Saturday 13 June 2015

Weekly Report


6-13 June 2015

Air Temperature: 1C-18C
Water temperature: 8-10C
Water height: -4cm
No of rods: 13
No fish: 44
Biggest fish: 30lbs x 2, Eric and Edward Ahlstrom
No of fish 30lbs+: 2
No of fish 20-29lbs: 13
No of fish 8-19lbs: 29
Grilse: 0

Weather: Hugely varied weather, gale force winds, rain and cold spells, interspersed by a few hours here and there of warm calmer conditions.


Comments: When we arrived to green trees and an early Kola spring we, to some extent, wrongly persuaded ourselves that the magnificent Yokanga spring run of salmon would have known about the favourable conditions and turned up early in numbers! However, the beginning of the main spring run is only beginning to arrive, as is normal, for the first fortnight of June. Success has been managing to cross the path of a small pod of fresh fish as they eased upriver - the key lies are not occupied as such....yet!


We were lucky to have mixed team from Finland, the UK and Russia - all of whom got on very well and celebrated each other's successes. Apart from the Champions League final! Although low on numbers, Yokanga did come good as always on quality. We were all delighted to see that more than 30% of fish landed were over 20lbs including several of over 27lbs and two fantastic fresh hens of over 30lbs. We look forward to next week and the promise of a building head fish running on each tide.

Two 30lbers

12 June 2015

Air Temperature: 8C-12C
Water temperature: 10C
Water height: -4cm
No of rods: 13
No fish: 4
Biggest fish: 30lbs x 2, Eric and Edward Ahlstrom
No of fish 30lbs+: 2
No of fish 20-29lbs: 2
No of fish 8-19lbs: 0
Grilse: 0

Weather: breeze with stronger gusts, a little chilly in the upper river in the morning.

Comments: A really lean final day in terms of numbers. A fair few fish lost and touched but only four to the bank. However of those four, three were over 29lbs including 2 fish of just over 30lbs for father and son Eric and Edward.




Fishing Poachers beat, Edward was first to score in the main delta at the top of the beat, landing an extremely fat super fresh hen fish, and father Eric, not to be outdone, hooked an almost identical fish in the tail of lake which he landed 300m downstream in Boulder Alley. A great end to the week with our first two fish of over 30lbs!



Friday 12 June 2015

Quality Salmon


11 June 2015

Air Temperature: 7C-18C
Water temperature: 9C
Water height: -2cm
No of rods: 13
No fish: 10
Biggest fish: 29lbs x 2, Sam Amos and Chris Ballard
No of fish 30lbs+: 0
No of fish 20-29lbs: 5
No of fish 8-19lbs: 5
Grilse: 0

Weather: light wind with stronger gusts, generally sunny.


Comments: it was very interesting to hear of Andrew landing a long-tailed sea-liced 21lb hen fish at Seven Islands which goes to show the sheer distance that can be covered in two days by a salmon. Stanislav also landed a stunning 21lb fish from Upper Norcamp.

There is no doubt that the quality and size of the fish so far is exceptionally good. Three fish over 28lbs today for example. However the number of fish in the river so far is still light. Chris had a lazy but productive day, sleeping until lunch then wandering down to Home pool and landing a 29lb and a 28lb fish on a Collie Dog! Sam landed a wonderful 29lb fresh salmon from Cliff - beating his 27lber earlier in the week.


Last day of the week tomorrow so we look forward to a strong finish for our fishers who have fished so hard this week.

Thursday 11 June 2015

Fishing Resumes

10 June 2015
Air Temperature: 8C-15C
Water temperature: 9C
Water height: +4cm
No of rods: 13
No fish: 11
Biggest fish: 28lbs Dean Mansfield
No of fish 30lbs+: 0
No of fish 20-29lbs: 2
No of fish 8-19lbs: 9
Grilse: 0

Weather: Light westerly wind with occasional heavier periods, generally warm and overcast.



Comments: A much better day today, river dropping and clearing and light wind making fishing conditions really very pleasant. Andrew landed a great fish of 27lbs in Lyliok before adding another couple of lovely fresh fish in the high teens in Crows Nest. Dean fished the Poacher's draw carefully and banked an immaculate cock fish of 28lbs after switching to a heavier tip and putting on a huge collie'. Igor and Stanislav both had very nice fresh fish in the teens on 7 Islands, but Poachers beat ended the day on top yielding 5 fish, four of which were fresh and one over wintered. The most encouraging part of the day was seeing a decent run of fish come through Crows Nest, Lyliok and Poachers - let's hope this now builds daily and our fishers catch up with plenty of them over the next days.

