Thomas Turner
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In the summer of 2013, I heard the shocking news that my regular Russian guide Nick Podolsky had been murdered in a private dispute while running his summer camp for young people. Nick, who had become a friend rather than just a guide, was just 53.
The purpose of his summer camps was to teach the young of the local community how to protect their valuable natural landscape, and especially the abundant migratory fish stocks. The courses went well, but Russia was (and still is, of course) a strange place, where internecine arguments were frequent and often violent, disputes over territory commonplace, and guns of all sorts easier to obtain than fresh fruit.
When you fished in Russia, there were certain things that you didn’t want to know about, and certain characters that your primeval instincts warned you to agree with or stay well away from.
But Nick was a Russian who seemed to glide through the problems, overt and subtle, with ease. He lived in the small village of Umba near the Kandalaksha Gulf in the Kola Peninsular and was a renowned salmon fisherman as well as being a passionate environmentalist (not always the case with native Russians).
I first met him in 1999 at the superb Salmon Lodge on the Umba river, where he was head guide and camp manager. We got on well, and he guided me for an exceptional week’s fishing, during which I realised what an extraordinary man he was.
The fishing on our home stretch had been very slow by Russian standards, so towards the end of the week Nick took our group to the prolific Varzuga in a helicopter. In around five hours’ fishing, we waded down the centre of the river with Nick providing me with much-needed stability in the river’s powerful current. The result was that I landed 12 fresh-run salmon, all in the 10lb-12lb category, and all using a floating line. The takes were vicious and the fishing was extraordinary!
The record grayling that wasn’t: Nick had created the 4lb 3oz fish modelled on the Kola grayling that he knew
To cap a very special day, I decided to try the Umba home pool, which had been rested all day, very late that evening, and managed a 22lb salmon using a 7-weight Sage single- handed rod. That was an experience, and I had to wake some of my pals to witness the fish.
That week provided one of my greatest memories, for thanks to Nick’s guiding, I qualified for membership of the Umba 20/20 Club, an elite organisation whose membership criterion was that you had to catch over 20 salmon in a week, of which one had to be over 20lb. OK, it included those 12 fish caught on the Varzuga, but it was all in the same Umba week!
Nick was so much more than a fishing guide. He had visited Sweden in 1996 where he was introduced to one of the country’s finest wood carvers. The salmon fishing season on the Umba in Russia is relatively short, starting with the ice thawing in May/June, with little fishing taking place in the hot months of July and August, then fishing running well in September/October when the very large salmon, called osenkas on the Umba, return to the river.
Living out on the Kola peninsula as your permanent home meant months of long, dark, biting-cold winter days. Nick, who was remarkably talented with his hands. Found a way to while away his time when he visited Sweden and was introduced to one of the country’s leading carvers
The result was a new challenge and interest for him. He learnt to carve fish from wood, a talent given to very few, and the result was a series of wonderful carved salmon and trout that are now much revered around the world. Rather than kill a fish, what better way to have a permanent memory of your fishing on the prolific Kola rivers than to commission him to create a replica of your fish? His fame spread, and his work now graces the walls in the Kremlin and the Royal Swedish Palace, in addition to some of the most exclusive fishing lodges around the world.
Creating a British record to order: the 24lb 1oz rainbow trout caught from Hanningfield reservoir in Essex.
Creating a British record to order: Podolsky worked from photographs on Miss Ballantine’s 64lb fish from 1922.
Creating a British record to order: this 30lb 9oz brown trout has since been beaten by a Loch Awe fish of 31lb 12oz.
I fished in Russia on several occasions, often with Nick, who helped me to some of the finest salmon fishing that I will ever experience. Then I had the opportunity to repay his friendship and advice.
In 2004, I was on the board of Farlow’s. At the time we were opening a new store at 9 Pall Mall in London. What better than to have some of Nick’s carvings adorning the walls? So, we commissioned him to carve all the British game fish records, using dimensions from the British Record Fish Committee and where possible, photographic evidence to ensure accuracy.
So, during those long winters, Nick worked on record salmon, brown and rainbow trout, sea trout, arctic char and grayling. It set him quite a challenge (not the least of which was the logistics of getting the results from his very remote village to the UK).
