LATEST NEWS FROM THE VARZUGA - 2nd JUNE 09

The season continues with great weather and superb fishing...

We are now halfway through the second week of our season and all of our camps are open - not before time as it is clear that the fish are now spreading through the whole system. Last week the team at Middle finished with 613 fish to the 12 rods and the five rods at Lower Varzuga had 244 to the bank. Many of the rods who have been there before reported that, yes, the river is lower than it has been at the same time of year for the past two years but that really, it is simply a "normal" year and not terribly low at all.

The first three days of this week have seen 173 fish landed at Lower Varzuga to 7 rods and 290 fish at Middle to 12 rods with Gareth Craze beating his personal best by landing 15 fish in one day. Pana camp has opened with 86 fish to the 8 rods and the 7 rods at Kitza have landed 56 fish. The camp manager at Kitza reports plenty of fish in the river but it would appear as though they are running the middle of the river and only the longest cast will suffice. That is likely to change quite quickly as the river drops away and it becomes easier to wade slightly further out.

The weather continues to be mild although there have been strong upstream winds which have not made casting particularly easy. Some good fish have been taken with Matthew Peacock at Pana landing his first ever salmon of 12lbs, followed straight away with another one, of 15lbs. The fishing in all camps seems to be characterised by flurries of action followed by periods of calm and it would appear as though the fish are running in large 'pods'. So, as ever, the best way to catch them is to move quickly through the beat but having contacted a fish, concentrate on that area rather more thoroughly.

The water temperature is currently around 10 degrees with the air temperature still high at around 15 degrees. Rods have mostly been using sink tips and intermediates but some have already moved to floating lines with a degree of success and, given relatively stable weather conditions, it is likely that the majority of rods will be fishing floating lines by the end of the week.

The latest news from the Varzuga - 9th June 2009

This week, our third of the season, has seen a real drop in temperatures and yesterday morning the Pana camp woke up to a light dusting of snow. The water temperature has remained at around 7-8 degrees with the air temperatures around 5-10 degrees depending on the time of day. Despite this dramatic change in conditions, the rods on the river are doing very well indeed with some excellent personal and total camp scores.

The team at Pana last week finished with 265 fish to the 8 rods with some new rods being shown the ropes by the indomitable Sir Gordon Linacre, who at 88 continues to inspire and amaze us. The 7 very experienced rods who are there at present have had 219 fish in the first three days with one, who has been fishing Pana for 18 years, landing his biggest fish to date from the beat at 22lbs.

The 7 rods who fished Lower Varzuga followed by Kitza took 286 gleaming fish for their week and those 7 rods who fished the opposite way round landed 125 which reflects the experience of the former team. Rods returning to the same beat always have an advantage as every year is such a learning curve.

The first half of this week has produced 82 fish to the 8 rods at Kitza and 117 fish have been landed to the 8 rods who have started at Lower with reports of many fish also being lost.

Middle continues to reward the great efforts that the rods at this camp have a habit of putting in and last week the 12 rods finished with 676 fish and many rods landed their personal bests during the week. This week has started in a similar vein and so far 308 have been taken to the 12 rods with Paul Young having his best ever day of 16 fish and Nick Moody taking a cracking 18lber.

Water levels continue to drop but with this cold weather the rate of the drop has abated and we are still boating the full length of all of the beats. The most successful fly sizes appear to be 6-8 or ½ to 1 inch tubes with floating lines being the norm on the Varzuga and Pana but intermediates are proving the most successful on Kitza.