But we weren’t in the UK and this is exactly what happened as soon as we stopped the boat. There are very few places around the UK where you know that good fish are going to hang themselves as soon as your gear touches bottom. He smiled and told me it was not easy, but that he knew several marks where there were good numbers of wolf fish, and that we would catch them. I spoke to Matthias at length to glean some pointers on how to dodge the cod and get the ‘wolfs’. Cod abound in such numbers that avoiding them can be very difficult. If previous experience was anything to go by, we knew the area was likely to be jam-packed with hungry cod in the 5 – 8lb range. Dave Proudfoot and Steve Mason of Icelandic Fishing Adventures climbed aboard an identical boat and would shadow us. Tony Voss and I flung our gear and ourselves into one spacious Somi boat with Matthias. He assured us that although we had come a little early, there were good sized Steinbeissers – which is what they call the wolffish / catfish – to be caught within 40 minutes of the berth. Like many German anglers Matthias has fished Iceland for many years, and his love affair with the country and its fish are why he now spends the whole summer season working as a full time fishing skipper in the West Fjords. Within an hour of touching down at Isafjordur airport – it’s little more than a landing strip really – we were on the boat pontoon at Sudavik being greeted by our German skipper and guide, Matthias. This was something that I was determined to work on, and there seemed no better place to do that than in Iceland’s prolific West Fjords. Having only ever fluked a handful of what are also commonly referred to as ‘cats’ or sea catfish over the course of many years home cod fishing, my previous experience of these bruising fish was far from extensive. In the company of a SKY television crew, some friends and I had taken a short internal flight from Keflavik to Iceland’s West Fjords region to fish explicitly for these snarling nasties, and I had two whole days to get them out of my system. If there were fishy prizes for ugliness, bull-necked power and sheer bone-crunching nastiness, then the wolf fish would surely clean up. 5.3K A niggling need to catch an elusive fish that is armed to the teeth with teeth takes Steve Souter to Iceland’s West Fjords, where he comes face to face with a procession of growling wolffish.
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