The Camp takes up to ten customers, but during the week I was on, we were only eight anglers, and I found this very appropriate; we never annoyed each other on the riverbank. The Camp is made of a few wooden huts, where kitchen, dining room, bath (hot water is available) and sauna (very convenient I can tell you!) are located. Fishermen sleep in military tents, which are outfitted with a wooden floor and a wood stove, very nice for the chilly nights! A tent is shared between two anglers.

 

The trip begins and ends in Murmansk. That means that transportation from home to Murmansk has to be paid for by the customer. There are two possibilities to reach Murmansk: either one can board a charter flight from Helsinki to Murmansk, but this is quite expensive: 850 EUR. Or one can choose to fly from Helsinki to Ivalo in northern Finland, and then VRC arranges for ground transportation in mini-bus from Ivalo to Murmansk (4-5 hours of driving). This solution costs about 300-400 EUR, and it is the one I picked. Very convenient I must say.

 

Over the whole season, about 800-900 trout over 50 cm are caught (the smaller fish are not counted, that says something…), and about 150 salmon are landed (Main Camp statistics not included). There is only one guide available for the whole Camp, so I would advise the beginning angler to travel with a more experienced fisherman. Fishing may sound easy, but one has to work hard for each fish caught, and the fish can be very difficult and picky. This type of fishing also requires good physical condition; one walks a lot during such a fishing week.

 

Myself I was lucky to end up in a group composed of skilled and experienced anglers, among others Mika Manninen (faithful client of VRC and the Varzina Trout Camp), and Janne Nyblom. Janne is known as "the Machine". He is a world-class fly-fisherman; during the week he managed to land 22 salmon, plus about 50 trout over 50 cm!

 

The fishing is catch-and-release fly-fishing. I fished most of the time with my 9.6 foot, 8-weight rod. I did also fish a few times with my 6-weight rod during dry-fly and nymph fishing, and I also swung my Spey-rod (12.6 foot) a couple of days. During the whole week I fished with a floating line and leader, with a 0.28 mm tip for dry fly and nymph fishing, and a 0.35 mm tip for the streamer fishing. When fishing for salmon I geared up to 0.40 mm.

 

Effective flies for Varzina's trout proved to be large streamers a la Woolhead Sculpin, Morrish Sculpin or Woolly Bugger ; all-bright flies such as the Järpa fly (designed by Mika Manninen), or the Tinsel fly, which looks aggressive in the clear water, but works fine with the large trout. When the insects hatch (mostly mayflies and caddis flies), dry flies such as Goddard Caddis, Elk-Hair Caddis, Rusty Brown Mayfly, Klinkhammer Special can prove to be effective. Pupae and nymphs such as Super Pupa, Caddis Pupa, Pheasant Tail, Prince Nymph are also a sure bet, but I myself did not fish that much with these flies. For salmon, the classical Kola patterns are effective. Try flies such as Green Highlander, Kolalander, Sunray Shadow, or Collie Dog. I was also very lucky with the fly called Kim's Killer, a 3 cm tube fly tied with a red arctic fox tail, and a black arctic fox wing. Dry flies a la Bomber are also super effective when the fish are active.

 

If you are interested in a trip to Varzina, you can get more information by following this link: www.varzina.fi. This web side does not hold that much information though, so the best thing would be to contact directly Marjut Sirola, who is responsible for the trip sales at VRC, on the following e-mail address: marjut.sirola@varzina.fi.

 More photos from the trip can be accessed here.