Varzina River Lodge season 2002 report
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One of the many fish taken by the fishbooking crew in Russsia! |
Season 2002 proved to be one of the best in record, if not the very best of all times. All four rivers fished extremely well all season through.
Varzina river company
The early season in June repeated the pattern from previous season. The light snow pack melted early and the main run of large salmon went up the rivers in relatively low water conditions.
The first two weeks of June had the first fresh fish in the lowest river miles. Water was still quite cold and the fish were moving up slowly. With only a few rods fishing the river yielded 26 large salmon in the 30 lbs range.
During the last two weeks in June high tides and nicely overcast weather helped schools of fresh fish to run the rapids. Fresh salmon in record numbers moved up to the Big Falls and filled all the pools in the lowest five miles of Varzina.
Conditions were ideal for floating line fishing and the salmon were on very aggressive mood. The bulk of the run consisted of fish that had spent 2 or 3 winters feeding at sea and the average size was 6-7 kilos (13-15 lbs) with many fish over 10 kilos or 22 lbs.
The best catches for individual rods were very high with the best rod during the last week of June tallying 49 adult salmon – not a single grilse included!
The smaller rivers – Penka, Sidorovka and Drosdovka – fished very well, too. As usual, Penka had a very good early run in June with most fish around 5-8 kilos. The clear pools of Sidorovka filled with running fish during the last week of June. Drosdovka followed suite with record numbers of large salmon sighted at the Falls Pool.
In early July good summer weather finally arrived and the water temperature rose making the fish active. Grilse started running in increasing numbers but this didn’t discourage the larger fish from the taking mood. The first salmon appeared above the Varzina Falls during the first week of July, about one week earlier then normal.
Average catch size remained at good level while the numbers accumulated to high levels. Average catch per rod was 11-12 salmon with average weight of 10-12 lbs.
Water levels dropped during the latter part of July but this didn’t prevent fresh fish from running. High tides and overcast weather during the first week of August brought fresh, sea-liced salmon fish quickly to the middle reaches of both Varzina and Sidorovka. This stirred up the previously run fish and very aggressive takes were the norm.
Salmon took well all flies from large streamers to small wets flies and dry Bombers. The best weekly rod caught 31 salmon, full half of these fresh fish.
Salmon/grilse ratio was about 40/60. In the major holding pools it was reversed even up to 80% of the catch consisting of large salmon.
During August the autumn run continued and the fishing remained good for combined salmon, sea trout and brown trout forays. While the average size remained around 10 lbs large salmon up to 31 lbs were also landed.
The Varzina Trout Camp opened around mid-July with excellent results. In addition to the plentiful big brown trout many large salmon were caught from the very start.
As usual, only trout over 50 cm in length were counted. The average length was around 57 cm with much bigger fish in evidence. Typically the best fishing in July was with smaller imitative flies. In August larger streamer flies worked well for aggressive territorial fish.
The first week of August was quite representative for the Trout Camp with 95 trout over 50 cm landed in addition to 25 salmon for 8 rods.
All in all, the season 2002 over 800 salmon were landed, with good average weight of 6,5 kilos or 14 lbs for adult salmon and 5,8 kilos or 12,8 lbs for all salmon including grilse.