Lower's last day

It seems hard to believe that only 4 weeks ago we took the sad decision to cancel the first week of the season due to a late ice break.  During those 4 weeks, the river has risen over 20ft as the snow and ice melted as a result of an extremely early heat wave and since that peak, it has dropped over 25ft – all of this on a river that is around 250-300 yards wide. 

Summer levels on the Varzuga

Whilst it is undoubtedly true that most people come here to catch more salmon than they can dream of, it is the whole experience of being in such a harsh and wild environment that tends to draw everyone back.

The team at Lower finished with a further 46 fish recorded yesterday.  Douglas B showed the younger members of the team how to do it and landed 7 whilst still finding time to allow his guide, Roma, to fish for a while who also landed one.  Jim C had 6 to his rod and in the evening Bill and Eoin took our cook, Maryke, to fish in front of camp and she landed a lovely fish from the boat.

Maryke in the midnight sun

Kitza continues apace and they added 60 to their mounting total.  They are averaging over 40 fish per rod with a day to go which is a great weeks fishing.  Malcolm K and Julian P were the top scorers with 16 and 14 fish respectively whilst Chopper Island and Goldmine were the most productive pools.

Success for Jim C on Duck

Pana is beginning to move through the gears and they had their best day of the season so far with 54 landed to the 8 rods.  As is often the case, Jack M was the top rod with 14 from Ponzoi and Lunch.  Their water is not falling as fast as it is here and boating remains very doable across the whole beat.

Middle Varzuga carries on racking up the totals and an additional 130 fish were put in the book yesterday.  This takes them to a weekly average of 65 fish per rod – exceptional fishing and Terry reported a very happy camp.

Ditch W with a chunky one from the Wires

I am returning to the UK tomorrow so this will be my last blog and Christopher Robinson will take over for the rest of the season.  Whilst always great to get home, it is a difficult place to leave and as ever, my huge thanks goes to all of our Russian friends who make this work so well and I will look forward to seeing them all in September when I return for an exploratory trip to find the Autumn run.

Charlie White

Up to Middle

Every season it seems as if we close the Lower camp too early but this year it will be especially true.  As we stood on Beach yesterday, which is at the bottom of our beat, watching fish after fish head and tail and jump clear of the water, it was clear that there are still a huge number of fresh fish coming in and to close this camp on Saturday will be a real shame.

Jim C on Wires in the morning

After fishing, I went up to Middle Varzuga to see the team there and they are making the most of this year’s very strong run.  A further 158 were added to their total which now amounts to over 650 fish to the12 rods over the past 4 days.  JP Camozzi landed 17 of those and his father, Achille, had a great fish of around 17-18lbs which was yet another one of these bigger fish that we have enjoyed seeing this season.  As ever, Clarkes has fished really well and the home pools of Generator and Bear are wonderfully reliable.

Matthew R at Middle

After a delicious dinner we boated back in the midnight sun and I arrived to find the camp pretty quiet as the previous night’s activities had eventually taken their toll.  We finished with 44 for the day with Jonathan K having a great couple of sessions and he landed 12 to his rod.  It has been great to see the improvement in everyone’s casting and fishing ability as they pick up tips from Eoin Fairgrieve and Bill Drury.  Eoin and Bill have an uncanny knack of diagnosing faults and seem to be able to put them right with just one or two small adjustments.  They are great people to have around camp and the chance to actually catch fish whilst also benefitting from expert tuition does make the week a lot of fun.

Douglas B with one from Feorder's Place

Pana had another very good day and had another 39 to the 8 rods.  Jack M was the top rod on 9 fish and they also reported losing roughly the same number again.  We have had days like this all season when fish just don’t seem to stick, you can’t win them all is probably the message.

However at Kitza, winning practically everything appeared to be the order of the day.  The 8 rods landed 92 fish between them with top scorers being Julian P, Chic McS, Robin B and Malcolm K with 18,15,11 and 11 fish respectively.   As if their day could not get any better, they then saw 3 bears just opposite camp which hung around for 10 minutes to thrill everyone and to round off a memorable day.

