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Roddy Hall reports on the Yokanga 2009 Season

We started the 2009 season on the 6^th June with high hopes, after reports that the spring was arriving on time, rather than a couple of weeks late like last year. Indeed, the river, although cold, was lower, and a couple of degrees warmer than the opening day in 2008.

Week Zero

The first week is always a tough one, waiting for the main run of the largest salmon to arrive, with rods hoping to pick off a few early arrivals. Brian Fratel had the fish of the week - a fresh 34lber - but otherwise it was quite tough going. We ended the week feeling that there were still not that many fish in the river, but that they would arrive at any moment as the conditions were nearly perfect.

Week One

Week 1, starting the 13^th June, showed this to be the case. A slow but steady start was punctuated by Richard Furbank’s two fresh fish out of Beach on the first day, the largest weighing 28lbs. Halfway through the week, after two very bright and hot days, the water temperature reached a perfect 13°C. The weather then changed and the remaining days were colder, wet and quite windy, with fog. The fishing however improved dramatically as the fish seemed to pour into the river. The fishers landed 18 salmon on Thursday and 24 salmon on Friday, the majority of which were very fresh and in the high teens and into the twenties. The fishing from Beach down to Crow's Nest was the most productive, but we caught fish all the way up the river to Island by the end of the week.

Week Two

By the start of Week 2, the fishing was well and truly on fire. We fished from Sand Island/Cliff all the way down to Waterfall, and it seemed to be the higher beats that produced the best catches this week, as the river seemed to fill up from the top down. Every day produced exceptional results and the daily catch, including Home Pool in the evening, was between 30 and 50 fish which, bearing in mind that 30% of the fish were above 20lbs and 90% were 10lbs or more, is spectacular.

It is worth mentioning a few catches: Bill Day caught his best fish ever, a 31lber, followed by his son Nathan catching one the same size the following day. Martin Vainer caught his first fish over 30lbs, after several years of trying and coming very close (broken rods, chases down the rapids etc) and James Barclay, on his first visit, had a day at Crow’s Nest which included five fish of 32lbs, 28lbs, 20lbs, 10lbs and 10lbs. We had 236 fish for the week, which is an excellent result, bearing in mind the average size.

Weeks Three and Four

The fishing continued to be spectacular as late June turned into July. The run of fish this year seemed to be very strong, with the large June fish continuing to run well into July and joined by a good run of grilse and fish in the low teens. 210 fish were caught in Week 3 and 246 in Week 4. Both weeks had several fish over 30lbs and probably two thirds of the fish were over 10lbs. Colin Jones had two lovely fish over 30lbs and another regular, Peter Woodhouse, caught his best ever salmon - a beautiful 31lber.

We knew this was a great year as more and more fresh fish continued to come into the river throughout July, not just grilse but also fish well into the twenties. On the whole, the river was a good fishing height and most of the beats produced good numbers of fish.

Week Five

By mid-July the weather changed; as is always the risk. Week 5, starting on the 11^th July, had a group of very experienced salmon fishermen, and also four steelheaders from the US west coast. The air temperature rose to the high twenties early in the week and the sky was bright blue. Interestingly, at Yokanga the water height can never really get too low as the fish just concentrate in the heavy draws where they are easily covered. However, as with all salmon fishing, the takes become less committed as the water heats up. The benefit of having very fresh fish in the system was that these fish were aggressive despite the warm water, and sea-liced fish of over 20lbs were landed and there were plenty of grilse. Toti ‘The Dentist’ had three fish of over 20lbs, with 27lbs being his best, and other memorable results included Matt Harris who landed two over 20lbs, including a 22lbs fish with long-tailed sea lice. Matt also tangled with a couple of much larger fish. Iain Wilcock landed his first ever salmon on Sunday which was 26lbs, certainly some sort of record, and his friend, Sean Clarke also had a 26lbs fish.

Week Six

The following week, will have to go down as the most memorable of the season. The total catch of 314 was the highest of the season so far, and although it included about 55% fresh grilse there were also many, very large fish. These included five over 30lbs and 27 over 20lbs. Several fish over 20lbs were sea-liced and the run of fresh fish seemed to keep on coming.

There were many superb days, and all the beats seemed to produce fish at one time or another. Catches that stand out include Mark Holme’s 30lbs fish after dinner one evening, on only his second salmon fishing trip, Alan Morrison's six fish in one day on Seven Islands, included a 34lbs fish and a 33lbs fish and Dee McColgan's 31lber on Poachers on the last day, beating his 29lbs fish from last year as his best ever.

However the prize for the most outstanding day goes to Mark Hawkins and Simon Furniss. Mark landed the following fish: 34lbs, 23lbs, 20lbs, 19lbs, 17lbs, 4lbs and Simon: 23lbs, 19lbs, 14lbs, 8lbs, 5lbs and 4lbs. Most of these fish were very fresh. A superb day’s sport for any time of the season. The cascade, size 8, was the killing fly on this day and all week.

The rest of the season cruised along until we finished in early August with a slowly falling river and fresh fish coming in all the time. We had some hot weather in the last week of July that slowed things down a bit. Our Spanish group in the last week fished hard and landed some nice fish, the best being a 25lber caught by Joan, but the water had become very hot and only the grilse were playing ball most of the time. Ken Darby also did well, out-fishing the other rods nearly every day despite claiming to be a relative novice.

Overall the season was a very successful one. Although the first and last weeks were a bit slow, every other week fished well and two or three weeks were amongst the best we have had in the last five years. Large numbers of fish over 20lbs were caught including several dozen, beautiful fish between 25lbs and 29lbs that appeared to be maiden fish, a good number over 30lbs and a few even larger escaped the net.

The two things that really stood out were the quality of the fish and also the fact that fresh fish seemed to be running in all weeks through until early August. It is normal to catch fresh grilse at this time, but we were still catching plenty of fish in their teens and even twenties with sea lice on, into late July. In fact, as I write this report, we are hearing from our river guards that fresh fish continued to run throughout late August and into September, linking the spring/summer run to the osankas - the autumn run that often shelters under the ice during the winter to run the river in the spring and spawn the following autumn.

Thanks to all the guides and staff for their hard work, and of course thank you to all our loyal fishermen. We hope to see you in 2010! 

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