24th of August. Svalbardsa


Me, Joe, Arni and Brett Tolly had arrived to Iceland on the 23rd but Sam, Os and Reese landed in Keflavik on the morning of the 24th. After having breakfast at Hotel Borg it was time to head out to the airport and fly to Egilsstadir. Os took the photo but from left; Sam, Palmi, Arni, Reese, Brett and Joe.


We landed in Egilsstadir around noon and loaded up the rental cars with goods from Bonus. Me and Joe in one, Reese, Sam and Os in one, and Arni and Brett in one. Arni was kind of tired...


The drive over to Svalbardsa river is stunning. It took us little over 3 hours from Egilsstadir as we stopped quite frequently to take pictures.


24th. August 2007. The first shift. We decided that Os, Sam, Arni and Brett would go with me to section two but Joe and Reese went up to section One. I can imagine that this must have been some sort of a shock for Reese...Fly out of Phoenix Arizona, land in Keflavik Iceland, picked up and driven to Reykjavik to catch breakfast. Then fly to Egilsstadir, drive to Svalbardsa, ordered to put on his gear and kicked into a jeep. Driven up river about 7 miles, then pushed hard in a hard hike up to Storifoss by Joe (pool no 1). I am sure he must have stood on top of Storifoss thinking... "what the hell happened"... as he watched the salmon swimming in Storifoss (the "X" marks the spot where we always see salmon).


Salmon in the channel in Storifoss.


I set Arni and Brett up in Efri Eyrarhylur and taught them how to hitch. They where using Haugur micro hitch and it took Brett only few minutes to hook a salmon few meters bellow the rock. He did not land the first one but few minutes later he landed another one.


Brett with his first Atlantic Salmon (Mariulax).


The group fishing in Svalbardsa 2007 (excluding Ari who was going to take over from us with others). Sam (front), from left, Os, Ari, Palmi, Reese, Brett and Joe.


25th. August 2007. Me, Sam and Os had section 1 so after good breakfast we hiked up to Holmatagl (no. 9). The plan was to do cast lessons at the grass bank above the pool. We took a good hour to practice but as everyone knows who has ever held a fly rod then it's all about practice. Sam and Os at Holmatagl.


After practicing at Holmatagl we continued up to Storifoss (no.1). We had crossed the river bellow Vadid (no. 8) and after taking some photos Sam tried stripping Sunray across the channel. He had couple of chases and one take but did not manage to respond to it. Left: Os and Sam in Storifoss.


Couple of days later then Sam and Os went back to Storifoss with Joe. After great coaching by Joe then he caught his first (and only) salmon! About 4-5pound, brand new in the river male.


When you catch your first Atlantic Salmon the tradition is to bite the back fin off! This was not a problem for Sam and he instantly became a legal Salmon fisherman!


On our last night then we took a piece of Sam's salmon and had Sigga cook it for him and then we took the rest of it and sliced down for sashimi. Arni had brought Soy and Vasabi all the way from California for this and boy, did it taste good!


26th. August 2007. Me and Arni had section 2 in the morning and started in Efri Eyrarhylur. Arni started hitching with Micro Haugur but was not being successful. I stood next to him above the rock and started putting a tube fly on my rod (blue, black and silver cone). I had given out about 3 meters of line of my rod and I was handing Arni the rod a salmon took the fly! The take was only about a meter bellow the big stone. Arni fought that salmon for awhile and made sure to give him self enough time to land it.


Arni with his first Atlantic Salmon (Mariulax). Taken in Efri Eyrarhylur


Arni knew as well as Sam the thing about the fin and bit it off after mumbling some unpleasant remarks about it...


We fished Nedri Eyrarhylur as well and I landed my first Salmon in the trip there. This 3k Male had not been in the river more then few hours as it has sea lice to the nose. RELEASED!


After fishing Efri and Nedri Eyrarhylur for couple of hours we moved up to Forseti. Arni fished Litli Foss with no luck but I caught this one in Forseti just before lunch. It was killed and given to Sigga. We had caught 3 salmon this morning and headed down to the lodge for lunch, happy with the morning catch.


26th. Agust 2007 Cont. Me and Arni had section 3 in the afternoon and started fishing in Svalbardsselshylur. The water this year was pretty low so this pool moves really slowly. We could see fish but had no luck.

