Monday 27 June 2016

Heaters On

Date: 25 & 26 June

Air Temp: 8C to 10C
Water Temp: 14C
Water height: -7cms
Number of rods: 16
Number fish caught: 18
Biggest fish: 32lbs Lucas R
No 30+: 1
No 20-29: 1
No 8-19: 15
Grilse: 1

Weather: Warm and mild on the Saturday evening which all changed on Sunday when we woke to considerably lower temperatures, a leaden sky and intermittent rain and drizzle plus a strong upstream wind.



Guests and guides assemble on the first morning

Manager's comments: The Saturday evening session proved well worthwhile. Guests reported having seen lots of fish both on Lyliok, Home Pool and on up river as well. Edward E hooked a fish within less than 30 casts in the Pots. He coped with the pressure of an audience of three and landed a lovely fat hen fish weighing 13lbs. Lyliok produced fish for three of the four rods, Jeremy C notably landing fish weighing 14lbs, 15lbs and 18lbs and also lost a fourth. Very deserving of a post-fishing drink! A total of 10 fish were booked for the Saturday.

Sunday was altogether a different proposition. Wind made casting tricky on many of the beats and under those circumstances it is hard for the guides to keep the boats in the same position. Colin J was the top scorer with three including a 24lber from Sand Island. Colin was fishing an intermediate tip and a double but others fishing in the same way did not connect. Some in the party opted for a sink tip and a tube and also had action so I don’t think you can draw any conclusions as to what is working best.

The one constant was that collectively the party lost way more fish than the 18 that were landed. Having commented at the beginning of the week that we rarely see fish jump on the Yokanga, the salmon seemed determined to show themselves at every opportunity hopping and leaping with reckless abandon. Soren C, a regular visitor over many years, commented that he had never seen so many fish move in one single day and others up and down river reported having seen plenty of running fish. I suppose it is good to know that they are indeed coming even if they don’t want to play ball!


Lucas with his personal best 32lber from Poachers
 
Lucas R, a second time visitor to Yokanga, landed his personal best, a 32lber from Poachers. He is now wearing the coveted 30lb+ grey baseball cap. He and Federico S had a fish each from Lyliok (right bank above the Lyliok stream) after dinner.


Preparing the Sashimi

Interestingly we fared rather better under the same conditions of water being warmer than the air last week. It was only in the evening that we realised that we had a rising river. Only 5cm up but seemingly enough to put them off or have them take short. At the time of writing the heaters are on full blast in the lodge and the river is stable and should start dropping. I don’t wish to tempt fate but this should set us up for the week.



Guests head out fishing

Henry Mountain