The Woolly Bugger

After the Langa I travel to the Minnivallalaekur river. 110Km east of Reykjavik.

The Minni is a relatively small spring creek in the south of Iceland and, despite it’s size, holds brown trout well into the double figures. The rivers reputation as one of the best brown trout rivers in the world has traveled widely.

It is a 4 rod river. Meaning that, at any time, no more than 4 rods are allowed to fish the entire length of the river. 7 k’s.

4 rods! When we fish the Eucumbene river, we’ve sometimes counted 40 or 50 vehicles along the Denison flats. Something else, I will probably have the lodge and the river all to myself.

Absolute solitude for 2 days and 2 nights. In the Icelandic wilderness I am likely to not see another person.

I understand that this is not for everyone. I understand that a lot of people will think I’m nuts. And that’s fine. But I’m looking forward to it.

The lodge that I’m staying at is positioned at the source of the spring where it bubbles up from underground. The resident fish are direct descendants from an ice age species of brown trout believed to have been isolated in the highlands of Iceland at the end of the last ice age. This species grow very fast in the fertile river to a massive size. Some of the fish migrate from the glacial river Thjorsa to the clear water of the Minni and normally those fish have a slightly brighter color than the native fish. The river is strictly catch and release. I wouldn’t want to kill any besides. And apparently it is not uncommon to see fish over 20 pounds in some of the pools.

These fish are old and wise. I’m looking forward to the test.

To give you an idea of the fishing, parts of this vid feature the Minni. I’ll be posting my own when I get there.

Rich

Here’s some fun…

The Icelandic Food and Veterinary Authority (MAST) mandates that all used fishing equipment brought into the country be sterilized in the country of embarkation. But, if you read the fine print on their website, you can either get this done by a registered vet in your country, or get them to do it when you land. So me being me I wanted to go through the process and try to get it done in Melbourne.

Iceland gave me a hint of where to start. More than a hint actually. The form that they use specifies that the disinfection process be done by a certified vet. Ok. So I called my local vet thinking surely I can’t be the only person that’s done this before. Aha. Right. Yeah nah. Over the phone I could almost see the vet nurse’s “WTF?” expression.

And so it began.

I spoke to pet supply stores, the RSPCA, other vets, even the Melbourne Aquarium. Everyone was nice. Interested. But ultimately all leads went down a dead end. That is until I contacted Michael Burgess at VRFish – the Victorian Recreational Fishing body.

He gave me the contact details of a company called Panaquatic. The owner, Dr Paul Hardy-Smith is arguably Australia’s foremost aquatic veterinarian.

I rang Panaquatic and spoke to Tara. Also a brilliant aquatic vet. And while they’d not done this before, they were dead keen to have a go.

So on a crisp Melbourne late Winter morning, Tara braved the cold and disinfected all my gear for me.

Waders. Boots. Gloves. Rags. Line. Flies. Even my little forceps copped a dunking.

Dr Paul is also a keen fisherman and has a collection of antique rods and pics of his fishing trips to New Guinea in his office. One of a huge Barra catch. It looked well over 1.5 metres.

Tara, as well, was interested in fly fishing. Asking where and how would she get started. My response was pretty lame – “oh just contact a fly fishing club.”

Yeah good one, Rich.

Sorry Tara. I can put you in touch with various people. Yarra Valley Fly Fishers. Essendon Fishing Club. Cameron Parker, a well known local guide. Hookup Bait and Tackle in Ferntree Gully. The FlyFisher in Melbourne CBD. There are lots of ways to get started. Email me if you’re interested.

This is Tara getting ready to sterilize my 5wt.

I hope I don’t get the rubber glove treatment at the airport. Once is enough thanks.

My waders looked like they needed a little lie down after the dunking.

Many thanks to Dr Tara and Dr Paul. You guys are legends.

Everyone else – seriously, water born diseases are a huge risk to Australia and other pristine wildernesses like Iceland and New Zealand. I had a chat with Dr Paul about the proposed introduction of the Carp Herpes virus into Australia. He is heading up to Canberra to help advise our politicians on the issue. But in broad terms, viruses and foreign weeds and algae’s can decimate entire food chains. We need people like Dr Tara and Dr Paul otherwise we won’t have anywhere to fish.

