Monster Brown Trout of the River Varzina

Russian Kola Peninsula is widely known for its world-class Atlantic salmon fishing. It is not so well-known that it can also provide some of the world's best brown trout fishing. River Varzina hosts a healthy stock of monster size browns, that are eager to take a well-presented streamer or a mouse pattern. These browns are among the biggest in the world and there is plenty of them.

Location

Sometimes you might have two or three big fish chasing your fly at the same time, competing which one will have the first bite. If that is not nerve breaking, then nothing is. They are at the peak of their fitness and the runs and jumps can be unbelievable. Fish close to one meter length are seen on a regular basis, but landing one of those brutes is a tough job for anybody. They have no rules and they know all the tricks of the trade. But the hooking of one those larger-than-life-sized browns is definitely an experience of a lifetime.

The Trout Camp

The Varzina Trout Camp is situated in the middle of the river's best trout pools. The clients, arriving on Thursday from Murmansk on a helicopter, live in large canvas tents with wooden floor, stoves and beds. Usually there is two or three clients in a tent. The spacious tents can be heated up when the weather is cold or wet. The camp has a nice sauna(banya) with showers. The warmth of a sauna is very nice for tired muscles after a long fishing day. The quality of the food is good and the portions are plenty and tasteful. The menu is a nice combination of traditional tasteful Russian cuisine and some western dishes. The energy provided with these meals is definitely needed when fishing and walking long days along 12 kilometer piece of high-quality trout water.

The Trout camp is run by an experienced Russian Camp Manager. He has a couple of people to take care of the running matters. There is a fly fishing guide to help the clients with the fishing issues. He tells them what is happening in the river, i.e., what are the best places to fish, what are the best flies to use and so on. He also explains the fishing regulations: catch and release, barbless hooks, etc. So far, there have been no problems. Everybody understands that the fishery is just to good to be ruined with reckless behavior. All in all, the Varzina Trout camp is a small (max. 10 clients), but high-quality fly fishing camp for those who are ready to do some walking for the world class fishing.