Fast flies

DATE: 21st July 2017

Air Temp: 9’C

Water Temp: 15’C

Water Height: -0.60m

Number of Rods: 13

Number of fish Caught: 16

Biggest fish: 25lbs  Sam Carlisle 

No 30+: 0

No 20-29lbs: 4

No 8-19lbs: 7

Grilse: 5

Weather: 

Heavy fog all day, strong upstream wind and, a cold day. Thunder & lightning.

Managers Comments: 

A very grey day on the kola today, we had an extremely mixed day on the river. Each rod did have action, but some doing considerably more than others. 

Gilo releasing yet another

The hero of the day today was Martin, he landed 6 fish through out the day, two of which where over 20 pounds. An excellent result. Well done Martin. His hard work throughout the week certainly payed off. A six fish day is epic by any standards, never mind the quality of fish he was catching. 

Eddie W also  managed to finish his week off on a high, he was fishing in poachers and managed two lovely fish of 18 & 14lbs, D’Arcy also managed a good fish of 12 pounds. A great day for the Wyvill bros. 

Eddie's 18

Sam, who has done incredibly well this week, managed yet another big fish of 25lbs. Sanjay who was on his first every salmon fishing trip has done exceptionally well this week and again finished off well with a wonderful 20 pounder, an excellent introduction to salmon fishing and I hope this is the start of many to come. 

Yokanga sun rise

The general consensus today; successful fishing came through heavy lines and fast moving flies. The majority of the fish caught were all on the strip or square casts with a down stream mend. 

Toby Burrell

A Foggy Day

DATE: 20th July 2017

Air Temp: 7’C

Water Temp: 17’C

Water Height: -0.70m

Number of Rods: 13

Number of fish Caught: 10

Biggest fish: 25lbs  Euan Ivory

No 30+: 0

No 20-29lbs: 1

No 8-19lbs: 4

Grilse: 5

Weather: 

Heavy fog all day, strong upstream wind and a cold day.

Managers Comments: 

An interesting day on the river, the morning brought us heavy fog, the helicopter was unable to fly. As a team, we decided to wait and see if it lifted, sadly it just came in thicker and thicker and we were unable to use the chopper at all. By midday we decided that it was time to sett off on foot. Sadly this meant we had lost the mornings fishing. 

Further with a nice fish

On the fishing front, we got off to a very good start Andy was in Lyliok and immediately hooked into a fish, landed a nice 12 pounder. Soon after he hooked three others but sadly not landing any. Sanjay also had a nice fish and connected with a few others.

Euan managed the fish of the day, a lovely 25 pounder from the pots below beach, left bank. He was part of the pair that hiked up to left bank beach to fish there way down. In a tiny pot below beach, Sergei the guide, said “maybe small grilse here”. A few casts into the pot the fish took. After a couple of big runs across the river it became very apparent that it was not a small grilse. Well done Euan for getting an awesome fish!

Euan with his 25lbs

James B went out this morning in the hopes that he would carry on his amazing streak of 5 days, 5 20pounders. He headed up to boulder ally to try and complete his task of 6 in 6 days. James did land a couple of very nice fish but he was just short with a nice fish at 19lbs. However,  I have full confidence that he will make up for it  tomorrow. 

Toby Burrell

32lbs

DATE: 19th July 2017

Air Temp: 22’C

Water Temp: 17’C

Water Height: -0.60m

Number of Rods: 16

Number of fish Caught: 19

Biggest fish: 32lbs  Sam Carlisle 

No 30+: 1

No 20-29lbs: 2

No 8-19lbs: 7

Grilse: 9

Weather: 

Mainly cloudy with short spells of sun, brief showers in the afternoon.

Managers Comments: 

An improvement on this river today, far better condition for it and signs are more fish about. 

Same fish in the net

I am very happy to report that one lucky angler, Sam C, managed to land this seasons second 30+ fish. Sam was in Island fishing from the boat when he hooked into his fish, a quick paddle to bank to try and get control of the fish was successful, until the fish decided it was time to take on the rapids. As the fish motored off down through the rapids with Sam quick in pursuit, it soon came hung up on a rock. Sam was unsure if he still had the fish… Dima, his guide, bravely waded out up to his chest and managed to pull the line off the rock, to both, relief of the angler and guide, the fish was still there. The battle continued on down through the rapids and in to the lower pool. After a good 20 mins of battle the fish was ready for landing. Dima had the fish right in front of him with its head up, he took one look at the fish, one look at his net, the net got tossed back up the back “fish to big, net to small”. A short while later Dima managed to get hold of the fish and there lay Sam’s 32 pound atlantic salmon. Well done Sam, a wonderful fish. 

