Back to Russia: Kola river salmon fishing

A few years a go me and my friend went on an unforgettable fishing trip to Kola peninsula and the destination was River Penka. Our goal was to catch those big brown trouts that call River Penka home.
The Penka trip got me pretty exited about fishing in Russia. The possibilities in Kola peninsula alone are endless and so I decided that I would come back one day.
On the same trip I met Seppo Muttilanen the owner and head guide at Lapin Ekspertit Oy. Seppo told us a lot of great stories about fishing in Russia and especially fishing for Salmon. Those stories went around and around in my head for a couple of years and finally I got bored of always going to Norway for Salmon fishing.
I called Seppo and asked if me and a friend of mine could come and fish on the river Kola on the last week of the season. There were still places left and so we booked our trip and started planning for the main Salmon fishing trip of the year.

Planning was pretty simple with the instructions Seppo gave us. He told us that we should just tie some small flies and also big dry flies. We would be using floating lines most of the times so it would be light fishing. So we did like were instructed and on August we had all our gear backed and we were ready to cross the border to mother Russia.

Seppo came to meet us with his van at Hotel Ivalo where we had arrived the night before. While packing the car Seppo told us that the other group that was supposed to come with us had canceled in the last minute so we would have the whole river to our selves. Let me tell you guys that this was just great news for us and jumped right in to the van with great expectations and started our trip to Russia.

The drive from Ivalo to river Kola took us about 5 hours including the border control so it wasn't too bad. On the way we of course saw all the local sights including the old Finnish border and the always so grey Murmask city. Don't let looks fool you it's home to close to half a million people.
After the drive we arrived to our fishing camp called Wet Kitza. The camp was still an ongoing project but I guess everything is in Russia. Still we were shown in to a very nice looking new house which would be our home for the week. Accommodation was simple but effective. We had a nice, warm and clean house with a hot water shower. In the other house we had a fridge and a lounge where we could sit and share stories in the evening and of course a couple shots of vodka. What more could a salmon fly fisher want, right?

Next day we started with the main activity and went fishing for the first time. We found out that the river runs through lightly populated areas and a couple of small villages. So all you guys who think that this could be a nice wilderness destination, you can think again. For us this was not a problem as we have been accustomed to fishing rivers with a lot of people. But for an angler looking for a river with very little human presence this would not be the ideal place to come.

Leaving aside the fact that there are houses, people and a railway close to the river it still is a beautiful river in it self. I was very impressed when I saw the river for the first time. The waters were really low it was quite narrow and we could easily wade across it from few places. Normally the river runs a bit wider and wading across would not be advisable.

With the waters low it was quite easy to see the goods spots in the pools we were going to fish and Seppo helped us for the whole week. He made sure that we were fishing the right spots and with the right flies. Seppo took it as his mission to get us to catch some nice fish and we did. Even with his help it was not easy as the waters were lower than in decades so the fish were not that active. Still we managed to caught 10 salmon which is not a bad catch. In Kola this of course is only an ok catch.

For us it was just awesome to fish the pools with nobody else there. Well except for some brave locals who defied the local fishing laws. We basically could just walk from pool to pool and fish the best places at the best times the whole week long. This was great because we got a better view of the river then we could have gotten when fishing 10 other guests.
We took full advantage of this and at the end of the week we were both just fishing our own favorite spots and pools. It was amazing to fish a world class Salmon river alone with nobody there to hurry you along on your fishing.

I caught my first ever Salmon with a double hand rod on the first day. It was so unreal to catch a 4kg salmon after just 3 hours of fishing on the river. For me the trip started like a dream. I got to land 5 more fish on the trip and lost over 15 sure bites on a dry fly. And yes I know I seem to suck at salmons dry fly fishing, but in my defense it was my first go at it.
The biggest fish landed by me was around 5 kg. A nice and silvery fish even though it was very late in the season. We actually caught two silver colored fish and saw a lot more so the fish seem to run up the stream from the ocean the whole season long.
We also saw a lot of big fish in the river but had no luck hooking them but it is certain that there are some real monsters there.

The whole week went quite fast because we were fishing really actively and we moved from pool to pool during the day. I can honestly say that I have never fished so hard in my life but it was a blast. I hope I get to go to Kola again soon.

For myself I want to say thanks to the crew at Wet Kitza camp and really big thanks to Seppo who really helped us with everything during the week and made the whole trip a great success.

