Fishing attracts people from all walks of life as Shimano Sea Consultant Dave Lewis realised when he went cod fishing Bruce Dickinson, member of cult heavy metal band Iron Maiden.

It’s Friday night and I’m sat in front of the TV watching Top Of The Pops. The first couple of acts are pretty typical of today’s British music scene, and remind me why this is the first time I’ve made an effort to watch TOTP for many years. But then act number three hits the stage and the tempo in the studio rises significantly. Heavy Metal icon band Iron Maiden, whose latest single Wildest Dreams was riding at No6 in the charts, are on and immediately I am transformed back to the mid-1980’s when the band were at their peak. 24 hours later I found myself sat at a bar in Keflavik, Iceland, having the first of numerous drinks during three days fishing with Bruce Dickinson, Iron Maiden’s lead singer, talking, as you do with globally famous rock stars, about Rock’n’Roll, Aerodynamics and cod fishing!

Iceland bound
Okay, it’s time to explain what all this has to do with sea angling. A couple of months back I got a phone call from a friend in the airline business, John Mahon, telling me about a new budget priced airline he was currently involved in, which was flying too and from Iceland. John knew I had a fair bit of experience fishing in Iceland, having guided half a dozen trips up there in the 1990’s, and was wondering if I would like to pop up for a few days to fish and see what the new airline, Iceland Express, had to offer UK based sea anglers. Best of all, continued John, he would arrange for himself and Bruce Dickinson to fly the plane up there. Not THE Bruce Dickinson, the Iron Maiden Bruce Dickinson, I replied. “Yes, he himself, the very same,” John had chuckled back down the phone line in his soft Irish drawl.

Heavy rocker
I was later to find out that apart from fronting Maiden, the biggest heavy rock band to come out of Europe in recent decades, the band accredited with having the fastest ever ticket sell out at one of their gig’s at New York’s Madison Square Gardens, Bruce Dickinson is a man of many talents. He is superbly fit and well into fencing, for example, at one time reaching such a high standard he was actually invited to join the British Olympic team, only a heavy tour schedule prevented him; touché! And then there’s flying. Bruce has always had a passion for flying, a passion that has seen him steadily work his way up through the ranks from flying the likes of Cessna’s at private airfields, to his current position of 1st Officer aboard Boeing 737’s. With a full commercial pilots license, he even teaches on conversion courses for 737’s! Among a raft of other interests, Bruce, I found out, is also an enthusiastic angler.

Call me Bruce
As we steadily worked our way through yet another pint of potent Gul lager, I asked Bruce, who by now had changed from his ultra-smart airline pilot uniform into ultra-casual Nike jogging bottoms and ripped T-shirt, how he first got into fishing. “My father used to take me fishing on Great Yarmouth pier during the summer holidays,” he replied. “I remember we used to catch loads of plump dab’s, I suppose this was the time I first started to get interested in sea angling. When I started getting involved with bands I rarely, if ever, got time to fish, life was too hectic. A couple of years back, though, we had a family holiday in the Scilly Isles, the fishing there is fantastic! Drifting over the inshore reefs using nothing more than strings of feathers we caught loads of fish, mostly pollack and mackerel, the kids loved it!”

During that first evening, the conversation constantly switched from Maiden to flying to fishing and then back again, and at one point I asked Bruce how the hell he manages to fit flying in with being the lead singer of Iron Maiden, presenting his own radio show, writing and managing up and coming rock acts? “These days we record an Iron Maiden album every two or three years, then on the back of that go off on a world tour for about six months, we’ve just got back from touring The States and start the European leg of the tour in November. When each tour ends I need something to fill my time, I love flying, so that’s what I do!” “That’s some life,” I quietly thought to myself.

All aboard
In the morning and following a leisurely breakfast, Capt. Garoar Magnusson, our skipper, picked us up at the hotel and drove us the short distance to the harbour at Keflavik, where we boarded his boat, Hvalbakur, for the first days fishing. It was a bright and sunny day with just enough wind to create a short chop and throw icy spray as we plunged our way north towards the lighthouse at the tip of the Midnes Peninsula, near the fishing village of Gardur.

