Friday 21st July

We had an early start on the Tent Pool, where I had the only fish before breakfast on a Red Devil tube, despite having a quick run through the upper tent pool as well, with a very long cast and a Sunray Shadow, but nothing at all moved to the fly.

After breakfast I went through the Lower Tent Pool, where I had 5 or 6 pulls on the Kharlovka killer, all of which I lifted into too quickly I think, before getting a lift on the helicopter down to Snowbank - a horrible hilly walk from the looks of it!

Once there I had a 6lb grilse, followed by a 19lbs cock fish that fought like hell!

It wasn’t fresh, but was one of the best fights, as it was hooked at the bottom of the pool near the rapids at the bottom,

Two more fish came from Classic Pool, below Snowbank, and another from Snowbank in the afternoon.  When the takes stopped coming, I changed to a stripped Willie Gunn flamethrower which hooked a fish, then another very good fish on an Red Devil tube fly, which Sasha found an astonishing thing to offer them at this time of the year.

We ended the week on 51 fish between us, me having 34 and Mark 17. Mine included 6 over 19lbs, and the quality of them was stunningly fresh, far better than anything I’d caught in Scotland in recent years.  As a reflection of this, I caught as many fish in a week here as Castle Grant beat one had caught all year to our last visit- That is from February until 2nd July!  The total cost for the trip was about £9,000 which appears expensive, but comes out at only £265 per fish, when compared to over £1,500 per fish in a year in Scotland.

The total caught by all 13 rods, in a record week for the river, was 345 fish, an average of 26 fish per rod.

Would I go back?  Like a shot were I able to be sure I’d be fit enough to do the long walking and climbing involved.  As it is, I’m not sure, so am casting about for alternatives.  However, I’m still aware that I was involved in a record week, with unusually high water and late arriving fish due to the exceptionally cold winter in Russia.

See the Kharlovka write up for the week here  http://www.kharlovka.com/kharlovka-week-29-ending-21st-of-july-2017/

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