Ok. So my first session on the Langá was pretty good. I hooked and lost 3 Salmon. But everyone in the lodge now respects the weird Aussie guy.
It would have been great to land at least one. But it was the first afternoon and my guide, Siggy, was more than surprised. I don’t think he held much hope for me. But he liked my delicate casting and presentation.
The first fish I hooked, I must say, I stuffed it up. Too busy trying to get a video for the blog to concentrate on the fish.
The second fish I should have landed, but I pulled the hook.
The third fish…well I didn’t check my line after losing the second fish. He had put a nick in the tippet. The rest is history.
The Salmon that I lost were all in the 60cm range. These guys pull like a train. They fight differently to trout. More like a foul hooked trout. Heavy, stonking, strong fish.
One of the guys in the lodge landed a 91cm Salmon. He fought it for 20 minutes. I can only imagine what that would have been like. My arm is sore after fighting three of these fish for 5 minutes each. But it was great to put a bend in the Scott Radian and put it to the test. And happiness is a bent rod.
A couple of years ago on our Snowy Mountains trip we were having a particularly hard time getting any fish at all. The culprit was the hot and dry summer we’d had which extended into Autumn. It totally ruined our trip.
But my brother, James and I walked down to the mouth of the river in the lake. If the fish weren’t going to come into the river, we were going to go get them.
I reckon we walked through 3 kilometers of knee deep mud. But we made it there and we both scored fish.
Back at the lodge that night, Woody imparted one of his gems of wisdom upon us…“See, if you put in the effort you get the reward.” He was right. We did. And we were rewarded.
This is about as close to a stuffed Meerkat as I can get for ya, Woody.
But anyway, today I put in a lot of hard work to make up for the 3 fish I dropped yesterday. The result was 4 fish landed. One of them 80cm plus.
I’d be clubhouse leader if I didn’t drop those fish yesterday.
My first ever Salmon. Small but it’s a salmon That’s better. 80-82cm
Earlier in the day we spotted a pair of monsters in the river. These fish would had to have been 1 metres plus.
Couldn’t get this guys though. They weren’t moving for anything.
I’m writing this from the comfort of the Minnivallalækur lodge.
The final session on the Langá was pretty special. It had been raining heavily overnight which put a decent amount of water and colour into the river. It rained all day today and probably will tonight as well. All those salmon that had been laying in wait for something to happen were on the move again.
There’s a right way and a wrong way to hold a fish for a pic. This is the wrong way.
I managed to hook and land two more fish. Which I think is a good effort, given the appalling conditions in the wind and the rain.
So it’s now into the Minnivallalækur lodge to tackle their impossible-to-catch, monster brown trout.
If it was easy then it wouldn’t be rewarding, right? Right?
Looking at the map of the Minni I reckon I hiked 14 kilometers today. Maybe even more because I came back to the lodge for lunch and a snooze. Fishless on the Minni yesterday arvo. Fishless all day today. Sorry I don’t have any pics (yet) of the famous speckled Minni brown trout. But I have another chance tomorrow morning before I head back to Reykjavik to meet Jason. And I have a plan…
By mid afternoon the rain had given way to scattered showers and intermittent sunshine. Evening presented the world’s longest sunset. It must be this time of year in Iceland, that the sunset seems to take hours. When I headed back out of the lodge after my snooze I was kind of kicking myself for being lazy and sleeping because it looked to me like we only had a couple of hours of daylight left. That soft evening light lasted for 4 hours. Iceland didn’t seem to want to let go of the day.
SIze 22 Gnat pattern on the cork.
Following the guides that I had read about fishing on the Minni, I threw small nymphs and the tinniest piss-ant midge flies (size 22) at the fish I saw and didn’t see. Then late in the sunset, just before the sun dipped below the horizon at around 8pm there was a massive hatch of midges. Clouds of them. But no surface activity at all. A fish that I saw hugged up against the side of a deep channel had billows of midges dipping the surface above him. A big fish, 6 pound by my reckoning. He did not move a centimeter from his lie. Just moving a little every now and then to keep his place in the current. I threw various patterns at him. I even tried a Woolly Bugger and a Royal Wulf. I was out of ideas.
A rainbow is means good luck, right?
Heading back to the lodge I made some new friends. These Icelandic horses are very inquisitive. And they like river weed. I must be like a salad.
I’ve been tackling this river by the book and so far drawn a blank. I have some big conehead streamers that have been sitting in one of my fly boxes just itching for a go. I can hear them ask me to take them out for a spin every time I open my old fly box. Pick me! Pick me!
I hit the lower reaches of the Minni this morning with my biggest, ugliest streamer pattern. Using 10 feet of straight 2x Frog Hair tippet with my 5wt I had almost immediate success. A strike on the first cast, and a hookup within half an hour. Neither of which resulted with a fish on the bank. But I was not deterred.
The thing about the Minni is that there’s so much distance that need to be covered between pools. That means a lot of time spent walking. On this morning I had to be off the river by midday. When you’re fishing a private stream, thems the rules, folks. So it wasn’t until around 11am when I finally hooked, and landed, my first Minnivallalækur brown trout.
