Lizta day to remember

by Brett O'Connor

Despite having fished in Russia for a few years now, I don’t find the Kharlovka and Litza rivers particularly easy rivers to fish. They’re not the sorts of rivers you expect to catch large numbers of fish on every day. But what you do catch can certainly make up for it. There are days when everything you do just seems to go right.

It’s Wednesday 23rd August 2006 on the Litza River. Up until now, the daily temperatures had been pretty hot. Clear blue skies every day, not exactly what we’d ordered. So, I decided I’d get up early from now on and fish while it was a little cooler. Setting the alarm for 4am meant I would be standing and fishing in the river by 4.30am.

When staying on the Litza River you sleep in tented accommodation, but I use the word tent quite loosely. These tents have spring beds, a log stove and, table and chairs.

The Litza is most probably my favourite river to fish in the world. The scenery is stunning, the pools are varied and the fish can be fierce. To date, my best fish have come off the Litza. By ‘best’ I mean the largest, and the ones that have fought the hardest and given me some of my favourite memories of salmon fishing.

That day, I’d decided to set up two rods; one rod with a floating line and the other with a clear intermediate. On the floating line set up I tied on a size 10 Cascade, and on the intermediate, a 2” cone head Pot Bellied Pig. My plan of action was to attack the fish from the surface first then work my way down through the water column.

The first pool I fished was Red Cliff. At 5am it was cloudy, which was a welcome break from the last few days of pure sunshine. I waded out across the shallow water to the pool on the far side of the river. Next to the river was a steep cliff drop, which was bright red. I suppose that’s probably why they called the pool ‘Red Cliff’. This particular pool wasn’t very big, only about 200 yards in length but always seems to hold fish. I started with the floating line and fished my way through the pool without a touch. As there was nobody behind me, I decided to back up the pool.  Nothing. Right then, change of fly, I thought. Something bigger; a size 6 Green Highlander. Again nothing. I’d been through the pool back and forth now a few times, changing flies as I went.  The whole time I was there didn’t see as much as a tail, fin or splash.

Change your rod, change your luck! I scrambled back across the river and exchanged rods. The intermediate now in hand, the ammunition was a large 2” cone head Pot Bellied Pig. Again I went through the pool, changing the angle of casts, hand lining and varying the retrieve. Nothing. So I thought to myself, let’s back up the pool once more and then move on. I changed the fly to a brass 3” red Frances. While backing up the pool, quite a vicious take resulted with a fresh grilse being hooked. “Yee-har!”.  I always like to give a little yodel when I hook a fish. (Especially if you’re working hard and something new you’ve tried seems to work). A moment later the grilse was landed. It amazes me the amount of times you go through a pool here and then eventually a fish will switch on and grab the fly. Persistence pays off.

Just as I was releasing the fish my guide, and now friend, Dima arrived. Dima has guided me for a few years now,  and I always try to fish with him if I can.

Dima suggested we worked our way down to the Military pool. This pool is pretty close to the sea, so a large majority of the fish caught here are fresh. As it was still overcast, we decided to take advantage of one of the best pools on the beat.

We switched back to the floating line with a cascade. Two casts in the neck of the pool and “Yee-Har!”. Another fresh grilse grabbed the fly with a thump. We released the fish and continued our way down the pool. “Yee-Har!”. Yet another fish, this time it took the fly on the dangle. Then the line goes slack, it’s come off, and I wind in as fast as I can just to make sure as the rod tip starts to bend over again. It’s still on. There is a God! Then the fish realises it’s been hooked. It turns and runs down the river like a scalded cat. Dima and I climbed up the rocks, passing the rod to each other as we climbed while trying to keep in contact with the fish. From the high position of the cliff face we could see the fish swimming around close to the surface skulking around and defiantly shaking his head. Every time l wound him in closer to our desired landing spot, he turned and ran. He then tried to run for some nearby rocks. In fear of getting snagged, I turned up the drag and applied side strain to turn his head. Luckily this worked and winding the fish back again into our desired spot, I could feel the fish was beginning to tire. Dima climbed down the rocks with the net as I still played him from above. Every time I tried to position him into the net, he seemed to find an extra lunge of energy and avoid it. After 20 minutes we managed to position him into the net. 18lb of scalded cat covered in sea-lice. I quickly climbed down the rock face to get a picture with the fish, and in my opinion probably the best looking brute of a fish I’ve had the pleasure to catch.

We finished off the pool and decided to head back towards the pick up point and fish a couple of the pools on the way. There was quite a flow on the river at the Snowbank pool so we decided on the intermediate and 1” Willie Gunn tube fly. “Yee-Har!”. Half way down the pool and a fish of about 12lb smashed the fly. The fish was quickly landed and released.

I was tired by now. It was mid afternoon and the early morning start was taking its toll. But there was time for one more I told myself. We headed off to the Reindeer pool. We thought we’d give it a quick flick before the helicopter picked us up. “Let’s try something different again”, I said. So this time it was the floater, but we decided to hitch a small size 12 Green Highlander so it skated across the pool on the river’s surface. Third cast “Yee-Har!”. A fish rose to the fly but missed it; the fish did no more than chase it 5 yards down the pool until he ate it! Another fish of about 10lb was duly landed and released.

That take seemed to summarise the day well. It was just one of those days when the fish were just having it! We caught them that day on a variety of techniques; backing-up, skating flies across the top, fishing floaters and intermediates, light flies to brass tubes, small and big flies.

Some of the fish had been in the river a while, some were fresh, and some even sea-liced. I honestly can’t say whether it was the right conditions, luck, or reward for trying a variety of techniques. Personally I’d like to think it’s a bit of everything. The greater the variety of fishing skills you have up your sleeve, the more chances you have of catching fish, or large scalded cats.