lawrence explained that as they walked up they’d see a pool and mark it to be fished on the way back, then the fisherman’s inherent curiosity kicked in and they walked to the next corner to have a look – another fabulous pool – so, inevitably, they were drawn further on. They hardly fished the middle and lower sections and the two groups going there today are champing at the bit to get going.

James D and Misha with one of James's four salmon yesterday

We completed a great day with an after dinner Bomber demonstration on Generator by Ian C where he rose, hooked and landed a fish for the gallery. That took us to a tally of 36 – not bad for very bright conditions.

Pana reported 20 yesterday with a really nice fish of 15lbs falling to Alistair M in Lunch Pool.

Madonna's

Andy B broke his rod on Tuesday and borrowed one of our Guideline ACT 4 rods kindly supplied by Guideline Director Espen Myhre. He rated it very highly and had seven salmon on it from Simmons, one of which was a cracking 10lber straight in from the sea.

Andy B in action with the Guideline rod

Only a light wind today thank goodness, quite warm and overcast – looks good.

Christopher Robinson

Mid Summers Day

Mid Summers Day announced itself with a weather front of howling upstream wind and rain, the team knew casting into it was going to be tricky at best and enthusiasm for the day ahead was somewhat subdued.

Andy B and Ian C took the Royal Deeside area of Yovas Rapids where, despite the conditions, Andy had nine fish by 2 o’clock before his double handed rod broke. He struggled on with his light single handed in the wind and came back in the evening with his mind querying what the score might have been had he been able to cover the water. Ian C had 10 fish from Green Bank and Royal Dee, four on a bomber and the rest on Sunrays; he declared the beat ‘heaving with fish’.

Tired but happy after a long day in the wind

Opposite them Peter D had six salmon before he too broke his rod - it was one of those days. Lawrence and Richard D drew the ever productive Simmons and landed 13 between them and we finished the day with a remarkable 40 salmon to six rods in pretty atrocious conditions.

Midnight at Middle Camp

Up at Pana the team again had 30 fish, yesterday evenly spread amongst the team. The water up there is really clear and low and a certain amount of experimentation with flies is going on, today they will try blue – not a colour we usually use here.

Tim Scott Bolton painting at Green Bank

We had the artist Tim Scott-Bolton out here for a couple of weeks and he has created a wonderful collection of paintings of the river and Varzuga village. His exhibition will be held at the Tryon Gallery from 6-9 December.

A typical 'big sky' on Varzuga

The wind dropped last night, looks much better today although quite bright. More tomorrow…

Christopher Robinson