A Hard Days Night, salmon fishing in Russia. June 2013 Heatwave!

When I tell friends and colleagues that I’m off on another salmon fishing trip to Russia, they all have the same reaction; firstly amazed that I am prepared to pay such a huge amount, then they exclaim that it’s easy out there, “a fish a chuck!” they say.

It’s difficult to justify the cost, I agree, but it’s the highlight of my fishing year and hard as it may seem to understand, for what you get; helicopter travel, wilderness comforts and truly magnificent fishing on incredibly beautiful rivers in a true magnificent wilderness; it is actually worth the price. Compare the cost of catching a Scottish salmon and a Russian salmon and, per salmon caught, it’s a bargain!

The second point, ‘it’s easy fishing’. Nothing can be further than the truth. I’ve been on 12 trips now and can compare the fishing on 10 or so different Russian rivers. You may have heard of some of them, Kharlovka, Eastern Litza, Rynda, Yokanga, Strelna, Varzuga and more. These are not easy rivers to fish. If you think you can go there and gently stroll the river casting an verge line and catch ‘shed-loads’ of salmon, I’m afraid you won’t. Not for the feint-hearted, they often require death-defying wading, huge casts and a keen talent in watercraft. Get it right and you can catch many fish, get it wrong and… well that’s fishing! To me, Russian fishing is the most demanding and arduous I’ve experienced, requiring much skill.

Coming back to the cost issue. I am not a wealthy man and I usually have to pick a ‘non-prime week’ as the dates coinciding with the main early runs of big silver fish come at a gigantic premium, so I’ve been fishing hard for resident fish with a few fresh fish coming in from the sea.

I’ve just returned from my latest jaunt to the hallowed beat of Middle Varzuga in the Southern edge of the Kola Peninsula, flowing into the white sea.

Normally the holy grail for large numbers of sparkling fresh salmon of medium size up to 12 pounds with the possibility of a 20 pounder, this was a ‘cheap’ week at the very end of the short 6 week season and my friends and I were met with the most difficult of conditions.

An unprecedented heat wave had hit the Kola and no more so than the rivers of the South coast. Day temperatures of up to 40 degrees were recorded and the water temperature peaked at a record breaking 25 degrees! With a tea bag and mug you could have got a good brew!

After the first day we realised that extreme measures would have to be taken, so we ‘worked the night shift!’ We fished the river from 10pm till 6pm, it never gets dark at this time of year but at least the sun was very low on the horizon, back to camp for ‘breakfast’ of bacon and eggs and tried to sleep in the roasting daytime.

Awake for 7.30 (am or pm, we didn’t really know any more!) for a 3 course dinner, or was it breakfast? and back to the river.

With slippy rocks and a strong current, the wading was awful resulting in many ‘swimming episodes’ (like bathing in the Med!) and the fish were reluctant to take the flies.

However, it shows what a fantastic productive river this is, by the fact that 10 rods caught 103 salmon that week, yours truly with  respectable 14 fish, all released carefully to kick off back to their lies quite healthily. We worked hard for those fish, changing tactics, flies and lines constantly to fish the fast runs, the deep pools and the little riffles in the optimum way. Anywhere else in the world, I suggest that we wouldn’t have caught a thing, which goes to show that Russian salmon fishing, although  very demanding is most productive on the planet.

Other than the pull of a salmon on the line, other highlights were the companionship and humour of a good group of guys; excellent care and attention from Roxtons, the organisers, plenty of grayling and brown trout coming to our flies, a few fun evenings of ‘pike fishing competitions’ between the Dads and the boys (my son and my friend’s son came long for their first Russian adventure) and the close sighting of 2 iconic Tundra animals; a reindeer and a huge brown bear!

An adventure indeed, a bit of an ordeal also, but ….that’s fishing!

 

Flies were fished either on  full floating shooting head or intermediate tip on a 14’ double hander or a 10’#7 single hander.

Best flies

Apart from 1 fish taken on a deep heavy Fancis in  slow pool and  few on tiny Golden Willie Gunns size 15 and 13 most of my fish were taken on a #8 Green Machine fished just under the surface,  favourite from the Miramichi, Canada. But other succesfull flies were:-

Green Butt

Stoat`s Tail

Bomber Green Salmon Single

Green Highlander

Red Francis Brass Tube

Hitch Green Butt Nylon Tube

Sunray Shadow Nylon Tube

 

All in small sizes.

