First Day

Date: Evening 17 June and 18 June

Air Temp: 6C to 14C

Water Temp: 5C
Water height: 2.6m to 2.4m
Number of rods: 13
Number fish caught: 6
Biggest fish: 24lbs Matt Harris
No 30+: 0
No 20-29: 1
No 8-19: 5
Grilse: 0

Weather: The Saturday afternoon of arrival was grey and overcast. Saturday was mostly sunny with a light wind.

Manager's comments: The arrival process through Murmansk was as fast as I ever recall it, especially with close to 90 people on the charter. There appear to be two new immigration booths which helped considerably. All booths are even sporting modern electronic gates now complete with red and green lights so you know when it is your turn!

View of the lodge to Home Pool

 

Spring has definitely arrived in Murmansk with leaves out and the landscape looking green again. As we flew towards the Yokanga Lodge, the tundra became increasingly white and the lodge still has piles of drifted snow lying around. As a result of the speedy immigration process we all arrived in camp in very good time only to find that the warm weather of the previous two days had pushed the river level up considerably. The water level is certainly 2m above what would be the normal opening week and we are the first arrivals of the season having had to cancel the first two weeks.

Exhilarating day for flying

 

Most headed out after dinner to try their luck but it was not long before the team was comparing notes around the bar. With high water lapping into the small bushes along the bank it was difficult to get to likely places and everyone reported snagging on bushes. Just the one kelt was landed on the Lyliok left bank.

Saturday showed a 20cm drop from the previous 24 hours. The advantage of the rise in river levels is that it has removed a good amount of snow from the banks so that we can get better access. With limited places to find suitable slow flowing water the team were distributed from Poachers to Lyliok with many of the pairs swapping places at lunchtime.

Stunning vista on Beach

Spencer P opened the score for the 2017 season and within a few casts caught a 12lb fresh fish from Pump. Pete W evened the score shortly afterwards with a 10lber. Bill W and Matt H were the main scorers of the day at Beach and Lake. Bill had a 16lber and 18lber and Matt ‘fluked’ (or so the bar chat said!) a 16.5lb fresh run fish and a 24lb osanka (last year’s autumn run fish that will spawn this autumn).

Matt H with his 24lb osanka

Six fish for the team was a great result given the conditions and it is encouraging to see that there are fish in the system. As someone remarked, it is like looking for a needle in a very large haystack. It was an exhilarating day on the river with bright sunshine reflecting off the remaining snow banks. A great addition to the day was a sighting of a white tailed sea eagle by several of the party and a pair of red-necked phalaropes that kept Matt company for part of the afternoon. Google ‘red necked phalarope’ as they are very distinctive little waders that rather uniquely like to swim!

The snow seems to be melting rapidly but it will take a lot for it to remain at this height so fingers crossed the level with drop away slowly with the colder weather that is forecast and we can all spread out across some of the normal beats.

Henry Mountain