I have recently returned from a wonderful trip to the Midfjardara River in Northern Iceland. We had wonderful fishing, which is generally true of all the rivers in Iceland this year, after fairly disappointing catches the last two years. In 3 days of fishing, 10 rods caught over 200 fish, and many of these were multi sea winter fish, over 80cms and into double figure weight (in pounds). Perhaps most significantly, only 5 of these fish were kept - the rest all released to continue on their way. Many rivers in Iceland have already exceeded the total catches of last year, only 5-6 weeks into the season. I was lucky enough to be in a party of experienced salmon fisherman, and exceptional guides. One of our party, Adrian Latimer, has written a wonderful book called Fire and Ice, about Icelandic salmon fishing, and my guide Jason Jagger is a very skilled photographer, who has taken some incredible pictures of mayfly being taken by trout in his native Colorado, one of which graced the cover of the Orvis catalogue a few years back. A privilege to be in such a group.

Playing the first fish of the trip, and a great shot showing the type of landscape and relatively small rivers typical of Iceland, which enable use of a single handed 7/8 weight rod, and excellent sport.

That being said, this fish took me some 300 metres downstream until I was able to guide it to Jason’s net (and, truthfully, some very skilful net manoeuvring from him!). A lovely 83cm hen fish, back to her home after two winters at sea.

Another typical Icelandic pool. This pool yielded 5 fish in the space of an hour, fished unusually upstream, using my favourite Icelandic fly, a small cone head “Black Frances”. The biggest fish was 82cm, and had been caught before (unfortunately we knew this because her mouth was a little scarred from the previous hook).

This 82cm hen caught from the pool, and caught for the second time. Hopefully she has learned her lesson, and is now focused just on getting to the spawning grounds to release her precious cargo.

On the final day, I was lucky enough to fish the Canyon. A stunning 6km stretch of river with limited access - once you’re in you carry on to the end point before you can get out. The sole of one of my waders came, literally, unstuck at the bottom of the canyon which made wading even more interesting than ever. But an incredible stretch of water, with many fishable pools

I was met at the end of the canyon by Jason, and with the last cast of the trip (I had to get back to Reykavik to catch my return flight to London) I caught this feisty 6 pound grilse (or one sea winter fish) which put up a great account of itself