Water in the river was dropping rapidly, and in just a couple of days its transparency and level achieved the highest fishing quality. We continued to explore the river going downstream to its mouth in the Okhotskoe Sea. Silver salmon became tiresome, and the most passionate guys penetrated up to 50 or 70 miles upstream, where the concentration of Rainbow was much higher and the concentration of Silver lower. It seemed to me that the massive entry of Silvers pushed other species upstream, or into stretches with a heavier current. At least good fishing for Rainbow was never associated with places where Silver salmon concentrated. Despite moderate size of Rainbow trout, ranging around 1 to 2 kg, this fish showed the most fighting spirit among all the species we fished for. Spectacular jumps and runs accompanied each take. To my personal feeling, coloured Silvers were heavier and more persistent fighters than the freshly arrived silver-greenish fish. Perhaps, they had already adapted to fresh water and could use the full power of their muscles? In addition, the coloured Silvers, in their bright red spawning dress with unbelievably huge hook on autumn decoration background, were more attractive from an esthetic point of view.

For the following few days, we only went upstream, hunting for big Rainbow, Kundzha and Dolly Warden. Fishing in the lower part of the river became senseless, because of the unimaginable amount of Silver salmon constantly entering the river. Yet there was another reason not to fish downstream stretches. Well, I don’t know exactly why, maybe because of a particularly rich run for all Pacific salmon species in 2002, but after heavy rains, high water flow brought thousands of already spawned and dead fishes from the bottom and threw them on the banks. The suffocating sweetish smell of death covered downstream parts of the river. It looked like even the stomachs of the main local consumers couldn’t deal with the abundance of fish. One of them, a huge Grizzly bear, was found dead by our group by the riverbank.

Despite the fact that almost every meter of the bank was covered with bear signs and that footprints were really gigantic, I only once saw a big bear run away from our approaching boat and was “lucky” enough to hear behind and near me, in the bushes, heavy and mighty breathing. All I said loudly was: “Hello dear! Believe me, I am not so tasty in my waders! Fish is much better and healthier food!” Local bears consistently avoided face-to-face meetings with humans.

Before we went to Kamchatka, I had quite an intensive discussion with one of my fellows, Igor, about flies for this trip, so our fly-boxes had pretty similar sets of flies. We could therefore experiment independently on the riverbank and compare our results.
It turned out that our conclusions regarding size and colour combinations were the same. The increase of Silver salmon takes on flies with a bright fluoro red or orange cone head was clearly noticable. Similar results were also observed with the use of different plastic and glass beads placed on the tippet at front of the fly. Quite a big fly, and in this case, looked like a small Parr trying to steal appetizing fish egg. If the fly in such a provocative combination came near to fish, the attack followed immediately. Additionally interesting was the fact that a lot of fish were hooked from outside of the jaws, when they, perhaps, attempted to intercept the “fish egg” from the Parr, concentrating an attack on front part of fly, so the hook remained outside the fish’s mouth. Many Dolly Warden and Rainbows were hooked in this manner.

It was confirmed a couple of times that Silver salmon have certain preferences in colour and can be capricious. In the first case, after the fish suddenly went down, I started to try different colour combinations and in a half an hour large amounts of takes came back, but only on the fluorescent orange fly. At that time, nothing in the weather conditions, lightness or in the water had changed and could have affected the intensity of the bites. All attempts to come back to previous colours failed. In another case, weather was certainly the reason for the change in the Silver’s behaviour. The sky quickly covered with heavy dark clouds, and right from the
morning of the last day of our journey, rain came again. Most guys in our team were totally fished out and exhausted, so they spent time relaxing in the camp. Moreover, most of them had lost their workable flies. The combination of low flying clouds, tedious rain and tense waiting for the arrival of the copter could have spoiled our final impressions from a week of successful fishing. That is why Igor, Mark and myself didn’t think long before we decided to go say a last goodbye to the river.

