Our NEW Chavanga web page and NEW Blog
Last year, in October and November we observed intensive salmon course from the sea in to the river. Therefore, we know that at the beginning of the season a lot of overwintered fish stay in the big pools like Cable pool or Pokosy. Now the water level turned out to be comfortable, and the water temperature gradually decreased after the May heat. A few cold days in early June led temperature to decrease from 14 to 11-12 degrees. Water was clear and transparent.
The first
days of fishing have confirmed our fears that an unusual early spring and the
May heat will affect the activity of autumn run fish. At the beginning of the season the biggest
part of salmons
we caught are fishes who have come into the river last fall. In the cold
water, they retain their activity and strength. They are distinguished by a
light purple stripes on the sides and a little darker color of the back. The
main problem is that fall fish loses its activity quickly with increasing
temperature of the water. The optimum temperature for spring fishing can be
regarded as the temperature in the range of 7-9 degrees. If the water warms up
quickly and exceed 10-12 degrees, autumn fish rarely appears on the surface, it
loses activity and reaction to the fly. So,
now fish left big pools with calm water, where it is usually stays
until mid-June, and moved to the typical summer place with stones and
fast-flowing water. Since the water level was still high enough fishing
conditions were difficult to call comfortable for every fisherman. Like last
year, we had to move a lot along the river, choosing the most affordable areas
for wading and casting. It was possible to notice that this week autumn salmon was
more active on the upper sections of the river.
Some of them have already started to get a summer color ( end of May!) and standing in the shallows near the spawning
shoals. It also speaks about the unusually early onset of summer this year.
Fresh fish from the sea was rising steadily and positioned evenly along the
entire length of the river, preferring to park on a
typical summer swift current in the main channel and in the fall of water.
The
average size of salmon we caught in the end
of May - first week of June, clearly exceeds the size of fish of last season.
Autumn fish were from 3.3 to 4.3 kg, fresh sea fish sometimes weighed 4.5 - 6
kg. We pay attention to the very good physical
condition of these fish. I mentioned that there was unusually
high number of unhooked salmons. For
each one landed salmon we had lost 5-6
fish. I want to note here that we do not use guides with a huge nets in the middle of the river. We count the fish landed,
if the angler himself fix salmon at the shore. A large percentage of
lost salmon could be explained in many ways. All we
noticed a significant number of touches to the flies, the cautious bites. Among
us again there was a discussion about the role of strike or loop of
line near fly reel. One way or another, we have not come to a common opinion, as the
fish continued to go off the hook. Our guide George as usually demonstrated the
best results, no one salmon lost, may be he
use extremely powerful technique of fish landing using short
and very soft single hand rod.
A little
about tackles and flies. The water level
was comfortable for two-handed fishing rods 8-10 class, lines
heads from Spey to Skagit. Casting distance
ranged from 12 to 20 meters. The most
effective depth of flies presentations was 0.5 -0.8 meters, the nature of the presentation
- cast in a narrow sector downstream and very slow and insignificant
lateral fly drift. Therefore correct
position of fisherman is very important.
It
seems that large fly in the standard black - red - orange colors with silver
elements on the body have been more
effective. Tubes ( metal or plastic) and double hooks work well.
This season surprise - my Shrimp # 6-8 were not effective at this time. May be medium size flies apparently not been
sufficiently provocative for autumn
passive fish and for fresh and aggressive salmon too.
Although the situation on the river was changing on our
eyes and we had to constantly change the tactics and techniques of fishing.