Wednesday 10 June 2015

Storm Abated

9 June 2015
Air Temperature: 2C-12C
Water temperature: 8C
Water height: +8cm
No of rods: 12
No fish: 4
Biggest fish: 22lbs 
No of fish 30lbs+: 0
No of fish 20-29lbs: 1
No of fish 8-19lbs: 3
Grilse: 0

Weather: Extremely strong north westerly wind until 8 pm then starts to drop. Hardly any rain.



Comments: Conditions were still very tough today but the team went out and fished hard. The river was up and slightly coloured and despite a fair few takes and soft attempts at the fly only four fish were landed for the day. The river looked to have stopped rising by dinner time and as the wind abated we saw good fishing weather for the first time since Sunday. We hope to get a fair crack at the fish tomorrow and actually see what head of fish are in the river at this stage, instinct would say that despite the early spring - leaves are out and flowers blossoming - the beginning of the main spring run is yet to commence.

Tuesday 9 June 2015

Blow Out

8 June 2015
Air Temperature: 1C-6C
Water temperature: 7C
Water height: +1cm
No of rods: 4
No fish: 1
Biggest fish: 13lbs Sam Amos
No of fish 30lbs+: 0
No of fish 20-29lbs: 0
No of fish 8-19lbs: 1
Grilse: 0

Weather: Very strong north/north westerly wind, gusting gale force, heavy freezing rain for periods, very cold.



Comments: What a brutal day! The wind was way too strong and irregular for the helicopter, and fishing all but impossible from the true right bank. Four of our toughest 'gladiators' were selected for half a day's duty, walking up the left bank towards beach and making the best of challenging fishing conditions. Andy hooked a good fish but the hook pulled out after a determined fight, Sam landed a super -fresh 13lber to save the team from the "skunk" and maintain honour! All the while these fishers were observed by binocular from the lodge balcony windows and reports fed back to the extremely busy all-day bar! The river was rising towards the end of the day but rain stopped so hopefully the rise will not be big. The wind is due to continue for a further day or so then calm for the second half of the week so spirits remain high whilst we look forward to kinder conditions.

Monday 8 June 2015

Yokanga Opens

7 June 2015
Air Temperature: 4C-11C
Water temperature: 9C
Water height: +1 > 0cm
No of rods: 13
No fish: 14
Biggest fish: 27lbs x 2 Sam Amos and Markku Lamppu
No of fish 30lbs+: 0
No of fish 20-29lbs: 4
No of fish 8-19lbs: 10
Grilse: 0

Weather: light rain leading to heavy rain, strong wind and very cold weather until lunchtime when rain stopped and wind eased. Rain and wind started again around 9pm.




Comments: the 2015 season is underway and the first few fresh fish have been landed. There is no weight of fish in the system yet but pods of fresh fish are clearly working their way through the middle river, assisted by a good water temperature. Sam and Markku both had stunning 27lb fresh cock fish, from the tail of lake and lyliok - with Markku's fish taking 200+ yards of backing on the first run.

George and John landed their first Yokanga fish from lower nor camp and island respectively, john landing four for the day, two over 20lbs, for an average size of 19lbs. Most fishers had a few takes some of which will be over wintered fish and some fresh fish, for example Stanislav lost three good fish and Igor landed a lovely fresh fish of 18lbs and had hold of a couple more.

Dean had a great 12lb sea liced fish in the evening from Lyliok right bank, landed on a fully dressed Jock Scott tied on a heavy single - well done Farlows for stocking a few traditional patterns - it's fun to see they still work. It was also good to get some evening fishing done as Saturday evening was occupied with the champions league final and a Yokanga Fisher's betting syndicate, Dean winning with a perfect call on a 3-1 Barca' victory!




All the staff and guides are full of excitement that the season is here so everyone holds their breath in anticipation of the landing the first Yokanga 30lb+ monsters that will surely be working their way upriver to occupy the key lies in each beat. Tomorrow looks to be fairly knarly weather with high wind and rain so we are all steeling ourselves for the challenge.