Best fun was skating a small sunray shadow across a fast run and watch salmon coming up, splashing, and occasionally grabbing the fly!

 

 

 

 

Rutland Water Fly Fishers Fly Tying Evening

Thursday 16th January 2014.
A mild January night lit by a full moon, and the promise of new and exciting fly tyings for the new season encouraged a record turn out for this popular social occasion.
4 enthusiastic RWFF members were invited to demonstrate their specialities and to share some secrets to around 45 members and their guests and to swap 'fishy tales' along the way.
The fly tying evening is always popular to see what's new and to get ideas for flies to tie for the new season.
'Clever' Trevor Ashby is a well know and gifted fly tyer, he worked at the fishing lodge years ago and is a regular on Rutland and more often these days on Eyebrook. He's quite a celebrity in the fly tying world, famous for appearing on many fly fishing TV programmes. His speciality is using new and unusual materials and methods to make fly tying simple and effective. He usually produces something unique, novel and innovative at these events and this evening was no exception.
On this occasion, Trevor focused on his unique dry flies, including his 'Eyebrook special', a parachute style tying, using the same hackle stalk as the parachute 'post' and the wing with a hot orange thorax, "deadly" says Trevor. Parachute dry flies feature a hackle, tied horizontally around a 'post' on top of the body creating a floating fly with a very realistic insect wing and leg profile from underwater and a submerged body. The post can also be used as a sight indicator, ideal on rivers so that you can see the fly easier in turbulent flows. Trevor tied these on a 'klinkhammer' curved hook. Trevor's parachute fly works well on Eyebrook with a hot orange dubbed thorax, lying just sub-surface, suspended by the horizontal hackle.
Klinkhammers and other parachute flies with hi viz posts are used widely on Southern chalk streams with a tiny gold head nymph tied 'New Zealand Style' underneath, if your dry fly disappears, the trout has either taken it, or the nymph underneath, lift the rod, either way, 'Klink and Dink' it's known as, and it gives a bit of 'legitimacy' to the 'bung' method of bite indication on those rivers where, traditionally and upstream dry fly or unweighted nymph is usually the order of the day.
Trevor recounted many funny stories during the evening including the one about an 'Old Etonian' who requested some parachute flies to resemble a pattern which he gave to Trevor to copy. That fly got lost but Trevor tied him his own versions plus an extra one to make up for the lost sample. " They're Perfect!" said the old Etonian, "I can't even tell which is the original!"
Martin Blakeston, inventor of the famous 'Blakeston Buzzer' a 'must have' pattern for all Rutland fishers showed us some very delicate Diawl Bachs and Crunchers, essential for nymph feeders throughout the season. Martin also brought a huge amount of feathers; hackles and all manner of materials which he kindly displayed for a charity sale. Lucky members went away with bargains galore.

Paul Wild brought along a wonderful selection of his own superbly tied saltwater flies which he uses on his bonefish adventures to Andros, Bahamas and Cuba.
Gotchas; Crazy Charlies; Deceivers; Shrimps, Clousers and lifelike Deerhair Crab patterns were shown and demonstrated, tied on stainless steel saltwater hooks, many designed to swim upside down along the sand with the addition of chrome dumbbell eyes. Paul also showed his excellent version of the Minkie made with 'colour-edged' rabbit fur and tied his well know invention and 'catch-all' fly, the Black Pheasant Tail Nymph, tied on the now discontinued Traditional Wet Fly #8 hook, this is a perfect general 'buggy' imitation and can catch fish throughout all season, but works particularly well in April and May along the Arms of Rutland Water.
Brian Bonner made a selection of successful skinny buzzers and intricate Diawl Bachs and showed us his ingenious tying of the Irish 'Duck Fly'. Using black chenille, melted to a point with heat for a realistic body, he created a very lifelike hatching chironomid (buzzer). I'm sure these would work really well when the Rutland trout are taking emergers.

Cameron Neil moved from his native Scotland to Rutland purely for the fishing, which speaks volumes about the quality of what we have on our doorstep! He believes Rutland, Grafham and Eyebrook beat any Stillwater fly fishing available anywhere else in the UK, and we agree with him. This will be Cameron's first season as a RWFF member and we welcome him as an enthusiastic and gifted fly fisher and a particularly inventive fly tyer.

