Отчёты с кумжевой рыбалки 4A – 2018

Posted on 22/07/2018

Well, then another week on the Russian tundra is over and what a week it has been! This year I travelled with good friends, which has been to the tundra many times before. The participants this year was from left; Gena (our excellent chef and tundra expert), Stian Jacobsen, Øyvind Dahl, Trond Bentestuen, Kjetil Johansen, Glenn Christensen and Tom Tuskin (group leader). Wulfs camp in Kharlovka was the only camp we visited this week.

Wulfs camp view

We had been preparing a whole year for this trip with fly tying, making new team caps with logo and sharing experiences from trips we have done before. With memories from last year record cold spring, this looked like to be a more normal season. But tundra is tundra, you never know! This year the weather was very sunny with very high day temperatures, sinking water level with warmer and warmer water. But as you decide to participate in a trip like this you cannot always predict weather and conditions, you have to do the best out of the conditions you get! With experienced anglers travelling with me their skills really were put to a test this week.

We arrived Saturday evening safely at Wulfs camp in lovely sunshine. First evening was spent investigating a little bit up and down the river and with people that knew this camp well managed to lure some trouts to take their flies even there was no rising. Next day we decided to spread a little more on both sides of the river and also to bring the boat with is up to a small lake to make crossing of the river and fishing a little more easy upstream. With boat you can also reach small Islands in the river more easily without risky wading stunts. With high wind levels at daytime and no hatching there was almost only one spot in the river that delivered this Sunday. However, as you can see from the pictures we all had some nice experiences! Kjetil had also a special emotional experience catching his first fish for the trip on his Thomas&Thomas rod.

Boat travelling on small lake

Boat transfer

Happy glenn with nice trout

Kjetil with trout in nice weather

Tom with nice 4,2 kg

Catch and release

Monday, sunny weather and new hopes for hatching! We experienced some mayfly hatching during daytime but didn’t manage to see any rising fish before late in the evening. Me and Glenn decided to go downstream this day which resulted in a nice fish of 4,6 kg in the lower pool for him. During the nighttime, the temperature dropped at least 20 degrees, which resulted in foggy, magic conditions! Excellent background for nice pictures. We also celebrated Glenns 4 kg trout in the tent with cake in the evening.

Glenn with 4,6 kg trout

Weighing in net

fishing in the evening fog

Magic landscape

Kjetil in sunny weather

Øyvind with nice trout

Glenn 4 kg cake

Tuesday and Wednesday were the days for breaking records! Both Trond, Øyvind and Stian were making new personal best’s these days. Conditions were still sunny with quite a lot of winds but the fish were now more willing to rise on our caddis and tjernobyl fly imitations. Stian took his record fish of 4kg in the homepool after a nice fight (with everyone watching) and Øyvind took his new record of 3,5 kg upstream. Trond started Wednesday with slipping on a rock ending up taking a bath with his waders on. After a short time drying his clothes in the nice weather he hooked a monster of 5 kg! The fight lasted a very long time and he had to follow the big fish down a stretch of running water before Kjetil could land it safely in the net! Both anglers very happy ☺ This was again celebrated in the tent with a new cake from Gena in the evening.

Stian with big fish in homepool

Stian 4 kg 2

Øyvind with new personal record 3,5 kg

Trond wet wading

Trond 5 kg trout

Trond 5 kg Cake

Fishing can be very exhausting during a week like this, so we all had to relax a bit in the sunny weather. This resulted in some good pictures that shows eager anglers in a more relaxed position. I let the pictures speak for themselves ☺

Øyvind relax

Stian relax

Tom relax

Trond relax

Kjetil relax

Tundra redneck relax

The rest of the week, we had some good hatches of mayflies and caddis, but not so many rising fish. We suspected as the water got warmer and warmer the fish didn’t care to rise to take flies on the surface. Nevertheless, as tundra angler veterans we came prepared with fly patterns that seem to work. Everyone caught fish above 3 kg during the week on dry fly, with 4 of us landing fish above 4 kg! Here are some highlights from the last days with hatching and flies. In all my group caught 93 fish with an average weight of 2,4 kg!

Tjernobyl Ant

Caddis Fly

Mayfly

Caddis love (tjernobyl imitation)

Caddis on waders

rising fish

Mayfly hatch

I’d like to raise a big thank you to Gena, our friend at campsite and always there to provide excellent service for us! My group really appreciated your service and we all see you as one of us in the team Wulfs. Thank you to Kharlovka company and the ASR programme that makes it possible for us to visit these rivers at The Kola Peninsula and experience the World’s best dry fly fishing for wild brown trout!

Trond fishmaniac