I loved the finished fish, but there was one small issue. I had not appreciated the difference between the grayling that are found in the Kola rivers and the British version. Nick had carved a wonderful grayling with the dimensions I had supplied – but perhaps understandably, the version that he was accustomed to in Russia, which he had re-created, was markedly different from the British fish!
Quite a few sharp-eyed customers in Farlow’s spotted the difference, mainly in the structure of the dorsal fin. However, the carvings still proved a great success and were admired for years.
Things change. Farlow’s was sold. Others took over running the business. When the store was refurbished, those Podolsky-carved fish were no longer a feature. I had paid for the fish myself, so I sold them at Bonhams in Edinburgh in 2017.
Over the years, my friendship with Nick developed and he went on to carve many more replicas for me. The first was that 22lb salmon from the Umba, followed by two very large sea trout from Kau Tapin on the Rio Grande in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina.
I was such a big fan of his carvings that we explored other species where he could bring his talents to bear (although with some caution, following the grayling situation).
Podolsky milkfish: Nick did a wonderful job to give me a special memory, considering he had never seen one of these Indo-Pacific fish, which mostly feed on algae and small invertebrates.
First, I asked him: “How about a milkfish caught in the Seychelles.”
“A what?” asked Nick.
He had never seen the algae-grazing leviathan of the Indo-Pacific flats channels, so it was quite a challenge, but I had some good images of the fish, which had been caught on an algae imitation fly.
I have to confess that I had hooked three very hard-fighting milkfish during a trip there – and landed just one. It had no tail after a brief encounter with a reef shark. However, I felt one with a tail would look better…
After the success of this fish, Nick went about carving a largemouth bass caught on fly from Istan lake in Spain for me, and several Arctic char that I took caught from the Ekaluk river in Nunavut, Canada. Unfortunately, Nick was killed before he could complete a large pike for me.
He was a prolific carver, especially of trophy salmon caught on the Kola, and will have carved hundreds in his career. All carry his distinctive oval plaque marked Podolsky. Very few come to market today, though, presumably because they are personal to the original buyer or have found a permanent home in a fishing lodge.
I am told that his son Daniel has followed in his father’s footsteps as a carver. Perhaps at some stage, I will get my Podolsky carved pike after all!
Credit: Classic Angling
The post Richard Hewitt pays tribute to the fish-carving skills of the late Russian guide Nick Podolsky appeared first on Thomas Turner Fishing Antiques.
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The purpose of his summer camps was to teach the young of the local community how to protect their valuable natural landscape, and especially the abundant migratory fish stocks. The courses went well, but Russia was (and still is, of course) a strange place, where internecine arguments were frequent and often violent, disputes over territory commonplace, and guns of all sorts easier to obtain than fresh fruit.
When you fished in Russia, there were certain things that you didn’t want to know about, and certain characters that your primeval instincts warned you to agree with or stay well away from.
But Nick was a Russian who seemed to glide through the problems, overt and subtle, with ease. He lived in the small village of Umba near the Kandalaksha Gulf in the Kola Peninsular and was a renowned salmon fisherman as well as being a passionate environmentalist (not always the case with native Russians).
I first met him in 1999 at the superb Salmon Lodge on the Umba river, where he was head guide and camp manager. We got on well, and he guided me for an exceptional week’s fishing, during which I realised what an extraordinary man he was.
The fishing on our home stretch had been very slow by Russian standards, so towards the end of the week Nick took our group to the prolific Varzuga in a helicopter. In around five hours’ fishing, we waded down the centre of the river with Nick providing me with much-needed stability in the river’s powerful current. The result was that I landed 12 fresh-run salmon, all in the 10lb-12lb category, and all using a floating line. The takes were vicious and the fishing was extraordinary!
The record grayling that wasn’t: Nick had created the 4lb 3oz fish modelled on the Kola grayling that he knew
To cap a very special day, I decided to try the Umba home pool, which had been rested all day, very late that evening, and managed a 22lb salmon using a 7-weight Sage single- handed rod. That was an experience, and I had to wake some of my pals to witness the fish.
That week provided one of my greatest memories, for thanks to Nick’s guiding, I qualified for membership of the Umba 20/20 Club, an elite organisation whose membership criterion was that you had to catch over 20 salmon in a week, of which one had to be over 20lb. OK, it included those 12 fish caught on the Varzuga, but it was all in the same Umba week!
