After waiting two whole years to get the chance to shore fish in the far north of Iceland, my chance came a couple of weeks back when I teamed up with Steve Mason of Icelandic Fishing Adventures, WSF member John McInnes (emberman3) from Stirling, Scotland , and Francis Jones from Abertillery, South Wales.

We drove north to Dalvik and though Steve has fished up here since the mid 90’s when working in this area as a professional fish filleter, the area is still relatively virgin territory for shore fishing. John, Francis and myself didn’t know quite what to expect, though we knew the fishing would be a one off experience and way better than anything else we’d ever experienced previously.

WSF will be running a number of exclusive features detailing the venues and experiences we had in our five day adventure to the North of Iceland. Not only are these great stories, but they will hopefully provide those who are keen to follow in our footsteps with some detailed information to work with. In the meantime here’s a brief run down on what we found.

All the piers carry incredible numbers of cod averaging 4 to 8lbs, but we also had cod to 11lbs with 20lb plus fish on the cards especially from the deeper marks. The haddock fishing was just amazing. I had a series of big haddock between 4lb 3ozs and 4lb 15ozs, with John getting a 5lb 1oz fish on a spinner, and Francis and Steve both recorded haddock around 4.5lbs.

All the ground is paved with huge dabs. These can run well over 2lbs and we had them to 2lbs 2ozs weighed, but Steve was genuinely disappointed that we didn’t get the really big ones that can creep towards 3lbs in weight. That said we didn’t really target them. Our dab catch was more a by-catch when targeting the cod and haddock.

You’ll catch some unusual fish too such as long rough dab. I caught a 1lb 6oz fish, but Francis may have broken the Icelandic record for the species with a fish weighing 1lb 11ozs which is being checked out as I write. I also caught a rare starry ray which I’ve been after for some time.

Other species include wolfish which can be well in to double figures, big torsk, huge whiting, also plaice which I’ve a feeling when anglers really start to target these will prove to be monsters. Another big by-catch is coalfish, but these generally are not the tiddlers we see here in the UK. These are stonkers running into double figures and we had fish to over 8lbs on bait, plus I had coalies to 5lb 13ozs and cod to 3lbs on the fly rod.

To give one example of the quality of the fishing, I put out a three-hook flapper with size 1/0 Aberdeen’s on and landed a triple shot of fish over 11lb on the one rig in one cast. The fish were a 5lb 8oz cod, a 4lb 9oz haddock and a 1lb 9oz dab. We all lost count of the triple shots of cod, dabs and even haddock we had.

If you haven’t seen this standard of fishing, I understand you’ll think I’m exaggerating, but I’m not! There are so many fish in front of you its rare to catch just the one on a two or three-hook rig, mostly it’s a full house. Due to the sheer numbers of fish the competition between them for food is massive and your bait is rarely on the seabed longer than 30 seconds without a bite. John and Francis stood shoulder to shoulder with me when we witnessed this and will quote the standard of fishing exactly the same.

I feel I can vouch for John and Francis again when I say I cannot recommend the Dalvik experience enough. The first full feature will be based on Dalvik pier and you’ll see the staggering amount of fish we caught between us in just a short four and half hour session one evening to prove the point.

Steve is a Geordie and has fished all his life, but his work has taken him all over the world, yet you can see his heart is now firmly in Iceland and I can see why. He’s unique in the country as he’s the only person and fishing guide, I believe, with real experience of the shore fishing this far north as the local people only fish with small jigs for the odd table fish off the piers. His knowledge of the area and the marks means you’re on to fish the moment you start fishing so your fishing time is maximised. He also provides all the rods, bait and weights, so all you need to worry about are your reels and rigs.

Steve is an active poster on WSF (check out the European and Northeast forums) and you can keep up-to-date with what’s being caught in Iceland on these. He also offers salmon, trout and char fishing too!

Anglers World Holidays are Steve’s main UK booking agent and they can be reached via www.anglersworld.tv

You can also contact Steve for information on all the packages he offers on e-mail at steve@dreamfish.is or Tel: 00 354 6180694. For salmon, trout and char info contact Siggi via e-mail at siggi@dreamfish.is or Tel: 00 354 6958843. Also visit their website at www.dreamfish.is.

Don’t forget…look out for the full features on our Dalvik experience exclusively on WSF!