Sams 34

Nigel also had a fantastic day in Upper Norcamp, land four fish for the day one of which was a great 22lb fish. James B (the king of 20 pounders) managed yet another fish over 20 pounds. James has had at least one fish over 20 every day this week bar Tuesday, and excellent stat. Not only did he land another good fish but also scooped up 2 others up to 12lbs.

Giles with his fish

Much more action today, a few fantastic fish being caught. It certainly feels like a colder front coming in now. Hopefully a change in air will be a good thing 

Toby Burrell

Yorkshire Contingent

 DATE: 18th July 2017

Air Temp: 22’C

Water Temp: 17’C

Water Height: -0.60m

Number of Rods: 13

Number of fish Caught: 11

Biggest fish: 14lbs Euan Ivory 

No 30+: 0 

No 20-29lbs: 

No 8-19lbs: 6

Grilse: 5

Weather: 

Cloud patches among the bright sun, very little wind.

Managers Comments: 

A slower day again today, the bright sunshine I'm sure is not helping the situation with the low warm water. Eddie & D’Arcy, the Yorkshire contingent, had a reasonably good day landing 6 fish between them. Darcy set off up the Lyliok river last night and managed to winkle out a nice fish from Snake pool.  Eddie had a couple of fish from Upper Norcamp in the morning and then fished the day with a good 13 pounder in Lyliok pool. 

Eric with a fish from Lyliok

Congratulations to Andreas who landed his first ever atlantic salmon this morning in Lyliok, a fresh 10 pounder. A lovely  fish and I hope its the first of many to come. Euan also had a relatively good day, and a good week I might add, landing a handful every day. Today he did have a nice fresh 14.5 pounder.

James with his 28 yesterday

Water really starting to drop away now, prehaps we will be able to channel the fish slightly more.

Toby Burrell

19lbs club

DATE: 17th July 2017

Air Temp: 24’C

Water Temp: 20’C

Water Height: -0.60m

Number of Rods: 16

Number of fish Caught: 15

Biggest fish: 28lbs James Beaumont 

No 30+: 0 

No 20-29lbs: 2

No 8-19lbs: 8

Grilse: 5

Weather: 

Bright sun shine all day, pulses of wind through out the day.

Managers Comments: 

A tougher day on the river today, very little sign of mving fish and an incredibly bright day. 

James once again managed another fish over 20lbs. He is doing incredibly well so far this week, landed 7 fish, of which 5 have been over 20lbs. Yesterdays 28lbs fish came from Lyliok, James decided to have a change of tactics and tried to make it down to the fish. A heavy line with a small fly. Almost immediately, he hooked into a very good fish but sadly after about 60 seconds the fish was lost. He reported typical behaviour for a large fish that felt very heavy. However he continued on down the pool and sure enough managed to get hold of a second… after a good battle he landed his 28. 

Grouse on the tundra

Other fish of note; Eric had a wonderful 19lbs fish from poachers, a slightly older fish but took a surface fly. D’Arcy also managed a 18 from Upper Island, Island had been a fantastic producer of big fish this season. Alex R was another fisher part of the 19lbs club today. 

Sam with his fish from the Lyliok river

Euan who is now proudly known as the king of grilse, had lots of action and landed a couple  one with long tailed sea lice. Although he did land a lovely 10lbs fish, his guide Sergie was determined that it was, in fact a grilse. Yokanga fish life cycle is a very long one and smolts can leave the river at up to 1.5kgs meaning they could potentially have a good winter at sea and come back as rather large grilse. 

Glise with his fish from home pool.

Forecast for the rest of the week is for temperatures to drop quickly and showers of rain to appear.

Toby Burrell

A Good Start.

DATE: 15th-16th July 2017

Air Temp: 25’C

Water Temp: 18’C

Water Height: -.5m

Number of Rods: 13

Number of fish Caught: 24

Biggest fish: 22lbs James Beaumont 

No 30+: 0 

No 20-29lbs: 3

No 8-19lbs: 17

Grilse: 4

Weather: 

Good cloud cover and a light upstream breeze, patches of sun.

Managers Comments: 

The new guests arrived in good time on Saturday afternoon. A quick lunch and out on the river. 11fish caught or the afternoon, a fantastic result. 

James B had a great Saturday afternoon , he had a quick wiz through home pool, hooked four fish, landed three, 21,16 & 7lbs. All fresh. James’ streak continued into Sunday, he landed two fish in the morning both over 20lbs. A fanatic start to the week for James, good work!

