By Kirk Deeter

Greetings from Ryabaga Camp on the banks of the Ponoi River in northern Russia. 

The Ponoi has certainly lived up to its reputation as one of the world's greatest Atlantic salmon fisheries. Prior to coming here, I fished for Atlantic salmon in Canada and Ireland for a total of eight days, and only landed one fish. I landed nine on my first day here, and I did even better yesterday. The 12 anglers who covered this section of the river accounted for 205 caught salmon, the largest being around 20 pounds. 

Believe it or not, conditions here are rather challenging. The skies are bright and clear (at least for the time being) and it is light virtually 24 hours a day. The river is low for this time of the season, and what snow remains on the banks is melting rapidly. I spent the afternoon yesterday fishing in shirt sleeves, skating a Muddler Minnow on the surface, and caught several nice brown trout as well as a salmon or two. We're using 14-foot, 9-weight Spey rods, and when we aren't fishing dry flies, we're primarily swinging brightly colored tube flies and large, classic salmon patterns with sinking tip lines.

Obviously, I realize my good fortune to be here, and understand that this is a trip of a lifetime. What impresses me most, however, is the feeling of awe and appreciation for what can happen in a natural river environment where human impact is kept to a minimum. There is no commercial fishing here (though there was decades ago) and no pollution. The habitat is perfect, and as such, the fish are able to thrive.  

I also have a much deeper appreciation for Atlantic salmon as a species. These fish typically spend three to five years in the river before heading to sea, where they will range across the North Atlantic—sometimes as far as Iceland or Greenland (62.5 percent of fish spend two years in the ocean)—before making an instinctive return to the White Sea and up this river to spawn. Many salmon will enter the river in summer or fall, spend the winter under sheet ice, and then spawn the following summer or fall. Some will even return to the sea and do the whole thing again.  

The Atlantic salmon really is one of the most interesting species an angler can study. And so I will continue to do so. Pulling on the waders now. About to grab tea and toast, and then I will hit the river in search of something big.

Comments (9)

from Dangle wrote 2 weeks 20 hours ago

Nice lookin Brown Trout.

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from buckhunter wrote 2 weeks 18 hours ago

You sure have a purdy fish, Deeter.

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from Koldkut wrote 2 weeks 1 hour ago

Deeter, a cat in the sea of mere mortals when it comes to trips of a lifetime(s). Good looking salmon.

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from SMC1986 wrote 1 week 6 days ago

Good looking fish. Hope the rest of the trip goes as well.

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from omarfishesalot wrote 1 week 6 days ago

Dangle the fish pictured above is an atlantic salmon not a brown trout.

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from Dangle wrote 1 week 6 days ago

No way to tell other than DNA evidence. Easily could be a sea-run brown...same fish. And I called around, and that was the conclusion the experts gave me after I suspected the same.

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from omarfishesalot wrote 1 week 6 days ago

if you need DNA evidence to tell the difference between an atlantic and a brown then perhaps Icthyology may have been the least optimal choice for your "experts" to study in. looking at mature specimens of atlantic salmon,sea-run brown trout and regular brown trout it's fairly easy to tell the difference but that's just my opinon could be wrong :)

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from Dangle wrote 1 week 6 days ago

You are quite likely wrong. My guide friend brought it up to me showing me a picture of an "Atlantic" caught in a Patagonia River. A large fish that looked exactly like a brown trout in spotting, and coloration. So I called the big flyshop in Redding California that advertised the picture. In discussion with them they said both sea-run browns, and Atlantics do inhabit the same regions, and run up the same rivers. So they turned me on to an East Coast outfit that books trips for Atlantics, and they admitted they are so similar that only DNA evidence could reveal the difference. Once in the river for a length of time, an Atlantic turns to darker coloration, and can't be distinguished visually from a brown trout. The spotting is exactly the same. It is just like a steelhead turning to its rainbow coloration once in the river for a length of time. In my opinion, not much is made of it because of marketing. An Atlantic has more of a lure to it. It has been given more of a royalty status
than a brown trout. The flies are classic, and given a classsier status than a big ugly streamer used to catch brown trout. Lodges, I would imagine, can attract better fees, and bookings having clients fish for Atlantics vs. sea-run browns. Deeter, at an early time when I brought it up said something like, "interesting. more needs to be looked into in that regard." I don't think anyone wants to.

