The tropical weather continued and it was a very tough week despite we had 1 day – midweek – with lots of rain and temperature drop. The river rose about 15 cm and we had a little increase in the catches but not at all what we hoped for. 92 Salmons all together:
10-14 Lbs = 36
15-19 Lbs = 3
20 Lbs = 1
Lots of walking upstream and downstream was needed to get fish in the book as the river continued to be too low for any boating. Every one worked really hard and I am sure lots of pounds have been lost during this Varzuga fitness program. Alain and Denis – Kola Veterans – went 3 times adventure hiking for the Upper Grand Varzuga, a 3-4 hours walk – one way -and saw a BIG brown bear – picture below -on the other side of the river which is a very unique but very unusual experience as they are very shy to humans. The upper adventures produced good numbers of landed fish and as an extra bonus Perch and Grayling for barbecuing, true adventure.
Despite the really tough conditions this year we have caught increasingly numbers of big fish – a trend we also saw last year. Nine 20 Lbs have been caught and quite a lot of 15-19 Lbs, very impressive.
Grand Varzuga season is now over and we are waiting for the final Kola River report and will be reporting again from Umba, starting in August. Umba have been really generous to all anglers this year and it looks very promising for the Autumn fishing.
All the best
Kåre