Martin F on Duck

Almost inevitably it is another very hot day today but just as inevitably Glynn D has landed a fish before breakfast and with a slightly steadier night behind them, all of the rods were on the river at 9, conscious that the week is going far too quickly.

Charlie White

A trip to Kitza

It is not every day that one of our cooks celebrates their 40^th birthday so yesterday saw me going over to Kitza for Kate’s big day.  To get there from Lower requires a combination of two boat trips, a walk and a 40 minute drive along the White Sea coast – it was probably one of the most beautiful journeys I have ever taken.

It was great to catch up with the team over there and a combination of wonderful fishing and practically perfect conditions led to a very happy camp.  They landed 68 fish to their 8 rods with Julian P accounting for 13 of those.  Chic McS had 11 to his rod whilst Malcolm K had a cracking fish of around 17lbs from Boggy Bank. 

Douglas B on the Wires

I got back to Lower at around 3am expecting everyone to be in bed but a few hard core souls were still putting the world to rights and this morning is a little slow in camp.  We put a further 45 fish in the book yesterday with catches evenly spread across the rods but Ditch W landed 5 fish which was comfortably his best ever day.  Tom S and Jim C hit gold at Feorder’s Place and had a very busy afternoon as did Martin F on Beach where he had 4 fish in a frantic hour. 

Joe E on the Beach

The 8 rods at Pana are making the most of the main run of fish getting to them and they landed 53 fish.  Alan M, on his first trip up here, landed a 20lber from Ponzoi which is the biggest of the season so far whilst Jack M had a great session on Ivan’s and landed 9 in just two hours.

The fishing at Middle Varzuga continues apace and 141 fish were put in the book.  Normally two or three rods do rather better than others but yesterday was  a very even day and the highest individual rod catch was 14 which demonstrates that fish are equally spread across all of the beats.

Martin F on 39 Steps

Whilst some struggled to get up this morning, Jonathan K was on the river at 7am.  3 fish before breakfast showed what was possible and on a day where we have yet more clear skies, even the most tired of rods have gone out with a determination to make the most of the river whilst it is in perfect shape.

Charlie White

Perfect conditions

“If I don’t catch another fish all week I will still have had the best week of my life” was one comment at lunch yesterday.  When the fishing and the weather combine as they have over the past two days, all you really want it to do is to carry on without any form of change.  It is really warm, the fish are still piling in and the numbers of fish being landed are truly excellent.

At Pana, the team landed 47 with Karen R and Jack M sharing top rod honours with 9 apiece.  They had quite a few fish from Rock Face and also from Ivan’s stream so this morning we discussed the possibility of soon trying the float trip whereby two rods and their guide are dropped off high up river to fish their way back to camp with a small inflatable to do the hard work.  I suspect this will be tried in the next day or so as more and more fish get above the camp.

Mark A with one of 6 he had from Bear Corner

Kitza had another really good day with the 8 rods finishing on 56.  Julian P and Chic McS led the way with 13 and 11 respectively but perhaps the best day was had by David P and Tom, the camp manager.  They took a boat all the way up to the first lake (about 8 miles above camp) and fished their way back.  They landed a couple of fish at Rackmans but it is so beautiful up there that numbers of fish were slightly irrelevant.

Glynn D with a deep fish from Bear Island

Middle shows no sign of slowing down and another 161 have been put in the book in the past 24 hours.   Again, it was Lawrence L, Ian H and John M who were the stand out performers with 22,21 and 20 fish but James MacP was not exactly out of the running having landed 15 to his rod for the day.  They are fishing hard but when the fishing is this productive it seems only sensible to make the most of it.

Michael K on Larder in the morning

At Lower we had a great day and finished on 61 between the team.  Mark A had a purple patch and landed 6 from Bear Corner in the morning whilst Glynn D consistently picked up fish all day to finish on 9 and Jim C had 7 for his day.  A few bigger fish were amongst our tally yesterday, a theme across all of the camps.