Bruce was enthusiastic as I showed him the gear I’d brought along for him to use, and was clearly keen to start fishing. After about 40 minutes we came to a stop in an area where literally thousands of gannets, auk’s, guillemots, gulls and puffins were pounding the ocean as they plucked squirming silver sandeels out from the surface film. These little eels were clearly being driven towards their feathered fate by unseen predators beneath, a fact confirmed by the bright red and orange mid-water trace on the boats sounder. At the skipper’s command, Bruce threw the reel into free-spool and consigned his pirk and string of Hokeye lures to the deep and watched as metre after metre of line poured off the reel. Yet, barely had 15m of line departed through the tip ring when first everything went slack and then the rod tip started jigging furiously to the tune of a hooked fish.

Bruce bags
Bruce shoved the lever drag on the Shimano TLD 20 he was using forward and ever-so-carefully started to retrieve his prize back up through the depths, and I watched as his already smiling face exploded in an ear-to-ear grin; “This is brilliant,” he exclaimed! A few minutes later not one, not two but three fish were swung aboard, fine fat pewter and ebony flanked coalies that glistened like newly minted coins in the bright, low altitude, Arctic sunshine. Next drop produced an almost identical result, as did the next and then the one after that.

By now Bruce was really starting to get into the swing of things and having caught his fill of coalies, allowed the pirk to free fall as swiftly through the water column as possible, hoping to get at the cod the skipper had reliably informed us were feeding nearer the bottom. The plan worked a treat. Barely had the pirk tapped bottom and Bruce begun jigging when the tip of his rod was savagely wrenched downwards and started steadily nodding to the tune of what could only have been a decent cod.

Prediction
Bruce steadily played the fish up towards the surface, by now working like a seasoned pro, while the skipper stood by at the gunnel with the gaff. About half way up the regular nodding on the rod tip suddenly changed to a jagged rattling, and Bruce accurately predicted that coalfish had nailed the Hokeye’s above the pirk on the way up. Sure enough, after a few more minutes of steady pumping, Bruce’s first Icelandic cod, a fine fat fish of around 10lb, along with a brace of coalfish were swung over the gunnels and landed unceremoniously on the deck with a satisfying thump.

During the next three or four hours we fished that first day we quickly lost count of the number of fish we caught. At times the coalfish were so thick we had to move away from them to give us any chance at all of reaching the seabed beneath and the hungry shoals of cod that were waiting there, but when we did reach the bottom we invariably hooked cod either instantly or within a few moments of starting to work the lures. Trust me, catching cod, coalfish and haddock in Iceland’s rich, inshore waters is about as easy as catching cod, coalfish and haddock gets.

Natural
Bruce steadily caught fish throughout the day, in fact it was noticed that he more than held his own and had anyone been keeping an accurate count I think the ultimate outcome would have been that not only did Bruce catch the most fish, but also the biggest, having boated several chunky specimens that went comfortably over 10. But for Bruce this was not quite the highlight of the day. A little after lunchtime he received a text message, and by the look on his face it was clearly great news. The bands new album, Dance of Death, was being reported in the Sunday newspapers as having entered the album charts at Number 1. Bruce was clearly overjoyed, though at the same time suspicious, as he had been led to believe it would chart at Number 2. A few frantic phone calls, interspersed with cod and coalies, later he managed to confirm that Dance of Death was indeed Number 2 in the UK, but also that it was Number 1 in several European countries. And as Bruce said, as he resumed fishing with renewed vigour and an even more satisfied smile on his face, “Number 2 isn’t bad, is it!”



FACT FILE:
Iceland Express fly a daily service to Keflavik from London Stansted, with tickets at the time of writing, late September, costing as little as €58 each way. Check out www.IcelandExpress.com for more information.

Based at Keflavik, five minutes from the airport, Hvalbakur is licensed for 10, though would best suit smaller groups of up to 6 anglers. The boat has a cockpit cover that can make fishing awkward when the boat is full, but obviously provides protection from the elements. Cost for a 4-hour charter is in the region of €58/person which considering the unbelievably high standard of fishing is good value; longer trips can be booked. The season runs from April through to October. Visit www.sport-fishing-trip.com or email hvalbakur@simnet.is for more information.

We stayed at Hotel Keflavik, a two-minute walk from the harbour, and I could not recommend the place more highly. Visit www.hotelkeflavik.is or email hotel@hotelkeflavik.is for more information.

Considering the numerous attractions on Iceland, including whale watching and the world famous Blue Lagoon-a ten minute drive from Keflavik, this is the ideal destination for a short weekend break, and one of few I know that is perfect for taking the wife or girlfriend.