Was fishing good? Obviously not.
Did we enjoy it? Well, absolutely!!

Thanks to the the helping hands of Anatoly and Pasha, we thought not of the work or family we left behind. We focused on fishing - day after day, for one whole week. A special experience in itself.

So would we go again next year?
Well, , , let us think about it. 　(''ω'')

- Back

Sensing something, Hama was fishing with a single hand, skating the fly in the fast shallow curren. His hunch was rewarded by a nice silver slab.

Well done Hama!! Welcome to the club, of the troubled souls (-_-;)

Blue sky usually work against salmon fishing. But in a situation like this, the sunshine and warmth appeared to work in our favour. Added bonus is the wonderful picture you cannot always expect in salmon fishing.

Perhaps the seals's charm started to work, or the warming weather condition turned on salmon's activity, I also managed to land two fish this day, one of them was a resident fish that spent a winter in the river, with a coloration like a brown trout.

Cheered up, we fished yet another whole day with due diligence, resulted in just one fish for the three of us. Not sure if the seals are helping us or perhaps opposite?

During one short week's stay, the world changed from winter to spring, and with a hint of approaching summer even.

There was fair amount of troubles and the remainder of our stay did not go any easier - yet we managed to catch one more fish each, to round off our Varzuga expedition in 2017.

- Highlights on YouTube

Oh how wonderful it was now that all of us have caught a fish. The lunch we had then tasted all so great, thanks also to the ice cold beer we dug up from the hole. And hey, a nice day by the way!!

If a fisherman can be measured by the persistence, Mike surely proved a top notch. Despite all, he fished on, and victory came to him a short 1 hour afterward.

The fish was a solid silver slab of 78cm - a trophy specimen by Varzuga's standard. The joy of mine as a netman / cameraman was immense. Well done Mike. You deserve it!!!

Day 5. Thanks to the continued sunny spell, the temperature in the afternoon was expected to hit 20degrees. The first duty of us in the morning was to dig up a hole in the fast melting ice bricks to store our valuable ration - beer.

Day 4.

At the breakfast table Anatoly said to us ''There are seals in the river'' which, according to him, was a good omen as they usually come into the river chasing fresh salmon school.

Seeing I didn't understand ''seal'' in Russian, he did a quick drawing. Well, there's an artist in Anatoly I have to say!

After good several minutes of euphoria I walked back up the river to where I threw away my rod to run down to Mike. And, , , hey, look yonder!! Isn't that Hama, bending his rod (゜◇゜)!?

It was then, Mike, who had begun covering his favourite beat, shouted ''fish on''!! It was his first hit for the past 4days, since he lost a fish on Day1. No we didn't cheer him this time. We prayed for its safe delivery! He deserved it, after 4 whole days of continuous hard labour!!

But alas, the fish defied the odd, spitting off the fly at the final stage. Leaving all of us kind of . . . speechless.