Nick was so much more than a fishing guide. He had visited Sweden in 1996 where he was introduced to one of the country’s finest wood carvers. The salmon fishing season on the Umba in Russia is relatively short, starting with the ice thawing in May/June, with little fishing taking place in the hot months of July and August, then fishing running well in September/October when the very large salmon, called osenkas on the Umba, return to the river.
Living out on the Kola peninsula as your permanent home meant months of long, dark, biting-cold winter days. Nick, who was remarkably talented with his hands. Found a way to while away his time when he visited Sweden and was introduced to one of the country’s leading carvers
The result was a new challenge and interest for him. He learnt to carve fish from wood, a talent given to very few, and the result was a series of wonderful carved salmon and trout that are now much revered around the world. Rather than kill a fish, what better way to have a permanent memory of your fishing on the prolific Kola rivers than to commission him to create a replica of your fish? His fame spread, and his work now graces the walls in the Kremlin and the Royal Swedish Palace, in addition to some of the most exclusive fishing lodges around the world.
Creating a British record to order: the 24lb 1oz rainbow trout caught from Hanningfield reservoir in Essex.
Creating a British record to order: Podolsky worked from photographs on Miss Ballantine’s 64lb fish from 1922.
Creating a British record to order: this 30lb 9oz brown trout has since been beaten by a Loch Awe fish of 31lb 12oz.
I fished in Russia on several occasions, often with Nick, who helped me to some of the finest salmon fishing that I will ever experience. Then I had the opportunity to repay his friendship and advice.
In 2004, I was on the board of Farlow’s. At the time we were opening a new store at 9 Pall Mall in London. What better than to have some of Nick’s carvings adorning the walls? So, we commissioned him to carve all the British game fish records, using dimensions from the British Record Fish Committee and where possible, photographic evidence to ensure accuracy.
So, during those long winters, Nick worked on record salmon, brown and rainbow trout, sea trout, arctic char and grayling. It set him quite a challenge (not the least of which was the logistics of getting the results from his very remote village to the UK).
I loved the finished fish, but there was one small issue. I had not appreciated the difference between the grayling that are found in the Kola rivers and the British version. Nick had carved a wonderful grayling with the dimensions I had supplied – but perhaps understandably, the version that he was accustomed to in Russia, which he had re-created, was markedly different from the British fish!
Quite a few sharp-eyed customers in Farlow’s spotted the difference, mainly in the structure of the dorsal fin. However, the carvings still proved a great success and were admired for years.
Things change. Farlow’s was sold. Others took over running the business. When the store was refurbished, those Podolsky-carved fish were no longer a feature. I had paid for the fish myself, so I sold them at Bonhams in Edinburgh in 2017.
Over the years, my friendship with Nick developed and he went on to carve many more replicas for me. The first was that 22lb salmon from the Umba, followed by two very large sea trout from Kau Tapin on the Rio Grande in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina.
I was such a big fan of his carvings that we explored other species where he could bring his talents to bear (although with some caution, following the grayling situation).
Podolsky milkfish: Nick did a wonderful job to give me a special memory, considering he had never seen one of these Indo-Pacific fish, which mostly feed on algae and small invertebrates.
First, I asked him: “How about a milkfish caught in the Seychelles.”
“A what?” asked Nick.
He had never seen the algae-grazing leviathan of the Indo-Pacific flats channels, so it was quite a challenge, but I had some good images of the fish, which had been caught on an algae imitation fly.
I have to confess that I had hooked three very hard-fighting milkfish during a trip there – and landed just one. It had no tail after a brief encounter with a reef shark. However, I felt one with a tail would look better…
After the success of this fish, Nick went about carving a largemouth bass caught on fly from Istan lake in Spain for me, and several Arctic char that I took caught from the Ekaluk river in Nunavut, Canada. Unfortunately, Nick was killed before he could complete a large pike for me.
He was a prolific carver, especially of trophy salmon caught on the Kola, and will have carved hundreds in his career. All carry his distinctive oval plaque marked Podolsky. Very few come to market today, though, presumably because they are personal to the original buyer or have found a permanent home in a fishing lodge.
I am told that his son Daniel has followed in his father’s footsteps as a carver. Perhaps at some stage, I will get my Podolsky carved pike after all!
Credit: Classic Angling
The post Richard Hewitt pays tribute to the fish-carving skills of the late Russian guide Nick Podolsky appeared first on Thomas Turner Fishing Antiques.
Continue reading...