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East Ranga, Iceland Report 2013

The weather in Iceland is generally the opposite of whatever we get in the UK. Last year we were flooded out whilst Iceland had a drought, this year we are baking whilst Iceland are getting a series of odd weather fronts. Our lot turned out to be a very strange mix of blazing sunshine and gale force winds. Neither of which made the fishing easy at all.

We arrived at the river last Wednesday, to a gloriously clear panorama of Mt Hella, the mountains to the north and the Glacier in full view. Fishing on our first afternoon session was good but not spectacular producing 13 Salmon mostly from the upper beats including some good chunky 2SW fish in the teens. (Note for anyone not familiar with fishing on the East Ranga, we keep the fish as it is a purely smolt released river and little or no natural spawning can take place. Lovely to take home some smoked salmon too!)

The second day and more blazing sun and wind reduced our chances but we managed 8 fish for the day.

The third morning was almost entirely written off due to the river colouring. The guides thought that either the strong winds and sun had caused unusual glacial melt or there had been a bank collapse upstream somewhere. But at least the lower beats 6 and 5 produced 10 fish before the colour came down and Peter D had another from beat 8.

The afternoon session was also marred by the colour but it did begin to clear and as it did the fish began to run. 9 more in the book.

On our final morning the wind was back with a vengeance making casting very difficult but at least it was overcast and the river was clear again so we made the best of it landing another 26 in just the morning session before it was time for us to go. Note this one below with a Lamprey bite on its belly…

67 fish for 6 rods in three days fishing under very challenging conditions. There are not many places in the world you could do that.

My thanks to everyone at the East Ranga Lodge for a fantastic three days with good company and outstanding food. See you next year!

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