Ditch W on the Wires in the afternoon

The water temperature is 10c this morning and although we are not quite on floating lines yet, it surely won’t be long.  In the meantime, intermediate tips, size 6 flies and longer leaders are the best combination.  Clear blues skies, a light breeze and a falling river are what greet us this morning – not exactly a bad way to start the day so we hope for more of the same.

Charlie White

A great start to the week

Yesterday was one of those days you hope for.  Glorious weather, camps full of enthusiastic fishermen and serious numbers of fish being landed across all of the beats.

Here at Lower we finished on 77 fish for the day.  Martin F had his best ever day and landed 9 although cruelly lost his 10^th fish after playing it for quite a long time.  Glynn D built on his 5 fish before breakfast to finish on 12 for the day and his fishing partner, the young at heart Douglas B, had 6 to his rod.  Justin Miller, visiting us from the Fly Shop in America, landed his first Atlantic salmon and went on to land 5 more.  Lunch and dinner were very noisy affairs and we carried on long into the night to celebrate such a good day.

Douglas B with a perfect example of a spring fish

Kitza has also got off to a great start and the slightly odd lull of last week appears to be over.  The 8 rods had 43 to the bank with George R landing 10 of those whilst Chis McS accounted for 9.  David P was the first to really experiment and was rewarded with a fish to a skated fly from Sasha’s. 

Almost inevitably, changeover day bought a total turn around in Pana’s fortunes and the 8 rods there had 49 salmon between them.  As the water warms up, it is now 11c, the fish will get there in bigger numbers and with the amount we have been landing down river, it won’t be too long before we would expect them to have some even better days.  They landed a lot of fish from Ponzoi but also had 8 fish from the Camp pool.

Mark A with his first fish of the week

Middle continues to be quite extraordinary.  It is slightly hard to keep up with the numbers but Terry is doing a great job in catching people as they come off the river before they invariably head out again.  Since they arrived on Saturday evening, the 12 rods have landed more than 200 fish.  John M had 28 to his rod yesterday, Lawrence L had 24 whilst fishing partners Ian H and Hugh M landed 23 and 19 respectively.  There are fish up and down the beat and they had a really good session from the top at Scotts and Pashas to show that the fish are running Yovas in numbers.

"Ditch" W with one from Morskoy Island

Glynn D has had another 2 fish before breakfast and it is yet another very bright day – that combination served us well yesterday so hopefully today will bring more of the same.

Charlie White

A new week

Last week saw some simply incredible fishing.  Flying up to Murmansk yesterday with the team from Middle was great fun as we shouted to each other over the helicopter noise about their fishing and the overall experience that they had had.

The 12 rods ended with 1,309 fish recorded in the book along with countless other battles that did not end with the fish in the net.  It was not their record total but it was extremely close and after 2012, we never really expected to get near that figure again – to do so was a real testament to the strength of the run this season.

Lucy M with a fabulous fish from Bear Island

Inevitably some personal records were broken but you did not need to be at Middle for that to be the case.  The rods at Lower and Kitza (3 days on each beat with 10 rods per beat) finished with 749 salmon on the bank with personal bests being broken every day.

Joe M with a pretty good one of his own from the Mall

Perhaps unusually in a year where we have had such a late break, the rods who started at Kitza tallied more than those who came to Lower first.  Kitza is lake fed and that colder water tends to mean that their main run is 3 to 4 days after Lower (which is why we fish Lower only in the first week of the season) but last week that was not the case.  One of those strange anomalies that simply reaffirm that strong predictions about salmon fishing are never a safe bet.

Roma in the bright sun which was a feature of part of last week

Pana steadily improved throughout the week but a final total of 23 to the 7 rods was disappointing.  Speaking to the rods at Murmansk it was clear that they had enjoyed their week but that the high water had simply made it very difficult for them to fish the beats properly and for the fish to reach them.  It has dropped markedly in the past couple of days and to prove the point, Karen R had one from Hippo Rock (just outside camp) and Dick B had 2 from Ivans last night so their week is off to a very good start.

