Midfjardara - a fly fishing paradise in Iceland.

Salmon action on Iceland !!!

Paul - with a big smile :O)

Ready to go!!

92 cm

Dining room at the lodge :O)

Ohh no!! - Liam lost 7 salmons in 25 minutes!!

Rafn is an excellent fly fisher :O) 

Rafn's daughter's first salmon on a fly rod !!!! :O)

Well I started my blog with a depressing post - "How to kill a river" - simply because I want to put focus on the need for political action, and human respect for our beautiful planet.

But let's jump over to something very, very exciting and positive :O)

Fly fishing in Iceland. Here they understood the meaning of preservation, care taking and respect for mother earth. And the result is an outstanding fly fishing scene.

I stayed on a lodge run by Rafn Alfredsson by one of the smaller rivers up there, called Midfjardara, but with one of the best catch statistics on the entire island - a very beautiful river - full of salmons!!. I think we were 10-15 people that ha 120-130 km of river all to our self - pure paradise fishing conditions!!!!

It was just such a positive experience, with super nice accommodation and excellent food, and the guides knew what they were doing - but most of all an outstanding fly fishing scene surrounded by Iceland's remote, and rustic beautiful nature.

I now know why you have to pay more to fish up there - it is very simple - it's the best fly fishing in the world. Nothing more, nothing less!!.

I was fishing with two gent's from Ireland - Liam and Paul - and they were very, very pleasant company all week, always cracking jokes from the backseat - would be a pleasure to meet up with them again one day.

I caught heaps of salmons the week I stayed up there - 87 to be precise!!!! - grills on a one handed rod #7 - with shooting head - scandinavian style :O)

Sometimes I was so surprised by the number of salmons we saw, but also on the way they took the fly - BANG!!! - raw power every time!!!

Biggest one for me were 92 cm. and the average ones were around 3-4 kg's - great fun, fresh fish with sea-lice, and a lot of power!!

A brilliant and enthusiastic guide!!

PS. I was only fishing with a rifling hitch all week - a fantastic way to catch salmons, by the way. Some times I experienced that the salmons jumped out of the water, and then took the fly on their way down!!! - that is what I call "real fly fishing action"!!! :O)

And to describe how sublime the fishing were, I will tell one of many extreme fly fishing experiences I had up there.

The Guide and I arrived to a small pool, one of manny beautiful and remote pools (no people anywhere), and within seconds I saw a tiny tip of a tail, close to the other riverbank. I threw my fly carefully close to it, and BANG!!! instant response. In 15 minutes I caught 4 salmons - all of them were about 4 kg. on a #7 rod, with rifling hitch - life doesn't get any better than that!!!

Big smiles from my good friend Mr. T :O)

I know it is expensive fishing up there, but what a place!! - save up, and give yourself an experience for life, you will never regret it.

(PS. one of the above pictures shows, as you can see, Rafn with his 9 years old daughter's first salmon catch on a fly rod - her only comment was - "It was very strong".

She was such a nice, easy going and polite little girl!! :O)

Relevant links:

1) Rafen's lodge at the Midfjardara river:  www.fhd.is

2) Fishpal Iceland reports : http://www.fishpal.com/Norse/Iceland/Reports.asp?dom=pal

Tight lines to all of U

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