A 68cm, large headed, snake of a fish that I watched strike at the streamer. More of a territorial strike than one out of hunger. The fish was released back to the Minni none the worse.
Tested and passed.
I met Jason in Reykjavik this afternoon. We head of to the Laxá i Kjós tomorrow for some outstanding Salmon fishing.
It has been raining here. A lot. I spoke to my guide from the Langá, Siggy, today. The man with the inside info on all Icelandic fishing. Apparently with the recent rain, the Laxá went into Full Spade mode. His words. Which basically means the river was so high and discolored that it was unfishable for 36 hours. Rotten for the people that were there at the time. But excellent timing for Jason and I.
He also told me the Varmá was going bananas with massive sea trout.
Seems like all the stars are aligning for something truly special.
I guess I’ve used up my quota of superlatives already for this trip. But I’m going to have to dip into the bucket and fish more out.
See what I did there?
Firstly, the lodge here gives a new meaning to the term luxury fishing escape. Jase and I were amazed to be told on arrival that we would be the only guests here on the first night. We have this massive lodge all to ourselves. With a top chef and attentive wait staff dedicated to us. The lodge itself consist of hotel style accommodation rooms. Massive dining room. Chesterfield club lounges. Fully stocked fridge/s. Commercial kitchen. And a wader drying room. It is warm, comfortable, and personal. They knew who we were before we got here.
We met our guide for the next two days, Olli. Kjós’ most senior guide, who also serves as the fishery’s warden.
Olli took us to the first set of pools at sometime around 3:30pm I guess.
Now, they say the fishing is all about confidence. I’ve been switched on since the Langá. But, if you know me, I am always doubtful of myself. This afternoon was no different. Can I do this? Can I catch Salmon in a world class river.
Well…I guess I can. Four in this afternoon’s session.
On the first pool no less, a 60cm (or so) male. Caught on a Red Frances fly. In the same pool I connected with another sizeable fish, but he won that short battle.
Gees I’m having trouble remembering my second catch…it was another male, netted by Olli. 68cm I think.
My third Salmon today, I won’t forget for a long time. An 86cm buck with a big hook jaw.
The result…
Ah! So I should mention here that this guy and the next one were caught in a tributary of the Laxá called the Bugða. At this point, Jason and Olli we’re downstream from me catching Trout. They returned just in time to help me land the brute.
Iceland does get a little windy at times. We got to experience that today. When you have heavy flies whizzing around your head in high winds, sometimes mistakes happen. And I copped a Black Francis fly to the side of my face. The barbs didn’t penetrate my skin so the fly popped out easily enough. It sounds worse than it is. And I was wearing my Spotters fishing glasses at the time. Still, it didn’t tickle.
My fourth fish came half an hour before stumps. A female of 71cm.
It was a great day. Shared with my great mate, Jason.
I think that the Bugða river, which is a tributary of the Laxá, is underrated. My biggest fish yesterday was caught in the Bugða, and I caught another there today. A hen of 68cm.
Released unharmed back into the river to breed more Salmon.
But my biggest and best fish of the trip came from a run just above the gorge on the Laxá.
A cracker of a fish. 86cm of pure muscle. A deep body. And look at the hook jaw on him! I saw him jump a metre clear out of the water, so I knew where he was. It was just a matter of getting the cast, the presentation and the drift of the fly just right. I got him on a fly tied by Siggy, my guide in the Langá. A simple fly tied in the black treble hook; a silver wrap with a bright orange wing. That fly is somewhere in the gravel on the bank of the river. Busted off when extracting this monster from Olli’s net. The catch made even better when the fish was released back into the stream.
Another stand out day on the Laxá. Jase and I have one more session tomorrow before we head off to the Varmá to target sea trout.
Unfortunately no fish for this mornings session for either myself or Jason on the Laxá. However, I found out that I am being followed by an Icelandic Huldufólk. A fairy to be exact.
My little green friend
They live in the hills all over the country.
Where the Huldufólk live
We said goodbye to Laxá í Kjós and drove the 40 or so minutes to Hveragerði. Found our Airbnb and headed to the river to suss out the sections we need to fish tomorrow.
The waterfall is around three metres tall and imposes a significant barrier to the sea trout running upstream to spawn. However the fish actually do make it up the falls. Jason and I stood here and watched a bunch of fish repeatedly leap up the falls. These fish are very strong acrobats. If you look closely at the following pics you might see the fish mid-flight. Hard to do on an iPhone camera.
This perfectly formed rainbow must mean good things coming tomorrow.
Hveragerði is in an active geological area. Hot springs everywhere.
Iceland actually uses the hot water from these springs and others like it to supply hot water to Reykjavik and all other towns in the county.
We stopped by the Veiðihúsið (fishing house) to get the low down in the rules and fishing areas for the river. There was no one else there but we worked out that it’s expected that all fisherman meet at the Veiðihúsið fifteen minutes before the start of the days play to arrange the rotation schedule.
I believe tomorrow, if my fairy and the rainbow are anything to go by, we are in for an epic day.
