Sidorovka salmon.

In my last article I spoke of the brown trout adventure my mates and I experienced in the upper reaches of Sidorovka. Now it’s time to guide our readers down stream and expose the wild salmon of the Russian tundra.

Photo/text skot

One of our best from paradise pool

Air armed and ready to go

Shit house pool proved to be a winner

Paradise pool!!!!

Russia’s Kola Peninsula is known for it’s fantastic salmon fishing. Rivers such as Umba and Varzina are first to come to mind but the small wild river called Sidorovkas is a river on the way up. Varzina river company had secured the rights to this river and for the last few years select groups were flown in by helicopter but now they have designed a new and exciting way of fishing this river. A limited group of people will be flown in to the upper salmon pools and from there you will be escorted by one of the Varzina guides along the river. The entire trip lasts for seven eventful days (Saturday to Saturday). The final destination and “take out point" is the famed sea pool. (For a photo take a look at article titled “The man with the tundra as his playground “)

For the first time in my life I was given an entire river to fish. Our team members had the right to fish any pool that took our fancy. As we meandered down the river we found boulders and flows that hid some of the most beautiful salmon I have ever seen.

There was not a day that we didn’t land or loose a magic fish. Most important, we were not confined to a particular pool that had a limited number of fish or limited chances of catching good salmon.

The first half of Sidorovka is a rocky fast flowing river that is best suited to single-handed fly-fishing. During August many of the fish you will encounter are dressed in their breeding colours. This should not concern you in the least because they fight as hard as any new run fish. The lower two pools (Shithouse and Paradise) are where you will encounter your first silver fish and we found that one-third of our fish were new to the river.

As for how big these fish are is a good question. Everyone dreams of catching a 10 kilo killer salmon. The good news is you stand a good chance of finding such a fish. Our Finish guide Ari landed a few fish over ten kilos and the Norwegian team member, Torstein, dropped one in spectacular fashion. (A story he will relive for years to come I’m certain). Yet the average salmon we encountered was around three kilo. This is in accordance to the mid season run of small salmon. Yet latter in the season Kola is famed for its influx of large males and as with all salmon rivers worldwide June is a fantastic time for first big runs of fish.

As with the trout package offered on the upper pools this is a backpack adventure, care should be taken when choosing your equipment. You should seriously consider saving the effort of lugging kilos of junk that is not needed. I have compiled a guided of what you will need.

· A good quality tent is a must
· Wading shoes that will tolerate walking over the tundra
· Insect repellent
· Waders and a good lightweight raincoat.
· Class five/six fly rod with reels to match (no need for sinking line)
· Lightweight cutlery (plastic)
· Camping stove or burner
· Two changers of underwear and t-shirts
· Mattress
· Sleeping bag rated to minus –5’C
· Finally a good amount of dehydrated food and tons of good coffee!

A good tip is never over pack you must consider that food is the most important ingredient to any good adventure. It is amazing how easy it is to carry things that will never be used.

Who to contact

Again as with booking Varzina Trout camp the only person to contact is Torstein from N.T.E or simply contacts us for all the details. We have created a simple e-mail catalogue that includes more photos and details regarding dates and group numbers.

Contact person: Torstein Erlandsen, Sandia 9845,Tana Norway
Telephone +47-78927729
Fax +47- 78927246
Mobil number +47- 95779267

Cost

For the 2000 U.S dollars N.T.E will transport you from Kirkeness to the airport at Murmunsk from there you will be flown in by helicopter to the starting point and your guide will be entrusted with navigation and organization of daily camps and pointing out where the best pools are. Other words you biggest concern is how big will the next fish be.

The opportunity to exclusively fish an entire river is one that must not be passed up and I’m certain that this is not my last trip to the Russian Tundra.

Skot