After fishing Svalbardselshylur for awhile we moved down to Nedri Klapparhylur. We did not see anything in the pool it self but about 100m bellow the pool there is a small creek that runs into the river. I have sometimes in the past seen fish there although it does not look like much.

After hitching through it I send Arni in with Blue Snaelda. Arni is having some trouble getting this heavy fly out so I go to him and almost rip the rod out of his hands and say; "No...you have to get the fly right there..." the fly lands about 1m from the creek and "BOOM", this big tug instantly when the fly hits the water. I hand the rod to Arni...



After 25min fight and 300m further down river he lands this very nice 10-12p female that was then released back in the river.


We had a sip of cognac and relaxed for awhile before I decided to try again. In my second or third cast I hooked another one. This was about 2.5k male that was bleeding pretty bad so we took him with us...


27th. August 2007. Me and Brett had section one this very nice morning. We headed straight to Storifoss.



We saw plenty of fish in the channel and I even tried fishing it up-stream but we had no luck.


After fishing in Storifoss for about an hour me and Brett started fishing us down to Laxahylur. On the way down then Brett starts telling me that he had fish come to his fly in a pool that was unmarked couple of days ago. I asked Brett to show me where and so he did. It's a pool that does not look like much and I realize that I had run my fly through there several times but never seen any reaction there and never in 8 years heard of anyone catch a fish in there. Brett insists that I start and I suggest to take the hitch through there.


In my third cast and Salmon comes to the fly but does not take it...second time she did. About 12pound female that was released.


Video of that fight.


We rest the pool for a little while and then send Brett in with the same hitch. Couple of casts and the fly is taken again. It took him few minutes to land this nice 4-5pound male that was released. We tried it once more and had the third fish come to the hitch but Brett responded to soon to that one...This pool is a fantastic hitching pool and I poured Cognac into it and named it BT Special! (Brett Tolly Special).


Brett Tolly in his very own BT Special...


27th. August 2007 Cont. Me and Joe stick to our traditions and that is to eat hot dogs on the mountain. Arni and Joe had the mountain this afternoon so we had decided that we would meet up in Laxahylur and have lunch there. The weather we as good as it had ever been (in the last 8 years) and it was becoming pretty hot (in Icelandic standards...).


Maybe not that hot...


Me and Brett fished our self down to section 2 but that was to be our section for the rest of the day. We fished Litli Foss with everything we had but saw no reaction. Brett finally hooked and LDR'd one in Urdarbrot (actually in the pool above Urdarbrot. It was about 5 pound salmon. Photo, Litli Foss. Joe had a "Moment" the day before and said there was a lot of fish above the stone closer to the other side.



We fished Forseti and I landed one Salmon taken on hitch. That one was killed and taken to Sigga to have it made into "Graflax" (kind of marinated).

We fished Nedri and Efri Eyrarhylur for couple of hours but then decided to drive back up to Forseti and meet up with Arni and Joe as they would be coming down from the mountain. I start with the hitch in Forseti but did not get any reaction. Just after 9pm I pull out and see that Brett has packed his stuff and is standing by the car with Beer. I call him and ask him to bring his intermediate with him. It was time to bring out the gimp...


I tell him to cast and keep the fly above the big rock and hold it there for a little while. Second cast and "boom". He landed this brand new 5pound male in seconds...It was a nice send off for him as he would be leaving back to the US early morning.


28th. August 2007. Me and Joe packed our stuff and got ready to move over to Sela but we would be fishing there for 3 more days. We still had section 3 until noon so we went to Svalbards-selshylur. The river was becoming really low.


There was Salmon all over this pool but we had no luck. Joe fished it from the other side and in the end I told him to come back over and go to Nedri Klapparhylur. While he is waking back across I decide to do the "Act of desperation" (that's what I call it when the fly goes up-stream and dead-drifts down). First cast... "Boom". 3k male that was released.


We move down to Nedri Klapparhylur and Joe starts by the creek. He had a big one roll on his fly there couple of days earlier but this morning, nothing. Just before lunch I go in there with the Nazi and fish down the pool, nothing. I turn around and decide to do "Act of desperation". "Boom" took about 2 m above the creek. Killed, as he was bleeding after almost swallowing the fly.

This had been great 3 1/2 day. We had been 7 guys, 2 that had fished there for 7&8 years, 1 that had fished all his life for trout but 4 that had never seen a river...or at least never fly fished before. Everyone except one had caught Salmon. We caught 26 salmon in total and around 6 where killed but the rest released back into this pearl in the north east.