Tom S raring to go this morning

Fog near the river caused us to be delayed in Murmansk yesterday and we did not get here until quite late so most rods had dinner and went to bed but Glynn D got up at 6am this morning and has landed 5 fish before coming in for breakfast.  It is not hard to imagine that this news meant that all of the rods were very prompt for the guides at 9am and with a bright sunny day to kick us off we are all looking forward to another excellent weeks fishing.

Charlie White

A dropping river

The Varzuga is an endlessly fascinating river and every year it can surprise you.  At Lower Varzuga the river is roughly 250 yards wide and yet yesterday it dropped 8 inches – that is a huge amount on a river this wide.  It means that across all camps, new beats are coming into action and the pools are starting to show themselves.


Joe and Lucy M on Morskoy

Such was the scene for yesterday’s fishing and seeing rods standing on Bear and Morskoy Island made us feel as if Lower is really coming to itself.   All of which led to a great day and we finished with 84 fish to the 10 rods.  Father and daughter team of Joe and Lucy M had a fabulous day landing 21 between them.  They had a memorable double hook up at Morskoy Island and had action throughout their session.  We lost a lot of fish yesterday, for whatever reason and whilst Peter H landed 12, he also lost 24 more that he had on for various lengths of time which gives you an impression of the amount of encounters we are having.

 

Bruce B on Larder

Perhaps the best news of the day came from Pana.  It was not a record day by any means but with the 7 rods landing 10 fish it was a really encouraging day.  They landed some of those at Ponzoi but also landed a couple in the pool beside camp which was just what we wanted to hear as it means that slowly and gradually the main run is getting to them.  On past performance we would expect the numbers to climb exponentially with every passing day.


Brendan G with another great fish from Morskoy in the afternoon

Kitza had a decent day but again it was a little odd.  They landed 20 fish which was not a bad result but we would have expected more.  4 fish were landed from Goldmine which is the first time they have landed fish that far up river and shortly we would expect the whole of the upper river to open up which is probably the most beautiful of all of the sections that we fish across our 4 camps.

Middle Varzuga has now broken through the 1,000 mark for the week.  It is easy enough to type that but it is an incredible number of fish for 12 rods over 5 days of fishing.  They landed 137 yesterday and Steven C was the top rod with 17 fish which demonstrates how evenly the catches were spread.

Joe, in the bright sunshine, on Beach

It is the last day of the week and various rods are hatching plans to miss dinner and to carry on fishing as it is really too good to waste so I suspect final numbers will be quite strong but I will report those on Sunday when I next update the blog.
Charlie White

 

 

Warming up

After a couple of really cold days the weather changed yesterday and the afternoon was glorious.  As we start to shake off the cold winter, all of the colours are beginning to come through and to see sunshine, masses of fish showing and rods up and down the beats bent into fish was to see the river at its best.

We had an excellent day at Lower and finished with 99 in the book.  By the time everyone had come in it was quite late so we didn’t know how close we were to the 100 mark – had we done so we would have delayed dinner!

Andrew W-D with a chunky fish from Morskoy

Bruce B had a fabulous day and accounted for 20 of those fish whilst Andrew W-D landed 16 to his rod.  The fish are in seriously good condition and every single one is giving a good account of itself.  John G was slightly losing track of how many fish he had caught and lost before his guide pointed out that his 6^th fish jumped 6 times which gave him a point of reference.  Morskoy Island and Beach are now starting to come into their own and we are just beginning to see the first signs of Bear Island appearing.

Roma with a perfectly proportioned fish

Kitza had a strange day and they finished on 17 fish.  I am not sure why that would be the case as the run was beginning to build and build so I think we just have to put it down to one of those things and hope that today is more productive.   It has dropped another 6 inches overnight and their water temperature is 7c – sink tips and 1 inch copper tubes remain the favourite set up.

Brendan G on the Mall

At Pana the first fish of the season was landed by Jose F.   With a much warmer day yesterday and today, the water temperature will rise quite quickly which will hopefully kick start the run up there.  A difficult week by anyone’s standards but on identical dates last year, this same team had a very productive week with low water and high temperatures so, as ever, predicting what is “normal” for any week can be quite tough up here.

