Ponoi trip; August '08

Teifi-Terrorist · #1 (**permalink**) 05-09-2008, 10:02 AM

I've never been that interested in salmon if the truth be known, but with a trip to the Ponoi awaiting I could be converted.

Double-handers packed, flies tied, I was soon in the airport in Murmansk - which is an experience in its own - awaiting the helicopter ride that would drop us in the middle of nowhere; no roads in, no roads out. However, greeting us upon our arrival at the Ryabaga camp was the river; with a river like this you're almost glad that there are no roads. Imagine a river about 10-20 times wider than say the Teifi/Towy (it was over 200 metres wide in places), and you're getting close - it was huge!

The only mode of transport in and out

Baggage and anglers onboard

The river was running some 5-6ft higher than summer level, and was blacker than any peat stained river I've ever come across. However, with the autumn run just starting to trickle through, the recent flood would certainly encourage things to get moving, and move they did.

Ryabaga camp, Ponoi

The Ponoi, and the home-pool.

Following a brief introduction and tour by the camp manager, rods were assembled and it was down to the home-pool to try our luck. The camp sits on the bank of the home-pool, which is allegedly the best pool on the river. It sits on the confluence with a nice sized tributary, which invariably slows the salmon down, especially if that’s their target spawning ground. Two salmon were landed – not by me, I hasten to add – but it certainly gave us a feel of what to expect over the next few days.

As darkness fell it was time to get back to camp, hang the waders up for a few hours, and get thoroughly doused in vodka! Not a vodka drinker? Don’t like vodka? Don’t drink it neat? Well, firstly never admit any of the aforementioned points! Secondly, it doesn’t really matter, as you won’t have much of a choice anyway! Vodka is the Russian water supply! Having said that, I’ve never seen a drink bring a group of strangers together so quickly in my life; the camaraderie from the outset was superb, an experience that I will never forget.

Fishing began promptly at 9am. The guides would come to your hut/tent at 8.45am, pick up your tackle, and then meet you down by the boats. Everything was impeccably organised with military precision – indeed, nothing could be faulted. Your beats were designated by rota at the start of the week, as were your guides, so nothing was left to chance. Some beats were literally 5 minutes from camp, with the furthest beats being reached by hovercraft, as they were some 45 minutes away. Each day you would get a couple of miles designated to you and your boat partner, which on a river of this immensity is a huge amount of water.

Transport links…

I was a bit hesitant about boat fishing, I had a preconception that it would seem somewhat ‘false’. However, with the river being high, and with so much water to cover, we had little choice. After a couple of days you got use to the boat fishing, and to be honest I grew to like it – it certainly enabled a lot of water to be covered very quickly, and the guides were on-the-ball, lowering you some 4ft after each cast, inching you slowly towards and across every likely holding spot. Indeed, give credit where credit’s due, all of the guides we had for the week were superb, top of their game, patient, enthusiastic, informative, and bloody good fun.

Boat fishing on the Ponoi

Change of location; on the lookout

Into some fish…

The week continued as it had commenced; great camaraderie, and superb fishing - even when the conditions turned to the worse. The autumn run was trickling through nicely, and the average day catch comprised of a nice mix of fresh fish alongside some darker spring/summer fish. The power on the fresh fish was awesome! Some of the 8lbs fish fought superbly, fooling you into thinking you’d hooked something of gargantuan proportions. Indeed, my 15ft rod was feeling the strain on a few; thankfully I didn’t mess around with the single-hander! However, a lady of 72 that was fishing the same week managed a fresh 17lbs fish on a single-hander, now that must have been some fight!

To be continued....

Teifi-Terrorist · #2 (**permalink**) 05-09-2008, 10:03 AM

Some salmon from the week.
A nice 16lbs tagged fish, which had been caught 2yrs previously:

My largest of the week at 20lbs (a face only a mother could love – the fish, that is!!)

Some fresh ones:

Long tailed lice

By the end of the week my tally had reached; 12 bottles of vodka (or so it felt like!), 37 salmon with the largest being a brute of 20lbs. To many, such numbers wouldn’t appeal, thinking that it would ‘spoil’ your outlook when you returned home to fish your native waters. However, to the contrary, as a novice salmon angler I found the experience gained over the 6 days as being invaluable to my salmon fishing back-home. Learning simple things such as what to do when the salmon takes, when to lift, what to do if you get a pluck etc etc. gets learnt in 6 days, a learning curve that would probably take closer to 6 seasons back home. It certainly doesn’t make you the final article, but it certainly puts you on the right track, and it’s an experience that I wouldn’t think twice about repeating in the future. Each to their own I guess.

Some other species are present within the system too, including sea-trout, which, by all accounts, they use to net 400 tonnes of off the coast!! They were beautiful fish, but a 15ft rod didn’t allow much room for them to play, unfortunately.

There were also an abundance of grayling, which swallowed the largest of salmon flies!!!

Lunch was had either on the riverbank, or on the boat, depending on preference and location:

Depending on beat, there were some sizeable tributaries that could be fished too. Indeed, these ‘tributaries’ were larger than some of the main rivers I am use to fishing back home!!