The whole week it was not an easy fishing for any of us, and surely not for Sayuri who had never done spey casting before. Must have been a frustrating time even, knowing I was devoting much of my time babysitting so she could be in the water, yet she was not really fishing any more than trying to figure out what D loop meant. The worsf ot it all is, well, she was more or les forced by her wicked husband to do all that!!

But the effort was finally rewarded, and she knew she had earned it. The satisfaction of such is, like any good challenge the life has to offer, priceless.

Back down at the camp, we thanked Mike for his kind help, without which we could not have realized that success. And we thanked Misa for being a (relatively) good girl, putting up with all sorts of inconvenience and itchy bites.

Not a triumph with a big fanfare, but our first trip to Varzuga ended as a success.

As we walked down to the sandy river bank, we saw a pack of cow queuing up, then they began swimming the river across. I later heard this is a typical scene of Varzuga in summer.

Mike was kind enough to take over the baby sitting stint, saying I should guide Sayuri to the upstream pool which produced majority of our fish during the past 3 days.

To go to the pool, one had to wade across rather strong current and we knew Sayuri alone won't be able to make it. I could assist her wade, but with Misa on my shoulders that would have been too dangerous.

I thanked him heartily for his offer and took Sayuri for a walk - while our little naughty daughter was taking a nap.

We set up our camp on the same gravel bar and started our last day fishing.

Sayuri, with all the lessons she taught herself by now, had gained the basic casting skills enough to present the fly in the path of the salmon.

Back from Kitsa, our last day in Varzuga dawned

Again a warm, settled day with only gentle breeze - which means a happy day for the bugs too.

Next morning we left the village with the entire family seeing us off. The great supper every night, and the genuine hospitality of Vasily's family made our experience something special.

The drive back to Murmansk was just as long as we had gone through a week before. But the scenery out of the van's window looked a little different now.

- End

The pool was in the middle of the main flow with a deep gutter carved out. In the twist of the currents salmon liked to stop for a rest - that's where a fly should be swung across.

I gave one last instruction as to the exact position of the likely fish and how to swing the fly to entice their strike. Sayuri did the job to my order, and this time, salmon responded!!

Mike walked up to the pool in the upper end of the beat, and came back around noon utterly done - he managed 2 more salmon that morning, including a very handsome cock salmon of 72cm.