Iceland: Minnivallalaekur Brown Trout

Iceland is home to one of the oldest strains of brown trout in the world. It is believed that the fish of the Minnivallalaekur river link back to the brown trout present in Iceland at the last Ice Age 1,3000 years ago. Through genetic popultion research these fish are believed to have been involved in two post glaciation re-colonisations of brown trout through Northern Europe. I recently visited Iceland for these brown trout with UK wild brown trout enthusiast Paul Procter to check out these fish for ourselves prior to our recent Orvis hosted trip to the Minnivallalaekur lodge.



The Minnivallalaekur lodge makes an impression on you right from the start. Sitting as close to the home pool as possible the lodge offers panoramic views to the inspiring and active Mount Hekla. But it is the three large speciens of brown trout adorning the walls that make any fly fisherman drool. These fish all in excess of 10lb provide a motivation to tackle up quickly and get onto the water. The river itself is spring fed and crystal clear offering the opportunity to see these monsters lying on station in the deeper pools when the conditions cooperate.



Over the three days of fishing we caught glimpses of 10lb+ fish but trophy brown trout don't come easy no matter where you fish in the world for them. Instead we managed fish in the 24-26 inch range, the largest of these weighing in at 6 and 1/2 pounds. An epic wild fish by anyone's standards.



Iceland is only a short 2 hour 30 minute flight from the UK and provides a unique experience. Having fished New Zealand for over a dozen seasons I was most impressed with the quality of fishing on offer. In fact I came to the conclusion that if a trophy fish was what I was after then Minnivallalaekur river would most likely be my first port of call.

In 2010 we will be running two group trips to the Minnivallalaekur lodge. The first will be during the first week of July 2010 during the prime black fly hatch. The second will be last week of August when the terrestrial flies like 'daddy long legs' abound and the brown trout become more aggressive with their spawning urges beginning to take over. For details and pricing please contact us or call +44 1621743711.

CLA Gamefair

We will be participating in the CLA Gamefair on the 24th, 25th and 26th of July at Belvoir Castle, Grantham. We have a couple of special guests on our stand this year. Jeff Kean of Casa Blanca Lodge in Ascension Bay, Mexico will be joining us. Casa Blanca is the finest fly fishing lodge in Mexico and known as the Grand Slam capital of the world. For those who love to fish for bonefish, permit and tarpon this lodge offers all three in abundance. Jeff will be available to talk fishing and about the lodge facilities all weekend.

We also have joining us Nick Reygaert of Gin Clear media. Nick has been involved in fly fishing film production for many years and will be showcasing Gin Clears latest release The Search - Tasmania. Nick will also be promoting the UK's first fly fishing film festival to be held later in 2010 so if you are interested in seeing the latest in fly fishing film on the big screen drop by to find out about dates and locations for what is sure to be a great event.

We have also team up with Trout Guides and Lodges Tasmania and are offering one free 4 night/3 day fully guided fly fishing trip to Tasmania for one lucky person who signs up to our newsletter.

The trip will include: Flights Ex Sydney/Brisbane or Melbourne, 4 nights accommodation ( 1 night Hobart/ 3 nights Central Tablelands), 3 full days guided fly fishing and all ground transfers while in Tasmania. This prize will be drawn at the completion of the weekend so to be in for a chance to win please drop by our stand and fill out a form for the draw.

We look forward to seeing you all there.

All the Best
Mat

New Belize Destination: Hopkins

We are pleased to unveil our new Southern Belize destination. Hopkins village is located a 20 minute flight South of Belize city in the Stann Creek district. This small fishing village is located a short run to some of the world's most prolific permit flats. Combine this with the countless lagoons that tarpon make their home and the ever present bonefish and you find yourself in an ideal saltwater fly fishing location. This destination will be part of our hosted fly fishing packages will several hosted trips running in 2010. We have just had UK fly fishing writer Toby Coe head down to Belize and check out the place and here are his thoughts:

Mat,

All of my nonsense about 'not being particularly fussed about permit' turned out to be exactly that as soon as I got to Belize. Like probably every other flyfisher that has ever seen that big black tail waving in the air, I was an instant convert. Although a remarkably unsuccessful one. Due to sheer ineptitude on my part, I didn't land any permit during my three days of fishing with Jim, although I got a lot of shots. However, Jim did have a nice fish of around 7-8lb.

I was amazed by the number and size of permit we saw on the flats. On our best day, we probably saw 40-50 permit, including a couple of shoals of around a dozen fish. They weren't small either - Jim reckons the average size of permit down there is about 10-12lb and we saw some clonking fish, including a really nice fish in the mid-20s that gave me a severe case of buck fever.

Caught a few bones too and saw bonito and jacks smashing bait, plus a heap of tarpon, both out around the cays and also in the creeks and mangroves. The sheer variety of fishing in the area really has to be seen to be believed.

Jim's house is fantastic! Beautifully finished, very comfortable and right on the beach. There are some great local restaurants and bars nearby as well. Hopefully the attached pics will help give an idea of what it's like out there!

Cheers, Toby

For trip information please check our Special Offers page.

Christmas Island keeps producing great catches

Hi Matt,

.............. anyway christmas island what can you say! Well firstly its a long way but dont let this put you off, its a wonderful place and a great adventure for all you fly fishermen/women. We stopped at The Villages a small complex of 6 chalets 50metres from the fishing boats. They were quite new clean and were of a good size with all that you reqire including a fridge of beer.