Many standard fly patterns which we now take for granted were initiated by Cameron and his repertoire keeps growing. For this evening he demonstrated a number of his specialities. Some, brand new on the scene specially premiered to RWFF members (so make sure you join this season). His Mylar fry pattern has been deadly for the past 2 seasons and the introduction of a 'double hook' gives it an irresistible wobble in the surface. I can vouch for it's success, giving me a few exciting floating fry sessions last season around the North Arm weedbeds. Make sure that you add a gold holographic eye, it makes all the difference.
Cameron demonstrated the correct way to tie the two-tone blob and a new foam 'helmet' blob pattern, which gives buoyancy without the danger of spinning to which the booby blob can be prone. The Rutland Rat isn't fished as much as it should these days but it was this palmered body minkie which caught Cameron a 10lb 6oz brown trout last April from the dam wall. The 'Rat' works well in Black/Yellow and Olive/White colour combinations. A jungle cock or substitute eye adds to the effectiveness.
Finally, some flies to give heart murmurs to the purists and traditionalists amongst us... the 'Humungus Tube'... one for the rudder guys with silver/gold/black/green/pink/holographic sparkle (just let your imagination run wild) and a grizzle or fritz palmered body on an extra long tube, with or without the 'Friendly' foam half body, but as I can testify, this fishes outstandingly off the front of the boat also, deadly, but not for the faint hearted!  This is Cameron's beautifully conditioned 10lb 6oz Brown Trout caught in April 2013 on the Rutland Rat, the fish was weighed on digital scales but was sportingly returned to the water before being witnessed by AW fishery staff so sadly didn't count as one of the biggies caught last season. I wonder how big it will be this season?


The next RWFF social evening will be on Thursday 30th January with a talk by Anne Woodcock, from FishPal the hugely successful online fishing booking company specialising in Salmon fishing throughout the UK and an enthusiastic campaigner for getting ladies into fishing.

Rob Waddington

 

January 18th. My son, a very experienced game shooter took me along as a guest to his syndicate today. Not the first time. Once before he took me for my first experience. It's a very tricky shoot this; not lots of birds and in a thick wood giving you just a fleeting glance of pigeon, pheasant and the odd woodcock. For a novice like me, it seemed that as soon as you saw something...it's gone!
One for the connoisseurs of the shooting world, and thankfully not the high volume kill often heard about.
Needless to say, my first trip ended in a blank! However, yesterday I shot my first pheasant, in fact the only bird which came to my gun, so, pleased as punch. And what a lovely dinner it made too, very much appreciated. Thanks James and it was a privilege to spend a day with a great bunch of lads. Very interesting shooting. I'll be back! 

Rutland Water Fly Fishing. A personal look back at 2013 and a January day fishing at Grafham water

You know the feeling, it almost comes as a relief when the season closes at the end of December here on Rutland Water. 2013 has been a busy season, certainly for me with on average 4 or 5 days a week on the water. A feature of Rutland last year was the high number of  big, true ‘Rutland Fish’ caught. Grown-on pristine beauties, of which this water is famous for. A good amount of 5-6 pounders and more than the usual number of double figure trout, I counted 4 doubles caught this year, 2 rainbows and 2 brown trout, that I know of.

I did a lot of Bank fishing till June and due to mainly South or East winds I concentrated mainly in theDam,  Fantasy Island, Armley, Carrot Creek areas and in a Westerley; Whitwell Creek with good fishing on both floating line Buzzers and deep Boobies. A shame I couldn’t fish much from Barnsdale Road End last season due to the wind direction and the new stone work making access difficult.

One highlight for me was the 7 1/2 pound eel I caught on a cat’s whisker booby in April from Fantasy Island!

 Boat fishing through the early Summer was productive, hampered by occasional coloured water, though a deep Black and Green Booby worked wonders, as did static Buzzers on calmer days. Manton Bay attracted nearly every fisherman on the water in July as it became hot with fish, sadly being heavily fished in the Airflo competition when nearly 1400 fish were taken from this small area.  Much of August was spent  hammering the ‘boils’ as they went ‘ballistic’ in the cool clear. oxygenated water  on a variety of lines. My favourite was a Di7 and pink booby (maybe it reminds them of those pink shrimps which have now become part of the staple diet of Rutland trout?).