I think after the solitude of the Minni I’ll be thankful for a bit of company. I pick up Jason from the airport and we’re both heading off to fish for salmon in the Laxa in Kjos.

Again, this is a first-class salmon river with crystal clear water, spectacular waterfalls, and big gorges in a stunning glacially carved valley. I’m told that royalty, celebrities, and Arab oil sheiks fish this river and stay in the lodge at Asgardur. Now they’ll have me and Jase to look after for a couple of nights.

Rich

Jason and I head off to the Varma river in south east Iceland after chasing Salmon in the Laxa i Kjos. We switch focus to Sea Run Trout, Brown Trout, and maybe even some Arctic Char.

Another fantastic river that holds big fish. The sea run trout can be over 5 kilos. The brown trout are beautifully marked. And the Arctic Char are…weird looking, but extraordinary.

The river flows through a little town call Hveragerdi. The whole area is, how do you say it…seismically active! There’s even a bakery in town that gets its heat source from the many steam vents around the place. The Airbnb host has said that the ground shakes sometimes. But not to be worried.

Awesome!

This is a 6 rod river with lots of different terrain. Mountainous waterfalls. Slow flats. And sections where the river flows through the town. Hopefully close to the pub. We’ll need something to settle our nerves between the earthquakes.

That little red house on the map is our Veidihus, or fishing house. Its a hut we can use for shelter in case a volcano erupts, I suppose.

You’ll notice it’s pretty new looking. I think the last one got buried in lava or swallowed up by a sink hole.

Rich

I’m so happy to finally be here. After 28 hours of travel. 45 hours without proper sleep. Im here, resting up with an Icelandic stout.

The flight into Keflavik airport over the south end of Iceland was surreal. I lost count of the glaciers I saw. Volcanic craters. Acres and acres of lava fields.

Iceland’s interior looks very inhospitable. I have to go and see it.

It’ll have to wait. Now, I sleep. Tomorrow I go and hit up Veiðihornið. A local fishing and outdoors shop, to buy the flies I need. Also a day for cleaning and dressing my fly line and taking stock in case I’ve forgotten anything.

Rich

Here we go.

Over the last few days in Reykjavik I’ve been getting prepared and sight seeing. I visited Veiðihornið, a fishing and hunting shop in Síðumúli, Reykjavík. Like all fishing shops around the world, they were more than happy to have a chat over a coffee and were very interested in fly fishing in Australia.

Iceland, like the rest of Europe, had an usually hot and dry summer this year. This has affected the water flows in the rivers which makes for tough fishing. With that said it’s currently raining while I sit here in my apartment in Reykjavik and write this post. The sound of the rain on the roof seems like music. It actually rained last night and today as well. Great news.

I visited one of the many hot springs in Iceland today to relax before the coming days fishing. There I spoke to a Finnish couple who had only just concluded three days fishing at the Laxá í Kjós. I couldn’t believe my luck. He confirmed that the river is running low and the condition are tough. But there are numerous Salmon in the river. Counting 20-30 fish in certain pools. Unfortunately he couldn’t get many to look up at a fly. He did have one show some interest in his Red Francis fly, but the fish rejected the fly at the last moment.

Hmmm…I think changing to a smaller fly might have been a good tactic there.

But he did manage to land a few smaller Salmon. And he told me that someone landed a 10kg Salmon while he was there.

Iceland has a wealth of incredible nature. Things you just don’t see anywhere else. Immense cascading waterfalls. Massive glaciers. Black sand beaches. Towering mountains. I’ve been fortunate enough to experience so much of these while I’ve been here. But my Finnish friend turned my attention back towards fishing.

He also mentioned a want to fish the Grímsá. On my drive to the hot spring I passed a few great looking rivers. One of them was the Grímsá. So on my way back to town I stopped at the bridge on the highway for a bit of a reccy.

I walked the banks of the river downstream from the bridge. The river looks great. Crystal clear glacial fed water cascading over bauxite boulders with wide and deep pools.

I spotted some fish and was keen to keep exploring until I remembered I was on private property. Not wanting to attract any unwanted attention I bounced back to my car with a spring in my step. I’m starting to switch on. I can feel that now and can’t wait to hit the water tomorrow.

Please respect local trespass laws. These rivers are privately owned by farmers and angling clubs. Fishing these rivers is a privilege, not a right.

Rich