Iceland part 1 – the North, Vididalsa & Blanda
I flew to Reykjavik and at the airport tested negative for covid-19. I must say the Icelandic way testing all coming in is excellent, not excluding foreigners of any origin, not letting people in only because they are on a working trip. All tested, all waiting for result before socializing in any way a good way of protecting this little magic island.
I got into my rental car and drove north. Up to Vididalsa, this little gem of rivers. Small clear and with some of the biggest fish in Iceland. Actually, one of the few places in the world where 25-30 lbs fish are caught regularly on flies in size 14-16. I met up at the Lodge meeting my hosts Ingo Asgeirsson and David Masson who so very kindly invited me up here. Vididalsa is a small river divided in 4 beats where the amazing little tributary Fitja is one. It’s fished by 8 rods and the average catch is around 1200 salmon/year.
I enjoyed fishing my single with a floater and tiny micro flies. It was nostalgic to bring out the 10 ft 8 weight SALAR rod I designed more than 20 years ago. Together with the newest sample of our soon upcoming SALAR reel it was perfect for the occasion. The smallest SALAR TWO performed just perfect, just like the biggest SALAR FOUR done before on the Alta. We hope to be able to present these too you guys soon!
It is a bad year on all west coast rivers. One of the major reasons of course the expanding fish farming industry. It’s so hard to understand that Icelandic politicians allows the damage of the Icelandic fjords. The question is not if all Icelandic wild salmon will be gone, it’s when. Why not look at the answer on what happens, it’s there with collapsed ecosystems where ever this ruthless industry has been allowed in. I managed to land a few fish, as most times lost the biggest a silvery torpedo that went clean out of the air a few times. Fitja gave me a couple of smaller fish – a great experience. Crawling kneeling with the most delicate presentation this was great fun.
I took one day and drove up the 30 min to Blanda. This, a totally different river, bigger and glacier but also this with some good-sized fish. I had a great 5 fish day with a couple in the 5 kilo range. Here it was the Dee Samurai that did the trick fished on a float-sink 2 Nextcast with varying tips.
I like the Blanda that I fished before. The plan was to go up and fish the beat 4, in the canyon where the river runs crystal clear. Unfortunately, I never got time to go but it’s also good to have new things for future years. After a few days in these stunning surroundings I packed up and steered the car down south for one more river where rumors say the runs been bigger than probably ever before. I filmed a bit and will show you this little pearl of a river soon.
I can recommend a visit up here – check out starir.is for more info.