Stalking the North and South Arm weedbeds for quality fish in September and October was truly lovely with some lovely warm Summer days and plenty of happy customers. My best memory was quietly motoring along the huge weedbeds right up the North Arm, waiting to see fish then dropping a cdc or suspender minkie in its path, then watching the bow wave as a superbly conditioned trout turns for  the fly. Not a method for numbers of fish as more time is spent waiting and watching than fishing, but very exciting nevertheless.

November didn’t fulfil its promise for a ‘fry feeding frenzy’  (again), why this time? Maybe the weedbed were too luxurious and the trout found the shrimp and corixa easier to find, who knows, but the fishing became even tougher in November and December.

Trout were caught in early Winter, some biggies but you had to be at the right place at the right time. It seemed to me that they weren’t aggressively feeding, perhaps due to the comparably warm weather.

So, normally, after Christmas, I breathe a sigh of relief, pack the tackle away, batten donw the hatches  and ‘hibernate’ from fishing till April, perhaps dream of some saltwater fly fishing, wading in the warm waters of the Caribbean before the season opens again.

However, this year, things are a bit different, no Winter sun fly fishing adventures for me this time. Tough economic conditions and repair work at home have put paid to that idea!  And the seasons are slightly different in 2014. Anglian Water want to get more revenue (don’t we all) and have negotiated with English Nature to keep the waters open longer, so Grafham Water has still been open through January this Winter.

Actually this year, I have got to know Grafham better than before, having some wonderful fishing in Savages and a few good bank fishing days. It’s far from a concrete bowl in lovely scenery. Like Rutland, the bank fishing has been badly affected by the stone works but reports of great bank fishing from the Dam, Gaynes Cove, G bouy etc resulted in me doing a few trips in December with  mixed results. Some days were great, and some days the fish seemed to disappear, some days early mornings were best, on others, it was around 1pm when they came on. The water colour on Grafham had an influence, and a murky colour ensured that the fishing was difficult.

So there I was, after a weekend of torrential rain and howling gales spending a surprisingly warm day fishing from a boat on Grafham Water in the middle of January in flat calm, sunny conditions. I didn’t expect much apart from a respite from ‘cabin fever’ at home. It’s always going to be difficult at the end of the season. The water’s cold, there’s a lack of food and also a lack of fish, who knows how many are left in the water but there certainly won’t be the big pods of trout which we get through the main months of the season.  Well, I got my first trout of 2014 plus a hard fighting ‘branch’ which you might call a ‘large perch’ if you were a cormorant!  Funny how these ‘snags’ seem to pull back, I thought it was a huge brown at first J however, a large grown-on  ‘tree pounder’ was the result! –sorry!

My personal take on the 2013 season was overall the fishing was excellent, the catching particularly in the back end was patchy, we would certainly benefit from a higher stocking density in the Autumn. A lot of fish were caught in the Summer competitions which affected the level of fish in the lake.  Could competitions be run on the lines of river matches for example, on a C&R points system?  Would a 4 fish maximum then C&R be more suitable, It would be interesting to get angler’s views. This year’s fishing, if you were out every day, which I virtually am teaching or guiding and a good number of pleasure fishing sessions, was characterised by almost every day being different, one day loads of fish, the next day in the same place, same wind, same tactics you’d be struggling. A strong tip to fish one area one day might be worthless the day after.  You’ve just had to be in the right place at the right time, and that’s fishing all over. As the old  saying goes, if it was easy it’d be called ‘catching’.

Rutland Water is opening on March 15^th and I’ve taken my first fishing job on the 16^th, what will it be like? Anglian Water have promised to stock earlier, so the head of fish will be there, but March can be a tricky month, with the distinct possibility of freezing winds and maybe even snow. I remember when Rutland could withstand a good blow and stay clear, but this isn’t the case now. The waves crash onto bare muddy banks and exposed points  and produce large unfishable slicks, and together with reduced bank access, notably at  Whitwell Creek usually an early season hotspot, it may prove to be a hard opening day. Then again, a beautifully sunny, mild March day with buzzers hatching could also on the cards….nurse! He’s out of bed again!! We wait and see, there’s just  one certainty- we’ll all give it a try, all the best for the new season.