THE ATLANTIC SALMON RESERVE
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ASR FILMS
Thursday 18 February 2010 "Home for Salmon" London Premiere Last evening was a rather special occasion in the salmon fishing community. From across the globe 600 invited guests gathered together at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in London for the premiere of the film "Home for Salmon". The event was divided into three sessions from 6:00pm to 1:00am with each screening followed by a drinks reception. Even for Bafta this was most unusual and they compliment us on the usual ASR "attention to detail". Justin Mc. excelled himself as "major domo" working with Alison, Ruth and Luise who received extravagant praise. I have not known a reception where there seemed to be such instant bonding and good humour – never mind three in one evening! I suppose it was because we were in a charming environment just after a pleasant shared experience in the film and, as I often say about our fishing guests, were "kindred spirits in harmony with nature". Of course the second and third sessions came in on a high with so many having enjoyed "Sophie’s" restaurant as arranged by Rupert and Justin Maxwell Stuart again in aid of the NASF. Inevitably they then led astray the younger hardcore ASR fishers to the delights of the Dover Street Wine bar. I understand they helped close the club at about 5:00am. Some of us are concerned that my dear friend Per Stadigh has not been seen since. We anxiously await word from Sweden.
Each session kicked off with a little speech by "yours truly". It gave me great pleasure to thank Antony Pinsent, President of the Flyfishers’ Club, for bringing together over 200 members and their friends. He in turn made a charming speech at the first reception and thanked Piers Eley for suggesting to him the idea of this event. I took the opportunity to thank our club for their past support particularly during Sir Peter Cresswell’s tenure as President. When the future of the ASR was in doubt he composed an elegant letter to our Foreign Office endorsed by no less than four previous Presidents and Commander Boycott. Dr Morozov, a famous scientist, was our guest of honour representing Russian Federation. I asked him to convey to his government our gratitude for permitting the ASR to flourish and commented upon the worldwide goodwill this has created towards Russia and its people through many thousands of visitors.
By the second and third sessions I confess to feeling a little more relaxed and found myself with the confidence to express my extraordinary gratitude to those of you who have supported the ASR over the last ten years and in so doing have given me the most wonderful end game – the best and most spiritually rewarding 10 years of my life. I wish you all the same good fortune. The evening was in aid of the North Atlantic Salmon Fund and this presented the opportunity to pay tribute to the brilliant and successful campaign conducted on our behalf by my dear friend Orri Vigfusson. The audiences were interested to learn how he was fundamental to the founding of the Atlantic Salmon Reserve in: http://www.kharlovka.com/atlanticsalmon.html . Of course special thanks and acclaim were reserved for our film director Kristian and, Justin Mc, his co-opted deputy director, for their incredible achievement on a limited budget.
By all accounts the film was a resounding success. It illustrated the way of life at the ASR in its magnificent tundra setting and the excitement through fly fishing for the "King of Fish". It demonstrated the world class standard of service provided by the Northern Rivers team and the close bonds created between Russian and western people. Some were amazed at the astonishing infrastructure and accommodation that has been constructed in the tundra off the back of a helicopter. The sheer joy and intoxication of fishing for the ultimate multiple sea winter Atlantic Salmon was demonstrated through our star performer Mikael Frodin with a supporting cast of great anglers. I particular enjoyed the moment when an emotionally exhausted Hugo Bauman managed to combine a look of pleasure and sadness with the words "You see it’s just not possible to land a 30lbs plus fish if it goes through two nets" and there you saw the line through those two nets with the fish at the other end. Or then when Chris Tarrant described his shock at first comprehending the size of his record 47 pounder –"Its head was over there and its tail was over there" looking from one end of a 34ft screen to the other. Kristian has done an incredible job of capturing amazing salmon action shots with salmon leaping in the pools, over the falls and actually taking the fly and fighting under water, interspersed with brilliant shots by Justin Mc. beneath the falls. Trout fishers found themselves overwhelmed when Kai Finbraten landed the 8 lbs trout he had been after for 3 days, looked up to heaven, down to the fish in awe and then, with tears in his eyes said to the camera "this is simply the best fishing in the world". Brian Dalton, who flew over from Canada with his family including 10 year old William who featured in the film and gave us fabulous demonstrations of the art of dry fly fishing for big salmon – even I did not know you can catch a salmon as if you were fishing on the Test. But what really moved the audience was how he, Mikael Frodin, Peter Wulf and Kai Finbraten, spoke movingly about the fragility of the tundra ecosystem, how well the rivers were managed, how the fishing was improving and how they expected their children and grandchildren to have even better fishing even knowing many other salmon rivers are in decline. I fear I bear a huge responsibility to try to justify their faith in my efforts to secure the future. Sir Peter Cresswell opined that ASR conservation management met the highest standards and that in his view the territory should become a World Heritage Site. Roger Harrison, a fellow past President of the Flyfishers’, elegantly reminded is that the ASR epitomized the Club motto which is "There is more to fishing than fishing" which evoked mild humour amongst his friends when, Peter, his long time fishing partner caught a fish on camera as Roger was speaking and happened to say "that makes the 44th fish we have caught this week."
Perhaps the most rewarding experience for me was the reaction of the ladies. All through this wonderful evening they wanted to let me know how they now understood the passion of their men to fish in such a well organized, magical, faraway place. I in turn let them know I would like to see more lady fishers visit the ASR as the "the men behave better". The film was most unusual because it did not have a professional presenter in the limelight – the stars were quite simply the people who live and work in the ASR camps together with the guests who happened to be there over the four weeks of filming. There were no rehearsals. Kristian just lived amongst us capturing moments on film as the spirit moved him encouraging people to talk to him about their thoughts and feelings. Then with Justin Mc. he brilliantly created a story about man’s duty to nature as inspired by the Holy Russian Orthodox Church whose involvement you might like to read about on our website under: http://www.kharlovka.com/ryndacross.html . He encouraged me to explain the fundamental concept of the ASR which is that the best inland salmon conservation theory is no theory. In essence all we do is literally protect nature, including all the fauna and flora not just the salmon; we do not make changes to the topography; we try to earn the support of our employees, visitors and local community; and in the words of Palmi Gunnarsson in the film "leave it up to nature". I hope the film makes it clear our isolation and control is unique but then again I hope it will give cause for further reflection by salmon anglers and river owners to consider that the problems for the Atlantic salmon are not just at sea but also in our rivers where they spend the greatest proportion of their life. We all know the salmon is an endangered species but does everyone know the Scottish Natural Heritage estimate the decline between 1968 and 2002 was about 74%. Since then, thanks to the work of the NASF and others, there are signs of stabilization. In this light is it not illogical, if not ridiculous, to kill this magnificent species in our rivers? Why is it that you never see articles about river engineering which destroys ancient spawning beds replacing them with holding pools which by definition have reduced the breeding potential? Over the next month the "Home for Salmon" film will be premiered in Oslo, Stockholm, Spain and Scotland with a special Russian sub-titled version in Moscow and Murmansk. Plans are afoot for New York. Thereafter a DVD will become available in support of the NASF. I wish you all a very happy fishing season this year and thank you again from the bottom of my heart for you support and encouragement. You make it all worthwhile! Peter Ring Justin on +44 (0)1865 883063 if you want to fish with us this season while we still have some rods to place.
Any information contained in this website is produced in good faith but is only a guideline.
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