Not a great photo but it shows the depth of some of these fish

Middle continues its superb week although the bright sun did lead to the numbers dropping off a touch.  We didn’t feel too sorry for them though as they still put 165 in the book with David C accounting for 19 of those – the rest were very uniformly spread across the team.  East Generator and Pertiha were the most productive beats but they have still not gone much above Clarkes yet.

A very bright day has dawned here but John G-H and Brendan G have already landed 6 fish between them before breakfast so we are off to a good start.

Charlie White

Changeover day

We had another really cold day yesterday with the odd snow flurry and a biting wind.  We all came back to camp for lunch where we enjoyed a few glasses of warmed and spiced red wine – very welcome and got the circulation going again.

Yet again, it did nothing to dampen the fishing despite the water temperature dropping to 6c.  On their last day before flying to Kitza, our 10 rods at Lower landed a further 87 for the day to put their 3 day total at 242 fish – an excellent result.  Mark M put his extensive knowledge of the beat to good use and was top rod with 21 but Tim J proved that he could pick up a thing or two quite quickly and landed 12.  Michael G had what he described as the best days fishing of his life whilst also finishing on 12.  We lost an awful lot of fish yesterday as the colder water seemed to make the salmon take quite short.

A close up of one of Brendan's fish - they are in great shape this season

In the evening we flew over to Kitza where we met a very happy team of rods.  They had added 44 to give them a half term tally of 143.  Peter H had 10 to his rod yesterday whilst Brendan G is putting in the hours and is being regularly rewarded.  The river is still quite big but is dropping by about 6 inches every day and it is becoming more and more defined as time goes on.

Rhod D on Morskoy Island, the first time it has been out of the water this year

Middle Varzuga had another stellar day and landed 237 fish to the 12 rods.  This puts them on a running total of 852 for the week; amazing stuff and they are on course to break their own record which they set in in 2012 which was an eye watering 1,377.  David C and Chris C were the top performers in a pretty high achieving team and they each landed 31 in the day.

Val J on Morskoy in the afternoon

Our team at Pana are sadly not having the fishing we would hope for them.  At the risk of bemoaning the weather at every turn, the combination of a late ice break, followed by a heat wave and then followed by a cold snap has ensured that the fish are moving up river quite slowly.  They are boating a long way downstream to try to intercept them but so far they have had no luck.  It will change and when they do hit fish they will surely hit quite a lot as the run seems very strong and they must be stacked up somewhere.

Hamish Mackie studying the Arctic Terns

I spent the morning on the coast of the White Sea with sculptor Hamish Mackie.  He is out here to study the Arctic Terns and the other Kola wildlife before collating an exhibition in 2016.  Having taken over 1,300 photos of terns yesterday, his mind is running wild with possibilities and it will be very exciting to see what he can come up with. 

Charlie White

An extra week on Pana

Yesterday was as cold a day as we have had for a while.  A bitter and strong upstream wind made life uncomfortable and we had lunch in camp as opposed to our normal picnic on the riverbank.  It is so helpful to have Bill Drury with us here at Lower and he got around to all of the rods to teach them new casts to deal with the strong winds.  Even those who have not done it before were soon proficient in left hand up Circle C’s.

Tudor D with one of 31 he landed yesterday

All of which would normally lead to less than productive fishing – not so yesterday.  At Lower we put 106 in the book; the best day of the season and Tudor D had the day of his life landing 31 of those.  Larder and Bearlets were the most productive pools for him and it was striking that he landed all of those fish in “office hours”. 

Kitza continues to improve every day and yesterday the 10 rods had 54 fish on the bank along with numerous other encounters.  Brendan G is here for the first time but he put his extensive fishing knowledge to good use and had 9 for the day.

Hamish Mackie on the Wires yesterday afternoon

In the evening I went up to Middle and it is fair to say that I walked into a pretty happy camp.  They had had another amazing day and accounted for 258 between them.  75 of those fish were taken from Pertiha pool over the day and Brian W had 30 to his rod whilst Paul C landed 26.  None of the pools above Clarkes are really working yet which is yet another indication that the fish are being held up there before they start their major run up the river.

