25/06/08 - Superb fishing in the final week

Last week was one of those vintage Varzuga weeks that will be remembered for many years by those fortunate enough to be here. The water levels were perfect for all the beats, boating was easy, the sun shone turning the grass and birch translucent green and a bumper run of salmon continued to enter the river. It was made even more rewarding for those of us running the programme that so many of our guests were Varzuga veterans and really appreciated how good it was.

Water temperatures got into the range 10-15 degrees C at which the salmon are at their most active and aggressive, all methods worked and those fishing on the surface had electric sport. The single handed rods came out too and there were many opportunities to experiment.

The team on Pana, which included many old hands, arrived just as the bulk of the main run of fresh fish arrived (some 10 days later than normal). By the end of the week they were catching a steady 80 or more salmon a day and finished their week with 450 fish to the 8 rods. In the Middle camp, our friends from Belgium made the most of the wonderful conditions and had several days of over 100 bright new salmon and just missed beating their record ending with 556 fish to the 12 rods.

On Kitza the water had finally dropped down to reveal most of the pools at their best and the warming water started to bring in the main run. By the end of the week the camp was recording a steady 35-40 fish a day. The 8 rods finished their week with 180 fish.

The current week has seen little change to the water height which is holding up well and the water temperature is ideal at 15 degrees C on Varzuga and 13 degrees C on Kitza. All beats are accessible by the jet boats and we have had a mixture of bright sun, rain and drizzle and mainly a light wind from the South. Just perfect fishing conditions.

Pana continues to fish wonderfully, the 7 rods are landing a consistent 80 a day. The first three days of this week have seen the 7 rods take 244 fish.

At the Middle camp Roy Hooper, fishing for Atlantic salmon for the first time, rose a fish on his first cast in the Varzuga and hooked and landed it on his second! James Dellar also caught his first salmon on the first day - on his first fishing trip. A number of bigger fish have been landed this week and a decent number of fish in the 10lb to 15lb range are running through the beat. So far the 9 rods, many of whom are new to the beat, have had 159 fish in their first three days.

Kitza too has seen some bigger fish; Tudor Davies got stuck into them and had a 22lber and a 15lber in one day. The river is now producing a steady 40 a day to the 8 rods with the fish now well spread throughout the length of the river. For the first part of their week the 8 rods have had 111 fish.

It seems such a shame that we are closing the camps on Friday as clearly there is a lot more fishing that could be done but this just shows what a strange spring we have had. We will of course post the Varzuga review at the end of the season and we will also post a quick round up of the final week shortly.

If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact Charlie White or Lynsey Mair.