The Ponoi River

The Ponoi River in Russia is without question the world’s premier salmon fishing river it is 475 km long and flows East through the Kola peninsula into the Barents seas. What makes the river the holy grail of Atlantic salmon fishing are the huge numbers of fish that run the river every year. More specifically, what makes the Ponoi so unique is that it has two distinctly different runs of fish, the spring run which arrives in late May and ends around early July and the renowned fall run which occurs from late August and continues well into early winter when the river starts to ice over.

These ‘fall run’ fish enter the river with huge fat reserves and charge relentlessly upstream, sensing the approaching winter, once in the upper and middle reaches they will hold and survive under the ice for the whole winter. The following spring, a little coloured, and having lost almost no condition they will continue their migration until they spawn in the autumn, up till this point they will have spent a whole year in the river of their birth and not fed upon a thing. After spawning they will obviously lose condition rapidly, they start to drop back and once again get caught in the river by the harsh long winter, the following spring, now two years down the line these sorry looking thin fish know as Kelts will finally return to the ocean. They are weak and in no great shape, studies on kelts on European rivers show that as little as 1% will survive, as predation ravages these spent spawners. Scientific research on Russian rivers however, show that as much as 30% of returning kelts will survive, recondition and be able to spawn again – an amazing feat.

This genetic superiority of the Ponoi salmon is clearly illustrated when fishing for them, where as salmon on other rivers are often reputably fickle and difficult, the salmon on the Ponoi are far more aggressive and will slash at a swinging fly a couple of times before eventually taking it. This provides excellent sport and is most satisfying from a guiding point of view, in that once a fish is located it can often be perused relentlessly, changing patterns and fly sizes until the take is accomplished as opposed to a Scottish fish that may well sulk for the afternoon after refusing a fly that is swung through its lie.

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