If you are interested in River Kola trips and more info just check out their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Lapinekspertit

Cheers,
Janne

To hell and back

Where to fish in the summer of 2010? Our initial idea was to spend two weeks fishing in the northern rivers
of Norway. All that changed when I found a great deal offering amazing fishing in Russia. A week from that,
I booked a trip for me and my friend.

On August 9th me and my good friend Miksu arrived to Inari after a week of fishing in Finnmark. It was time to start our voyage to mother Russia in search of the ultimate trout fishing in the world. Our destination was Varzinas subsidiary Penka and the newly established tent camp in the middle of nowhere.

We met four other finish anglers who would give us a ride to Lovozero where all of us would jump in to a chopper. The trip from Ivalo to Lovozero wasn’t that pleasant as the roads were in terrible condition but we
made through the customs and the long drive on the bumpy roads of northern Russia.

In Lovorezo we set up our tent in front of the deteriorating airport gate and went to sleep excitedly waiting for the chopper ride to the river. The next morning started in a poor note as the weather was no good for helicopter flying. We did try to get to the river but the sea mist was so bad that even when we arrived to
our campsite we could not land because the pilot was not able to see the landing spot. And let me tell that
in between the mountains you really do hope the pilot can see where he is flying and landing. So after three hours of pointless flying around we were forced to return to the airport and wait until the next day to try the flight again. This of course was poor news to a couple on the passengers who were suffering with a bad case of flight fear.

Wednesday morning begun with the same poor weather as there was only a little bit less mist. We waited the whole day for the flight that never came and were forced to spend one more night in Lovozero.

Thursday morning saw the mist finally clearing a bit and mid day we were able to backup the heli again and fly to our camp site. The flight fear of our two friends was not in any way diminished by the comment from our guide who in monotone voice stated “Welcome to the flight to hell in the middle of nowhere”. But this time the weather gave in when we got closer to the river and the flight went smoothly. We landed next to a beautiful mountain lake which was one the three bigger lakes which provide their waters to river Penka. As you can imagine after almost two days of waiting the tents rose fairly quickly and after some lunch we were of to the almost never before fished river Penka.

Our group of six divided in two as myself and Miksu headed down stream and the other guys went up stream. The first night we just fished the waters close to camp and were only able to land smaller trouts. The biggest fish that day was a big pike caught by our senior member.

After the first night and poor catch we reviewed our flies and came to the inclusion that the best results were on black thin streamers and silver surfboards. Me and Miksu tied black steamers to the end of our lines and head up the river in the chilly morning. The black streamers started working immediately and we were at last catching some nice sized trout. Nice size in Penka means over 50cm and under 65cm. We did though get to hold a couple real monsters that day but the fish won all the battles.

First three days of fishing the weather stayed nice on warm with mild winds but on the fourth this all changed to the worst in our case. A high pressure wave kicked in and the temperature dropped fast to almost zero. We knew the weather could be tricky this time of the year but I have to admit that I could
have never guessed that it could be +20c one day and snowing the next. That just shows you that when you’re going that far north you have to be prepared for anything. The cold weather didn’t really affect the fishing and we still caught some really nice trout. The biggest problem was when the air cooled the ground winds really picked up and were sometimes blowing with the force of 15 to 20 meters per second. This made fly casting a bit tricky as you were forced to cast downwind all the time or just wait the Puuska out.

Never the less we fished all day everyday. The last day was the only day when the fishing was really bad. Hard wind and the rising cold front scared the fishes somewhere and we no able to really catch anything that day. So we pretty much sat in our cooking tent eating our last food supplies and drinking “Tsaikka” or as it is better known Tea. The wait for the heli to arrive was a drag and yet again the mist played its part on our way back by delaying the flight by a day. Bad thing was that even though we were stranded on the beach of one of the best trout rivers in the world we could not go far from the camp because we had no idea when the heli would arrive. When it did at last arrive the flight back was fast and intense because of the monster winds blowing through the tundra. I have to say that I was not too envy with the guys who jumped of the heli in our camp. A week in the tundra with terrible weather is not nice even if you are an over eager fly fisher like those guys seemed to be.

All in all the trip was a once in a life time trip. I have only great memories of the guys I spent the week with and the great fishing in northern Russia. The trip was an adventure with a lot of things not going as planed but everything worked itself out and the fishing was the main point of the trip anyways. I really do hope I get a chance to go back some day maybe to Penka or even better would be the main trout camp on River Varzina. This place in any case is the place where fishing legends are born.