…and passed in a nick of time.
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.
Rich