This morning just before 8am, I met Bjorn from the Iceland Angling Club at the Veiðihús (fishing house) just down the road from where we are staying here in Hveragerði. Jase and I had drawn Area 3 on the to start fishing Varmá to begin our day fishing. However, we chose instead to fish the free area above the waterfall in town. In balance I think it was a good decision because, as we found later in the afternoon, areas 2 and 3 have been poorly affected by the recent heavy rain and the road works upstream.
The whole river top to bottom is filled with these little guys.
Nice little fish. But not the fish we came for.
Still fishless at 1pm, we reluctantly decided to hit the pool below the waterfall. Should have been easy pickings. Not so. These sea run trout are hard buggers to catch. But we did each pick up one.
Small, yes. But these sea run trout go hard. I think my one went as hard as some of the Salmon I hooked in the Laxá and Langá.
The rest of the afternoon we spent fishing up from the Hotel pool to the Golf course. Tomorrow we’ll go up further just to see what’s there.
Our last day of fishing in Iceland and she threw us another curve ball. We woke to rain and wind as strong as I’ve ever experienced anywhere. Nick from Gin-Clear wasn’t joking when he said that the weather in Iceland can be brutal. It wasn’t pretty that’s for sure.
The pic doesn’t do it justice. But the wind was hard enough to blow the grass off the ground. In understand now why Iceland has few trees.
However with the wind came the rain. And with the rain came the sea trout. The weather gods blessed us with a day that provided two beautiful sea trout for me, and a cracker for Jason.
First up though, I went down to the hut to visit Bjorn and to get our beat rotation. Not that it really mattered because we’d be fishing the upper reaches of the free beat anyway.
This is Bjorn, A volunteer from the Reykjavik Angling Club who organises the days on the Varma in return for free fishing days whenever he can get them. Bjorn! Legend!A lovely 52cm Sea Trout. These guys fight harder than Salmon.
I am really really sorry about the poor filming.
At one point, Jase snapped a couple of pics of me retrieving my fly from a tree. The only bloody tree in Iceland and I got my fly stuck in it. My fairy is still with me I see. I should name him. Or her. It?
We fished the upper reaches of the Varma until we couldn’t stand the wind and rain any longer. Jason had caught his fish of the trip and I had mine a few times over. We retreated back to the hut, got changed out of our gear and headed to the bakery for sustenance and warmth.
They do good bakeries in Iceland
So that’s it, everyone. I am sad that this fishing trip is over. But I am beyond happy with the way that it has unfolded, the wonderful people that that I have met along the way, and the sights that I’ve seen. The fish. The rivers. The weather. If you love to fish, if you love to travel, then I can highly recommend Iceland to you. I can highly recommend the services of Gin-Clear Travel. I wouldn’t have been able to organise this trip without Nick Reygaert, the founder of Gin-Clear. Thanks Nick.
Cameron Parker and the boys at Hookup Bait and Tackle in Ferntree Gully. The Scott Radian rod and Lamson Guru reel exceeded all expectations and made me look like I can cast.
Olli, our guide on the Laxa i Kjos, I hope we didn’t bore you with our endless questions about life in Iceland. Thanks for your patience and guidance.
The two Polish dudes that I met at the lodge on the Minni and gave me a bunch of flies that they had tied themselves. Their generosity still beguiles me. I guess men who fish with flies like to share their success.
Siggy, my guide on the Langa, that taught me an amazing amount about Salmon fishing in a short time without even knowing it. Mate, thank you so much. I hope your poor car holds out for just a couple more weeks. Good luck in the off season and tie lots more of those Siggy’s Special SOS flies. Dynamite.
Stefan and Michelle – hitch hikers that I picked up on the highway on the day of my birthday; that shared Glacier Bay and Diamond Beach with me and a very long drive; that sang me happy birthday in a truck stop with stale apple cakes and got everyone singing along; total strangers that made my fiftieth birthday so memorable. Beautiful, wonderful people.
And Jason of course. Thanks mate. Thank you. More than you know.
The funny thing is I’m not all fished out. There’s still life in the old Woolly Bugger. A couple of guys came into the bakery while Jase and I were there, all done up in their waders and boots. It made me want to get back out there again. In the wind and rain. Maybe I might do that trip to Jurassic Lake in Argentina next year. Can you imagine that? A lake three and a half thousand metres above sea level in the Patagonia region of Argentina where something in the water makes the trout grow to extraordinary sizes. That would be something. Then there’s New Zealand of course. Gotta do NZ. And I have to do the Western Tiers of Tassie. Montana. The Snake River. The Polish guys told me about the excellent fishing on the San river. The Danube river delta. Now that I am officially a Salmon fisherman – Scotland! I wouldn’t be true to my ancestry without a trip to a Scottish Salmon river.
And I have my favourite river of all time, the Eucumbene River. You know, speaking to all of these fly fishers in these lodges, none of them had heard of the Snowy Mountains in Australia. Snow? In Australia? I showed them photos of years past and the fish caught, and they were all astounded. It’s my favourite fishing destination. Not only for the fish, but also for the people. My mates. My boys. Not everyone one has what we have. I’ll catch up with you soon, guys.