When you tell people about the this trip you get the same old questions how was the hotel, pool and food ? Well their isn't a pool or hotel and the food is quite basic but tasty. Remember you are in the middle of the Pacific and that flight only arrives once a week. The flight is on a small twin prop plane that can seat 20 people but its no worse than your usual flight to Spain or Greece.

Primarily this was a bonefishing trip but turned into 3 days bonefishing and 3 days blue water fly fishing . Yes if you want to fish for bones and GT's then you can and you will catch plenty with the average size being 2-4lb with some bigger fish in the 8-10lb bracket to be found, but to fish just for the bones would be doing the island an injustice as their is such a variaty of other species out their waiting to be caught....... and they are big so go prepared with heavy lines and plenty of spare poppers and lures, THOSE GT PULL LIKE MAD AND LIKE THE ROCKS.

During the trip we managed to hook and land bones with the biggest being in the 6lb bracket, giant trevally, bluefin trevally, golden trevally, skip jack tuna, baracuda and wahoo. We also lost big GT's ,Wahoo and one shark. The best flies seemed to be the standard christmas island special in pink, orange and pearl for the bonefish and the blue flashy decievers and abel anchovy for GT's and tuna with the lures and poppers being about 25-30g 100mm long again blue mackerel colours being most productive.

Mike Marao was our guide for the week that's him with the big smile. He will put you on the fish, spot the bones and knows were to fish in the ocean and nothing is a problem. Always on time, flexible and ready with advise should you require it.

So should you go to christmas island YES!
Would I go back YES IN A SHOT!

So that said its a big thanks to matt and mike for a great trip!

P.S There are no fishing tackle shops on Christmas Island so take extra line and backing ect. If you do forget somthing there are 2 shops in Waikiki.

cheers and good luck
John and Angela

Belize: Fly fishing for Permit

Permit on the flats are probably the ultimate challenge for the saltwater fly fisherman. This year we have seen an increasing demand from anglers for travel to locations where they have a chance at getting good numbers of shots at permit. We have had anglers land permit in Mexico and Cuba this season but the country that has produced more fish than anywhere else has been Belize. We have had anglers fish out of both Turneffe Flats and Tarpon Caye Lodge this season and all reported seeing more permit than at any other location they have fished. The trick of course is getting them to eat your fly and happily, enough of them did to make for some memorable fishing trips.

Turneffe Flats
Turneffe offers an expceptional quality lodge experience and is well suited with activities for the non-fishing partner and family holidays. They also have some of the most experienced permit guides in the world and it is not uncommon to be having not just multiple but dozens of shots at permit each day. The more shots you get at permit the more chance you have of success. Recently Sean Clarke of Farlows, Pall Mall managed 6 permit in a week. But permit aren't the only fish on offer. There is every chance that the permit can be followed up by a bonefish and tarpon making up the saltwater grand slam, as Sean also managed during his week there, a first for him which is saying something for the place considering his extensive experience fishing Cuba.





In 2009/2010 we are running 2 trips to Turneffe flats. The first is October 30th- November 7th 2009 and is on offer at 2 anglers for the price of 1 and the second week will be April 17th-24th 2010.

Tarpon Caye Lodge
Tarpon Caye Lodge is in Southern Belize an hours run from Placencia. For those that like to get away from it all and want endless miles of unfished flats then this is for you. However it is primarily for the dedicated permit fisherman, and while there are other species present it is the large numbers of permit that will be your primary reason for visiting the region.

Gavin Hodgson from Grangers Fishing Tackle hosted a group for us in March which saw 5 permit caught for the week and many more chances lost as will always happen when targeting this species.





For more information on fly fishing and travel to Turneffe Flats or Tarpon Caye Lodge please email us.

Christmas Island: Pictures of Paradise

Toni Karuvaara of Karuvaara fly fishing and editor of Chasing Silver Magazine has just returned from a 2 week stay on Christmas Island with friend Arto who experienced his first taste of saltwater fly fishing. As you will see the fishing was spectacular and the photos tell their own story.

























All images are copyright of Karuvaaraflyfishing.

For those wanting to travel to Christmas Island in 2009/2010 we have a a variety of packages available including a hosted trip in March 2010. For more information please email us or call on
+44 1621743711.

Fly fishing Christmas Island: Trip Report

We have a had a small group of anglers on Christmas Island for the past couple of weeks. Here is a breif trip report from Paul from Scotland. His fishing partners, Toni Karuvaara editor of Chasing Silver magazine and Arto are still there chasing the bonefish, giant trevally, yellowfin tuna and triggerfish the inhabit this pristine coral atoll.

Hi Mat,

Just a quick update on the christmas island trip. The island is a truly wonderful place to both visit and fish. When first booking the trip my main objective was to bonefish, however I quickly realised there is far more to the island than just bones. Stalking triggerfish in the coral proved to be to be both exciting and addictive, hooking the triggers was the easy part !! keeping them out of their coral homes was the hard part.





The island also has a very health population of bluefin trevally,sight fishing double figure fish in water waist deep is an experience that wont soon be forgotten. A days of shore fishing also proved to be succesful and saw tuna,trevally,seabass,queenfish and rainboow runners brought to the boat.



So all in all a wonderful trip was had in superb company.

Many thanks Matt.

Paul, UK.

For more information on our Christmas Island trips please email me