Gather around me, my brethren of the swung fly. I have tales to share with the guild of the two handed rod. You hear stirrings of a magical place where anadramous fish up to 40 pounds return in numbers unaffected by nets, hydropower, hatcheries or clear cut forests. Myths abound about streams where a floating line can be cast at high noon with blue skies uninterrupted by cloud. Whisperings percolate about a virtual shangri la, where a skated fly can be tickled across the current like fingers across guitar strings regardless of the time of day. Legends are whispered about rivers where you are guaranteed to be the only one fishing the pools and no boat traffic occurs. Yes! A place where no commercial fishery exists and no indigenous people live. I’m here to tell you that I’ve been to such a land and promise you that it does indeed exist. And like Dr. Jack Shepherd from Lost, I have to proclaim, “we have to go back” either with or without Kate. The place is in Russia on the Kola peninsula.
