We were on an island where no fishing lakes or rivers are to be found. Only wetlands and an immense abundance of birdlife. Nevertheless, two fishing rods were brought along, as the sea surrounding the island is said to be exceptionally bountiful. The island is Flatey, the one situated in the middle of Breiðafjörður. My wife and I felt it only made sense to see if we could catch some "white fish" (cod or haddock) from the shore. On Monday, July 13th, we strolled with our gear down to the beach just below Ráðagarður, the cottage where we were staying. High tide was only half an hour away that day. We used mackerel for bait, attached sinkers, and cast the bait as far as we could into Hólsbúðarvog, toward the Snæfellsnes mountain range. Then, we sat down and soaked up the sunshine.
After about half an hour, the warning bell we had attached to the rod tinkered, and we pulled in a two-pound codling. During the additional hour we sat there on the beach, there were three more bites, but no fish got hooked. We went home with our catch, and on Tuesday, the codling was eaten and proved to be an excellent meal. After the evening news on Tuesday, we strolled down to the pier and out onto the rocks by the shore, which we felt extended far enough into the sea so that the seaweed wouldn't interfere with our fishing. This end of the island is called Tröllendi. There, off the rocks, we fished for nearly two hours. When we returned to the house around one in the morning, we had landed four fish. Three of them were codlings, and the fourth was a little saithe. We managed to release two of them back into the sea. The codlings were about two pounds each.
I dashed down to Hólsbúðarós on Thursday in some foul weather. That time, nothing happened except that my lure tempted a Kittiwake. Fortunately, I managed to avoid having to unhook a bird from the lure. I didn't last long, as I was ill-equipped for any serious fishing slog, and the beach rocks were uncomfortably slippery in the rain. I had no desire to go flying head-first into the rocks, so I headed back home to Ráðagarður.