PPS Destinations Report 

KAMCHATKA, RUSSIA

Date:        August  2004

 Reported by Dr. Brian Griffith, New Jersey, USA

After flying from the east coast to Anchorage, spending a short night in Alaska, flying 4 ½ hours to Petropavlovsk, enduring interminable waits at passport control and the heliport, and a 3 hour flight on a noisy Russian military helicopter I finally got to fish in Kamchatka.  The long travel time and headaches of dealing with the remnants of Soviet bureaucracy were absolutely worth it when we finally got to the Two-Yurt River, however.

   The base camp we flew into was a little primitive but comfortable enough.  It even had a hot spring which the Russian staff had dug out to form the most wonderful hot tub I’ve ever been in.  The food was not gourmet but certainly it was quite good and plentiful as was the vodka and beer.  After sleeping off the effects of travel(somewhat) the helicopter flew us to the first day’s fishing.  No sooner had the chopper taken off when a brown bear ambled into view.  This was a pretty common sight throughout the trip as we saw at least one bear per day.  They were not aggressive and always just walked away so none of us ever felt threatened.

   The fishing the first day was fairly good.  On the upper river the current is quite fast and it is a true freestone river much like Rock Creek in Montana.  There was a good fish population per mile but very few really big rainbows.  By the end of the day I think I had caught a dozen fish or so with one large bow of 23 inches.  The river is pretty well stacked with salmon and grayling(up to 22 inches!), char, and dolly varden are quite common as well.  The fishing is not overly technical and the fish are very aggressive.  The fly of choice was either an egg-sucking leech below the surface and a mouse pattern above.  I had never moused before and this was just about the most fun I’ve ever had with a fly rod.  The trout and grayling absolutely love these things.  There were times throughout the week that trout would chase these rodents 10-15 feet!

  Each successive camp was Spartan but clean and comfortable.  The Russian staff went the extra mile to make everyone’s stay as pleasant as possible.  There was a camp cook, translator(they all spoke a little English but it varied), two boatmen, 3 guides, and the woodsmen.  His job was to take care of the camp bear dog and any bears that might wander into the area of the camp with his 10 gauge slug loaded shotgun.

  After the first day we would float the river on rafts, stopping at gravel bars and dropoffs to wade.  Every day the fishing got better in both numbers and size.  By the last day of fishing I caught in excess of 50 rainbows with an average length of 22 inches.  Throughout the trip the mouse was the fly of choice since the visual experience of seeing these rainbows inhale it was a thrill every time. You might catch more fish subsurface but they count more when they’re on top. The river slowed as we went downstream making for a little more boat fishing but there was so much fishy looking water it didn’t matter if there weren’t too many bars.

   The scenery was great.  This is one of the last truly wild places on earth.  We were 200 miles from the nearest village.  The  people that worked for the outfitter were wonderful and the fishing was truly beyond description.  We had spectacular weather the last week in August although this place is a lot like Alaska in that it is totally unpredictable.  If you don’t mind a little waiting around at airports or flying vast distances this is among the best places to fish in the world.  I booked my trip through The Fly Shop in Redding, Ca.  Check out their website at theflyshop.com.  As a final recommendation I’ve already booked two weeks for 2005.  This place has to experienced to be believed.