The beginning of the new season turned out to be unusual, difficult and unclear. It is likely that the very late spring shifted some biological processes in the sea and river. According to local villagers, never before had it been so cold in May and never before had the river been free of ice so late.
The first surprise for us was the impossibility of getting to our lodge on Chavanga by regular transport. The estuary of the Varzuga river was still covered with ice, crossing was impossible, and the streams and small rivers along the white sea coats became simply impassable. Therefore, we had to rent a helicopter and land on the river bank together with our first guests.
The second surprise is the very slow dynamics of the drop in the water level in the river. We are usually not too afraid of high spring water, because anyway, the snow in the tundra and the ice on the lakes are gradually melting, and we can predict where to fish now, and which pools will open for us in a day or two. In this way we usually regulate our movement along the river in search of the best places. This time they opened slower than usual, a week passed, a second and a third, and 2/3 of the river’s territory remained inconvenient for fishing even by the end of the first ten days of June.
The third surprise that affected the effectiveness of our fishing was a sharp warming and the arrival of an extensive rain front that covered the entire coast of the White Sea. This is the most undesirable combination for us, a combination of high and warm water that merged into the river from the sun-heated tundra swamps. Over the course of a week, water temperature moved from 12 to 16, and then 19 degrees. A maximum of 22 degrees was recorded by the end of the 2nd week of June. Salmon activity has decreased noticeably. This was especially noticeable in previously productive “wintering” pools, where we now received single bites instead of serial fish. On top of this, the water level has risen again, several centimeters above our initial spring note. As a result, we had to leave the already explored places and look for new salmon locations, but in fast water with a very inconveniently high water level.
I want to express my gratitude to our guides, who made every effort in such difficult conditions. On the river, everything rarely goes according to plan; there is always a new factor that has to be taken into account and the tactics and fishing techniques have to be adjusted. But this spring was special, and the guides had to work hard to find options to adapt to such conditions.
We are grateful to our guests who worked no less and in the evenings by the fireplace enjoyed celebrating record-breaking distances they covered to get to those desirebale places.
Individual fishing results ranged from a modest 0 to 7 salmon per day per rod.
The weekly individual record was 26 salmon for the week. I do not present team statistics, since they turned out to be completely unpredictable and therefore practically useless. The bulk of the catches were salmon from the autumn run; here everything was as usual. The physical condition of these fish can be defined as average. We didn't catch the giants, although there were such chances. The maximum weight of salmon caught and weighed was 4,300. Several of the released fish could weigh more than 5 kg, their length was 73 and 73 cm. Relatively few fish were caught from the very late autumn stock, which is called “zakroika” in the local language. These fish entered the river under the cover of high water, and we were probably not prepared to catch these fish in conditions of unusually high and warm water. Places with fast currents, which these fish prefer, remained inaccessible to us in most parts of the river even at the beginning of July. The usual choice in favor of smaller and darker flies was eliminated by high water, and large and bright flies, designed for aggressive fish, lost their effectiveness in warm water. Therefore, the choice of fishing technique and tactics turned out to be very difficult.
On an interesting note, I would like to once again turn to the work of the guides and note that all the beginning fly fishermen caught their first salmon on the river Chavanga. In the photo, Matvey, 12 years old, is holding his trophy.
Now we have a short break. We are looking forward to surprises from the fall season! Stay with us for more updates. We are departing to Kamchatka for whole August and back to Kola peninsula for an amazing Autumn period.
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