For the first 2-3 hours, everything seemed to be as before: my and Igor’s Barbies assiduously brought fish to the bank, one by one. Mark, the only American in our team, was carried away, fishing Rainbows with the American technique of “bottom rolling egg,” tempting fish with fantastic egg imitations. Then suddenly, the activity went down, just as it had a couple of times previously. Fish stopped showing themselves on the surface and splashing. Igor quickly reloaded stuff for the Rainbow and went upstream to the throat of the pool. I didn’t want to give up, and wanted to find a way to restore the active takes again. I began to test different flies, trying heavy Russian Bullets in screaming fluorescent orange colours, and Steelhead purple Long Range tube flies, which had worked before. Fish didn’t even take the “without a hitch” combination of the fly plus the “egg” in front of it! I had noticed that the water was quickly becoming milky, perhaps because of small particles brought by rain from the steep clay banks of the river.

I thought that I had better find something to contrast the willow foliage that appeared in the water! I was looking over my fly-box when my eye was caught by a variation of one of the Alaska Flash flies. It looks quite light, so it wouldn’t be too much of a contrast to the milky water. On the other hand, a lot of flashabou in its wing could play a role, and the fly was pretty different from all the flies I had being trying before. I quickly changed the intermediate line to a sinking one, assembled the plastic “egg” and fly together, and sent this combination to the opposite side of river. I was retrieving the line with short pulls, when half-way to “my” bank, I felt a familiar gentle pull. A hooked Silver romping deeply in the pool. During the following hours, not with the best intensity, but still, Silvers regularly took this American wonder fly. We went back to the camp with a feeling of completed business. Quick preparations, another couple of hours of wearisome waiting before we finally heard on our radio that the chopper was on its way to the camp

In the last hour of light, the rain eased up a bit, clouds lifted and we could hear the sound we had been longing for…the machine was approaching. Well, I will not describe the “charm” of flying at low attitude in mountains covered with clouds and fog and what I felt hovering between sky and earth - perhaps those who have been on a mission know the sensation. I would like, however, to say special thanks to the pilots. They are virtuosos indeed! The trip finished, as one could have predicted, with Kamchatka beer, a delicious fish meal and bathing in geothermal Peretunka springs. Next morning, a huge airbus A 300 “Pjotr Tchaikovsky” brought us back to civilization.

SOME ADVICE FOR FISHING KAMCHATKA:

1) If it is not King Salmon or Steelhead of the prize size, there is no need to use rods over class 7-8. On rivers with dense vegetation on the riverbank, short double hand rods of class 8-9 would be helpful. Particularly when using big and heavy flies and for the comfort of underhand casting in places with restricted space behind you.

2) There is no need to fish with a tippet less then 0.35 mm in diameter. I didn’t find much difference in the amount of takes relating to tippet diameter. The whole week, I fished tippet 0.40 mm and felt confident while playing fish.

3) When preparing your fly-box, be sure to include flies tied from strong materials. Tube flies with a short body and a free swinging hook, or assembled with the help of soft silicone tubing, proved to be the creatures with the longest life fishing Pacific salmon. Additionally, you will benefit from tube flies, so as not to carry hundreds of hooks, just flies and a few hooks to combine with them.
4) If you are allowed to use double hooks, use them! The reason is that even big singles very often couldn’t hook the fish properly. Dense silicone tubing on tube flies allows you to assemble the hook point up, so you can fish very deep, close to the bottom, without the risk of losing your fly.

5) Better to have fly-lines of all densities of course, but if you like to minimize the weight of your travel stuff, floating lines and floating lines with a sink or intermediate tip will cover all needs. For fishing deep pools, I used whole slow sinking lines and heavy tube flies to achieve the right depth.

6) You definitely need stuff to remove the hook from the fish’s mouth. The teeth of Pacifics are very sharp and full of bacteria. Wounds made by those teeth quickly inflame and are slow to heal, so take care with your fingers.