Final Flourish

Date: 29 June

Air Temp: 9C

Water Temp: 13C

Water height: -12cm

Number of rods: 17

Number of fish caught: 41

Biggest fish: 30lbs Paulo Hoffmann

No 30lb+: 1

No 20-29lbs: 6

No 8-19lbs: 26

Grilse: 8

Weather:

It was a cool mostly cloudy day with an upstream wind.

Pilots standing by

Manager’s Comments:

Well what a day to finish the week on. While fishing can be unjust and there were sadly a few people who returned blank, for many there was a final flourish. Indeed, it was the highest score of the week, especially considering there were no evening fish to add to the tally on account of the traditional Friday night party.

Morning transport to the river

Fishing Sand Island and Cliff, Geoff B had two of 13lbs and 16lbs and Anna K had a nice 9lb fish on a small Black Francis conehead.

Anna admiring a salmon

Yury D took four fish 7 Islands, all mint fresh and 15lbs in weight. He reported that they all fizzed around when playing them and went airborne numerous times. Salmon of this size are simply fantastic to catch and punch well above their weight.

One from earlier in the week for Yury

Jasper P and the FFN team had an incredible last day with 10 to their two rods on Upper Norcamp. Jasper finished with another salmon north of the 20lb mark this time one of 21lbs. Alex K had four weighing a neat 16lbs, 17lbs, 18lbs and 19lbs. There were some antics with fish disappearing down rapids again! Paulo H hardly got to cast a line but had two and he finished on a high with his second personal best of the week at 30lbs. What a way to finish!

Paulo H's 30lber

Just a word on tactics. The default position on Yokanga is often to try and fish as deep as you dare without snagging (there are a lot of rocks) and to use a large weighted tube but these guys (and a few others) proved that that is simply not necessary. Jasper fished a size 10 double most of the time and used the hitch to some effect. Paulo stuck with his float/intermediate for most of the week and Alex did similar. There is a time and a place for fishing deeper, but it should not necessarily be the standard unless perhaps in the very early season with colder water temperatures.

The Lower Norcamp team of Lance R and Jean G had a fish each, weighing 16lbs and 15lbs respectively. John B had three from Nahodka and Golden Reach and Matt H had three, two of 12lbs and a sea liced hen fish of 20lbs when finishing up at Poachers. Again, a good finish for them.

The last patches of snow

Arni B (also a floating line advocate) took three from Home Pool and Lyliok, one of 19lbs and two smaller ones. Sadly Manuel L returned with a blank and lost a very big one. Surely you will get lucky next time Manuel.

Manuel on a luckier day

It is a common myth that those of us hosting weeks on Yokanga do plenty of fishing! Pat B very kindly let myself and Bill Drury fish his rod on the last couple of days as at aged 87 he was feeling justifiably tired after two week’s fishing in Russia. We are all in awe at your stamina Pat! Bill had a 25lber from Lyliok in the morning (it could well have been bigger as he was on his own) and your faithful blog writer had a weighed 27lber from the tailout of the Lyliok rapids in the afternoon. Both were hen fish. Interestingly this cooler weather seems to have stirred up some of the older and larger hens.

Camp Manager has a cast

Henry Mountain