Ponoi. Ryabaga Camp Fish Report. Frontiers International. Week 4.

publication date: Jun 25, 2008

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author/source: Frontiers International

Week 4: June 14 - 21, 2008

Saturday morning, June 21, it was 2°C. Saturday afternoon, when our guests arrived, it was 23°C. Between 8:00AM and 3:00pm, we had spring. During this past week we had the most spectacular transformation of seasons that, at least, I have ever seen. At the start of the week there were hardly even any buds on the birch trees and by the end all leaves were out in full.

The weather was absolutely fantastic. Hardly any major wind on the week, only a few quick showers, and the rest of the time it was simply divine sunny and warm conditions. Of course with such a drastic climatic change, salmon fishing will suffer.

In the span of the week water temperature rose from 10° to 16° and the river dropped almost exactly one metre. In conjunction with bright sun for almost the entire duration, in fact just about the first sun most of these fish have likely ever seen in the river, anglers did need to work for their fish.

At the beginning of the week while the water was still cold sunk lines and big tubes were the call of the day. By the end of the week small tubes and doubles on intermediate lines were doing the trick.

The fish clearly began to move up the river as some pretty dramatic high bag days progressed in an upriver trend throughout the week. Everybody’s not-so-favourite beat, Hourglass, was again the top performer by nearly 40 more fish than any other beat. I do not know why most clients knock Hourglass (other than the constant howling upstream wind), as it consistently performs well.

We had some very good wildlife sightings this past week. In camp we had a weasel kill and play with a lemming, a fox (who is becoming a regular visitor), and a massive hare. In the river there were sightings of moose, mink, wolverine, and beaver. The beaver is a very special one. I saw and photographed this guy in Homepool myself so there is proof of its existence. Anyway, European Beaver were introduced into the Khandalaksa and Umba region back in the 60s. This area is about 800km south west of us. Never before has a beaver been spotted this far north in the Kola Peninsula- so this is another sign of climactic change in this area. Any day now, I am expecting mammoth bones to start popping up around camp now that the permafrost is shifting!

This past week was really quite special. It may not have been the best fishing on record, but it really was pretty damned good with an average of 41 bright fish per rod. Plus seeing such dramatic changes on the tundra such as we had last week is truly something special.