Vididalsá

Iceland is a veritable paradise for salmon fishermen. Here great numbers of salmon eagerly push their way upstream to reach the spawning grounds of the volcanic island’s many beautiful rivers. One of the best salmon rivers in all of Iceland is the Vididalsá in the northwestern corner – a salmon river that RASMUS OVESEN has fallen in love with.

I’ve never actually quite understood this weird obsession with salmon that some fly fishermen so obviously suffer from. to me, fly fishing for salmon has always been the equivalent of standing slightly bewildered in a norwegian or swedish river, waist-deep in turbid and lukewarm water, struggling to maintain a good footing, and casting with no intention other than to give a desperate impression of even the slightest hint of salmon fishing savvy. i’ve never really caught anything on my increasingly desperate expeditions up north and have therefore considered fly fishing for salmon a torturous discipline, one that fills me with doubt in my own abilities. i have felt like a nonbeliever in a church, and every fruitless cast with the clumsily heavy fly gear has been like a castigating whiplash. but alas! the epiphany has never come.

I didn’t see the light until a couple of years ago when i travelled to  iceland to fish the stóra laxá river, a fishery that was so generous, and got to hook an array of salmon that seemed totally indifferent to my lack of salmon fishing skills. here the fish recklessly hit the flies and provided spectacular fights with hard runs and adroit aerobatics. it was top-notch entertainment. When the trip was over, i was suddenly one of the initiated – those few who know what the essence and soul of fly fishing for salmon is, someone who spends his summers longing to feel the pull of a freshly run salmon in shiny silver armour.