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from Dangle wrote 1 week 6 days ago

And if you took 3 different fish, all males with the kype jaw...one a resident fish of say 8 lbs., the other an 8 lb. sea-run male that had been in the system for sometime, and an 8 lb. Atlantic that had been in the system for awhile, they would all look exactly the same...same spotting, same golden brown. Make them all the same size, and you don't tend to say this one would be the Atlantic because it is bigger. And that isn't true either. I just watched a British Isles fishing show fishing for "Sea Trout" they call them...sea-run browns. The record, I believe was around 69 lbs. Deeter's fish will turn the golden brown, same brown trout spotting, and get the big kype jaw.

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from Dangle wrote 2 weeks 20 hours ago

Nice lookin Brown Trout.

0 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from buckhunter wrote 2 weeks 18 hours ago

You sure have a purdy fish, Deeter.

0 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from Koldkut wrote 2 weeks 1 hour ago

Deeter, a cat in the sea of mere mortals when it comes to trips of a lifetime(s). Good looking salmon.

0 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from SMC1986 wrote 1 week 6 days ago

Good looking fish. Hope the rest of the trip goes as well.

0 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from omarfishesalot wrote 1 week 6 days ago

Dangle the fish pictured above is an atlantic salmon not a brown trout.

0 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from Dangle wrote 1 week 6 days ago

No way to tell other than DNA evidence. Easily could be a sea-run brown...same fish. And I called around, and that was the conclusion the experts gave me after I suspected the same.

0 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from omarfishesalot wrote 1 week 6 days ago

if you need DNA evidence to tell the difference between an atlantic and a brown then perhaps Icthyology may have been the least optimal choice for your "experts" to study in. looking at mature specimens of atlantic salmon,sea-run brown trout and regular brown trout it's fairly easy to tell the difference but that's just my opinon could be wrong :)

0 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from Dangle wrote 1 week 6 days ago

You are quite likely wrong. My guide friend brought it up to me showing me a picture of an "Atlantic" caught in a Patagonia River. A large fish that looked exactly like a brown trout in spotting, and coloration. So I called the big flyshop in Redding California that advertised the picture. In discussion with them they said both sea-run browns, and Atlantics do inhabit the same regions, and run up the same rivers. So they turned me on to an East Coast outfit that books trips for Atlantics, and they admitted they are so similar that only DNA evidence could reveal the difference. Once in the river for a length of time, an Atlantic turns to darker coloration, and can't be distinguished visually from a brown trout. The spotting is exactly the same. It is just like a steelhead turning to its rainbow coloration once in the river for a length of time. In my opinion, not much is made of it because of marketing. An Atlantic has more of a lure to it. It has been given more of a royalty status
than a brown trout. The flies are classic, and given a classsier status than a big ugly streamer used to catch brown trout. Lodges, I would imagine, can attract better fees, and bookings having clients fish for Atlantics vs. sea-run browns. Deeter, at an early time when I brought it up said something like, "interesting. more needs to be looked into in that regard." I don't think anyone wants to.

0 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from Dangle wrote 1 week 6 days ago

And if you took 3 different fish, all males with the kype jaw...one a resident fish of say 8 lbs., the other an 8 lb. sea-run male that had been in the system for sometime, and an 8 lb. Atlantic that had been in the system for awhile, they would all look exactly the same...same spotting, same golden brown. Make them all the same size, and you don't tend to say this one would be the Atlantic because it is bigger. And that isn't true either. I just watched a British Isles fishing show fishing for "Sea Trout" they call them...sea-run browns. The record, I believe was around 69 lbs. Deeter's fish will turn the golden brown, same brown trout spotting, and get the big kype jaw.

0 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

Post a Comment

 

All submitted comments are subject to the rules set forth in our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.