As a result I am afraid that Pana remains very slow but this late spring does allow us the chance to add another week of fishing at this legendary camp.

Pana is 80 miles from the White sea and it takes time for the fish to get there in big numbers – we would expect the week to average between 30-40 fish per rod but on similar dates in 2009, 8 rods averaged 63 fish per rod so it can be extremely productive in conditions such as these.

Pana camp at the junction of the Indel and Pana

We will keep the camp open this year for a fifth week, Saturday 21^st to Saturday 28^th June for a maximum of 8 rods – there is a minimum requirement of 5 rods for the week to run. The camp will be staffed by our own Roxtons manager and cook plus the regular Russian team. The cost is £3,800 per rod, including all drinks in camp. Flights to and from Murmansk and visa costs are not included.  

This opportunity is very much first come first served and please contact the office as soon as possible if you would like fish Pana this year.   

Rhodri D on Jannaways

Just to add to the feeling of a late spring, it is snowing here this morning and I suspect we will be having lunch back in the dining room again but if it means the same sort of numbers as we had yesterday then no one will be complaining.

Charlie White

An extraordinary day at Middle Varzuga

All of the 4 camps that we run on the river are linked by HF radio, the advantage of which is that it is an open radio meaning that we can all hear one another which is useful in many different ways.  Sometimes the radio reception can be patchy and in emergencies or when we really need to clarify something, we have satellite phones.  After radio call last night I asked Terry to call me on the sat phone as I was not sure I had deciphered his numbers properly.

Valerie J with her first salmon caught on a fly

The 12 rods at Middle Varzuga landed 262 fish on top of a further 111 they’d had on their first evening – simply extraordinary fishing and figures I felt were worth double checking.  Rather inevitably, there were some huge scores to individual rods and I shall just give a few highlights; the father and son team of David and Stephen C landed 52 between them, Jeremy H, Paul C and Lawrence R all had 30 each and one regular guest landed 38 in the day.

The ever smiling Igor with one of Michael S-D's fish

That the fish are being held up at Middle is good news for them but means that the team at Pana have to wait a bit longer than normal for the run to get to them.  They will but sadly they had not by yesterday and it was a quiet day up there.  We are lucky to have our Spanish friends in camp who had a bonanza in the low water of last year and know that this can be the way it goes.

Rhodri D with one from Duck

Kitza, perhaps predictably, completely altered on changeover day and the 10 rods had a great day landing 45 fish.  With new showers fitted on Saturday and plentiful fish across the beat, it does feel like a different camp – all in the space of 2 days.   Peter H was the top rod with 10 for his day and Bruce B had a really chunky fish of around 13lbs from Deluxe.  Brendan G went out this morning and has already landed 3 from the Heli pool so their day looks set fair. 

Will D at Bearlets

At Lower we had a really good day and finished with 49 in the book.  Tudor D just outfished his son Rhodri and they had 8 and 7 fish respectively with other son Will, close behind on 5.  Michael S-D and fishing partner Bob M matched each other with 7 fish each but the day’s biggest celebration was reserved for Valerie J who landed her first salmon on a fly.  It was not exactly a small one either and the many shots of vodka that were consumed last night may explain a slightly weary start this morning.

More tomorrow when hopefully I will have some pictures of Middle Varzuga as I am planning on going up there this evening.

Charlie White

A new week

Last week can be summed up by a brilliant week at Middle, a very good final 3 days at Lower and a difficult week at Kitza.  Over 800 fish were landed to the 12 rods at Middle Varzuga with some extraordinary individual scores to the rods.   

They reported fish from pretty much all over the beat and this week looks set to continue.  The rods who are there now know the river as well as anyone and will fish it hard.  They had already landed 55 fish by 10pm last night which equated to about 5 hours of fishing so I suspect we could see some very high numbers reported from there.

Carolann M with a cracker from Jannaways

At Lower the fishing got better every day and on Friday we put 57 in the book, our best day by some margin.  Kitza improved all week and the final days tally was 24 which again was much their best day.

When we flew into Kitza last night it was noticeable how much clearer the river was and here at Lower it has dropped hugely over the past few days.  It is back to around the level at which it was before the big melt of last week and we now have all of our beats back in action. 