Andreas had an exciting start to his first morning on the Yokanga, hooking a fish in the first draw at lower Nor camp… He told me that the only comparable fish he has ever caught before was a Tuna. This fish ripped line of the reel, with in seconds its was 100m down stream, jumping and still going. As the end of the backing came close Andreas noticed a knot in the backing, he proceeded to try and stop the fish before the knot came through, sadly the sheer force snapped the line half way through the backing and the fish was gone. A disappointing result of course, none the less a fanatic experience. 

This evening a small team consisting of James, Sam, Giles and myself went on a trip up the Lyliok river to see what its looking like up there. To my horror, when we arrived we found the river horribly low, in almost looked unfishable. We had a brief cast in Pinro pool, but soon lost all confidence in that, it was practically a pond, no current. We the meandered on up to Snake pool, of course there was a slight stream through the middle of the pool, after a couple runs through Sam hooked up! An epic battle in that tiny little pool/river and we landed a lovely 17lbers, reasonably fresh.

A good start to the week , I think catches will continue at  similar rate and perhaps pick up as we start to see a few more grilse.

Toby Burrell

Week 8-15 July

Weekly Round up: 8th-14th July 2017

Air Temp: 13’C - 30’C

Water Temp: 11-17’C

Water Height: +.60m - 0m

Number of Rods: 13

Number of fish Caught: 127

Biggest fish:  25lbs x 2 George Shaw & Sam Amos

No 30+: 0 

No 20-29lbs: 7

No 8-19lbs: 87

Grilse: 33

Av Size: 12.2lbs

Fly lines lost: 1

Weather: 

Mostly warm weather, with a mix of bright sun shine and cloudy days. Strong winds coming from the East.

Managers Comments: 

Another successful week down in our 2017 season. The numbers have certainly picked up again this week, we are heading in the right direction! The fish this week have been a real mix, everything from from sea lice twenty pound fish to the one week old ten pounders. Great to still be catching a good number of really fresh fish.

Sasha and Phil

We started the week off with some slightly heavier gear, all floating lines with sink tips up to T17. But rapidly, as the week progressed, we started to move closer to the surface, finishing off on full floaters. No body yet has managed to strike lucky with a dry fly, however the odd hitch and bomber have been attempted, sadly with no success. Size of fly has been hugely varied. Every thing from big heavy schneldas to small size doubles have been fished with results. I think it goes to show, when you've got a good head of running fish, they're not overly fussy!

A 24lbs Salmon & Leo

A large number of fish, have been lost, endless pulls and knocks - I believe this is a sure sign of running fish.

There have been some fanatic days this week some of the rods, I'm sure will remember for a long while. George has had a couple of wonderful days of catching up 5 fish, with some seriously good quality beasts in amongst them. Also Alan has continued through the week to catch a constant number a fish, well done Both! 

The release 

A great fun week again, some fantastic stories and great memories made. Hope to see you all again next year.

Toby Burrell

A mixed day

DATE: 14th July 2017

Air Temp: 24’C

Water Temp: 17’C

Water Height: 0m

Number of Rods: 13

Number of fish Caught: 16

Biggest fish: 21lbs James Beaumont 

No 30+: 0 

No 20-29lbs: 1

No 8-19lbs: 12

Grilse: 3

Weather: 

Good cloud cover and a light upstream breeze

Managers Comments: 

A very mixed day on the river, fish were very spread and absolutely no obvious pattern to the catches.

Alan's fish in the net

Alan had another great day, taking 4 fish out of Upper Norcamp, one of which was a fantastic moment when both, Alan and George had a hook up, I think Vova was slightly confused and was not sure who's fish to go for first!

James B had a couple of good fish in the Poachers stretch, 15lbs & 21lbs, both very fresh fish in fact his 21lb fish was extremely fresh but an unusual shape for Yokanga, an extremely long fish, the length of a 25/26lbs fish, just rather skinny. Perhaps a second spawner.  

One of Leo's beauties 

Water has heated up exceptionally quickly in the last few days, bringing us right up to the top with our flies, basically all floating lines with, perhaps the odd intermediate tip. The snow has almost disappeared all together, some small patches left still, which is incurable given the number of days we have had over 25’C. 

Phil with a leaping fish on

Good signs of fish moving through still. Gremihka had a good week, with one fisher having had an exceptional week and only a few grilse among them. Clearly there are quite a few still getting hung up down there for whatever reason, I'm sure they'll begin to trickle on up to us in the next few days as the river drops off.

Toby Burrell