Fishing was not surprisingly good. But for a trip of short 3 days, it was an event packed, enjoyable holiday so no regrets.

As we started our 8hours drive back, finally and for the first time the sun came out. Only to tease us I guess.

- Back

In the end, we fished mostly with heavily coloured, heavily weighted tube flies again. The small flies I lovingly tied must wait for another summer.

The dinner back at the lodge was absolutely a luxury. Every day Anatoly prepared quality meals using fresh local products. The meat of elk and reindeer, mushroom, berries . . . The best arctic delight they were.

Well, we had a reason to fish hard, as we only had 3 days to fish.

But it was not so bad in retrospect. Salmon fishing is extremely labour intensive, and can become boring after several eventless days. For me anyway.

Even during the short 5 days of our stay, the season moved on at a noticeable pace.

The morning of our last day was icy, the carpet of moss was covered in frost.

Thanks to the gas stove we borrowed from Anatoly, we could enjoy a luxury of hot cups out there - depending on how you define luxury.

We swung big flies on a sink tip. And it worked. The fly was taken with a solid strike followed by powerful head-shakes.

But the fish didn't run, nor jump. After a few minute of tussle, we came to see why. It was a resident, summer run fish now in a spawning color.

We had occasional takes of sea trout. Perhaps in 2 weeks they will come in bigger numbers.

There indeed are some popular sea trout fisheries in northern slope of Kola peninsula, such as Belousiha. But size wise they are mostly around 40cms. A bit too small to justify a trip to focus solely on them.

Drawing on the T-shirts sold in Varzuga.
Russian countryside is charming - on a sunny day.

Another fish of 64cm followed shortly thereafter.

We were doing everything correct. Had there been fresh school of autumn run, we would have caught them. But apparently there were none, or very few yet, at this timing in the end of September.

The best time, according to Anatoly, is the very end of the season, i.e. 2nd week of October. However that makes a big difference for us humans too - you have to brave in the sub zero temperature.

Day 3.

We noticed the water level went down a little. Even a few inches of decrease makes wading far easier, opening up new areas to cover.

We took our position on the wider right bank, and nudged onto the main current flowing into a deep pool.