Anton and Tim I with one of the 85 he landed in his week

We got into camp quite late last night and everyone was pretty tired but Mark M was not to be deterred by such things and landed a fish from the Wires which was the first fish of the season from there as it has been too high to fish it until now.

Ivan and Mark B with his fetching pair of Marigolds....

It is very bright today but there is a really cold downstream wind so everyone has gone out in all of their layers.  Inevitably, everyone got into their waders as quickly as possible and it was only when the guide asked them for their licence did they realise that they had safely put it in their trouser pocket – much undressing later and the rods are now all on the river!

Charlie White

A change in the weather

After 4 days of really hot weather with a very strong sun, yesterday afternoon saw it starting to cloud over and last night was quite cold.  It is what we have been praying for as it will help hold the water in the tundra and that was evident this morning as the water has dropped 5 inches.

 

Jeff G with one of 11 he landed yesterday

Kitza is also dropping away quickly and whilst still not perfect, they had a much better day yesterday and landed 14.  Not as many we would necessarily expect on the 22 May but it is good to see the numbers going the right way.  They had an early supper and went down to the White Sea where they spent 2 hours watching Beluga whales playing and feeding just off shore – a great sight and we were all rather jealous of them.

Jo landing his 10th of the morning

Middle continues to fish exceptionally well and they finished with 148 in the book.  The numbers were very evenly spread across the board but Jeremy B had one of his best days with 16 to his rod.  As ever, the home pools are firing on all cylinders and Generator accounted for 41 of those fish – truly an astonishing stretch of water.

At Lower we had our best day of the season so far and landed 41 fish to our 10 rods. Jo A and Jeff G did account for a large portion of those having had a bonanza at Jannaways and they landed 18 between them in their morning session. Jo, a Norwegian who has fished pretty much all over Norway, had to take a few moments to compose himself in the evening as he took in his days fishing – “what a place” is all we could really get out of him for 30 minutes.




Paul P with one landed just after lunch

Some of the rods went to the village in the evening to look around the church and to get an impression of what it must be to live up here, especially in the winter – tough was the overriding view.

As always seems to be the case, the end of the week has raced upon us and there will be no blog tomorrow as we fly up to Murmansk and meet our new guests.  Predictions are dangerous things up here but it does look as though they will have an excellent week with the river dropping in nicely and the numbers starting to build.

Charlie White

 

 

Springers

There is a reason why we all want to catch spring fish – they fight beyond belief and everyone is a picture to look at.  Last night Paul P hooked a fish at midnight and it weighed exactly 7lbs.  Not exactly huge but as it emptied his reel of backing and showed no signs of tiring, we were not to know it was that size.  We managed to net it a full 150 yards from where he had hooked it and the assembled crowd could only watch in amazement as to how hard he had to fight to get it in.

Graham and Paul with 7lbs of silver fury

That was one of 29 we landed yesterday here at Lower with Tony S landing 5 and the aforementioned Paul landing 6.  The encouraging aspect was that we landed fish in all of the beats and there is a real sense of the river filling up with fresh run salmon.

Middle had another amazing day and finished on 141 to the 12 rods.  Martin L had 12 of those with 2 good ones well into the teens whilst Tim I had a day to dream about, he landed 21 bright silver spring salmon to his rod with 6 fish over 10lbs. 

Jo A on Heli

The water temperature is now around 7c and all of the rods reported seeing many more fish than before as they start to show themselves in the warmer water.

Kitza is dropping quickly but it is still very difficult there – my suspicion is that changeover day will herald the real change as it so often does.  Ken B persisted hard and landed 2 fish but it is not the Kitza river that we know and love at the moment. 

Paul P with one of his 6 for the day

Overnight the river has dropped 5 inches and is getting back to that tea like clarity that we would look for.  All of the snow has pretty much gone and whilst there is still plenty of water lying in the catchment area, the tundra is now doing its job of acting like a giant sponge and any water now being released is much cleaner which bodes well for the rest of the season.

Charlie White