salmonjunky
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Although the weather and the water levels have been all over the place so far this season, last week the conditions were mostly bright and warm with a bit of wind and rain to freshen things up half way through the week. We started off with lots of bright sun and precious few scattered clouds about, with warm temperatures of 20+ degrees C as the rivers slowly warmed to a midweek high of 17 C on the home pool scale. After a bit of welcomed precipitation on Tuesday that was followed on by a howling gale, the temperatures briefly settled back down into the single digits before blowing us away again on Friday with blazing sun and a high temperature of 33 degrees C.
None of this really seemed to matter though as our group of 11 old friends along with the 3 new big fish converts all had the time of their lives. Although we somehow only managed to land 3 of the many many salmon that came to our flies that one sunny day before the rain, everyone was delighted with our final result of 85 salmon on the week.
After bouncing back and fourth between the Kharlovka and Rynda camps fishing with his friends and his son for most of the month of June, last weekend Vladimir finally had to tear himself away from his passion and fly back to St.Petersburg. Before his departure though, Vladimir received a last minute call from his friend Marina, the Governoress of the Kola Peninsula, asking if it would be possible to meet and fish with him on the Saturday morning before his return. Upon arriving in her big shinny blue state helicopter, Marina was immediately whisked away to the Litza Tent camp with Vladimir's speedy new Euro Helicopter. After a civilized breakfast around the picnic table, the fly rods were quickly assembled. From there on it was of course 'Ladies first' as Marina was nearly straight into a beautiful fresh 12 pounder out of the Tent pool. Next it was Vladimir showing off his skills and his new custom Sage One Fly rod which was the very first rod produced by Jerry and Mark, given to Vladimir as a gift from the boys. With the paparazzi standing patiently by, it did not take long for Vladimir to seal the deal and make the morning a success by bringing in his 26 pounder for the snapping cameras, which put a smile on all our sun burned faces.
The next one out of the blocks that glorious Sunday morning was good ol Sergey who was lucky enough to be filling in last week for his mate in Moscow who unfortunately had a last minute complication with his schedule. After landing four nice salmon in his absence and breaking his personal best on the first day with a 106cm - 30 pounder, Sergey proclaimed in perfect English to the rest of his western peers "I could return back to Moscow right now completely satisfied as I have already found what I came here for!" Unfortunately Sergey was stranded that sunny morning on the far bank and had to land his 30 pounder all by himself. Pulling the camera out of his pocket, he calmly looked down and snapped a quick photo with the great salmon lying in the water beside his rod before it regained its strength and proceeded to splash away.
As many of you know, we are an international camp and proudly fly the various national flags of every guest who visits. However, our new Iraqi friend Abbas caught us off guard. While there may be a few salmon left these days in Yemen, Abbas decided to travel further a field in search of the big one. Having landed many up to 15 pounds before in Canada and Norway, Abbas was pleased to find a 20 pounder personal best before the week really got started. With permission granted to call home every night to give his 101 year old father the fishing update, Abbas battled on through the warm sunny days picking up a few small salmon in the middle teens before we received the message that we were all waiting for. It turned out that Abbas will definitely be returning again next season as he was next in line to pull a big 33 pounder out of the Litza Dream pool. This was the 7th large salmon over 30 pounds to be pulled out of this famous pool over the last 5 weeks. We have already sent a message to Victor in Murmansk to start shopping for an Iraqi flag!
Our good friend Engebret who has been here many times before decided to bring his buddy Erik along this season to see what the big fish fuss was all about. Relaxed and ready to go from the very beginning it didn't take Engebret very long to start pulling in the big ones. While they didn't manage to get as many fish this time around, the good times with their guide Valentine and their 31, 26 and 20 pounders will definitely be wonderful memories to bring back home.
And let's not forget about our Spanish amigos who were all on a roll from the very beginning. After receiving their special invitations to join a few of the staff for a special satellite link to the Euro Cup final (which Spain went on to win easily 4-0) it was all smooth sailing for our spanish friends from there on out. In fact Mario and his son Lucas probably won't be returning to Iceland again anytime soon after landing a half a dozen salmon up to 23 pounds along with some 50 nice brownies on the final sunny day. Josep P. also deservers credit for introducing his good friend Josep A. into salmon fishing who went on to land his first several salmon including his new personal best. Salud!
Honorable mention also go out to George who managed to up his personal best to 24 pounds and to Richard for nearly adding another 30 pounder to the books with his honest big fish of 28.5 pounds. His partner Ron also made the press this week for managing not to lose a salmon on the last day. Although Ron stayed dry all week, including his final wade down through the Ragged Rock pool, Ron unwisely decided to wave off any assistance from Big Alex and to swim his last 5 meters ashore just before the helicopter arrived.
The rivers are flowing nicely with a temperature of 12.6 C with a slightly lower than normal water level of 14cm on the home pool. They are forecasting cloudy skies and cool temperatures down to 5 degrees for the next week. Not that we believe in the extended forecast up here - however, we are sure to have another interesting and enjoyable week!
Justin
Group photo to follow
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