Two River Valley - Year One - Week one

This trip was to be the very first full week at the new Solid Adventures fly-fishing camp in Greenland.  Although they have picked up more than ample experience of operating in Greenland over the last 8 years at Kangia Lodge, until a full season has passed their will always remain a reasonable degree of unknowns and given the camp is a 1 hr 30 mins boat journey from the closest logistic base, Maniitsoq or 3 hrs from Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, there were always going to be a few questions as to the state of readiness of the camp on arrival. 

Our group consisted of three father and son pairs from Scotland, all of whom, were bursting with excitement at the forthcoming adventure.  For the three ‘boys’ this was their first dedicated overseas fishing adventure and expectations were riding high, both a good sign as their enthusiasm was infectious, but also the potential for pitfalls if things did not go quite according to plan.  I need not have worried, it was to be a trip as enjoyable as it was spectacular, both from an overall perspective, staying amidst truly staggering surroundings as well as for the actual fishing itself.  Evening banter covered just about every possible topic from the technique of the day to faked moon landings  and who actually shot JFK.

We flew via Copenhagen to the newly built airport at Nuuk, that looks as if it could or should be used as a Bond’s villain lair.   Flying in you cross over glaciers and mountain ranges.  As you approach the airport, over the sea, it is littered with icebergs and rocky islands.  I am absolutely certain I could see the unmistakable outline of two Orca’s swimming in the ocean as we came into land, their white markings on their bodies clearly visible.  Having stocked up on some final additional bottles of wine before clearing customs we headed to Esmeralda’s, a recommended bar/restaurant where we had lunch and where they happily let us dump our suitcases whilst we went for a wander around Nuuk, prior to our collection using their transfer boat at the Tideway steps, in the shadow of a gigantic cruise liner, a daily occurrence in Nuuk.

The boat journey takes approx. 3 hrs and whilst this is quite a long haul, the scenery along the way is pretty spectacular, complete with icebergs as well as a brief sighting of a whale spout.  Our arrival day was exceptionally warm, with temperatures in the mid 20’s, but it always pays to ensure you have suitable clothing for all conditions for the crossing. Our journey out was quite choppy, speeding along at 30+ knots, the more bumpy sections being on some open water crossings, much of the route being in the lee of the various islands.  Our return journey by contrast was quite cold but blissfully smooth although for the most part the scenery was shrouded in mist.

The lodge is located at the end of a fjord adjacent to the river mouth but on a high saddle in the hills, providing a truly commanding vantage point with spectacular and ever-changing views as sun, cloud, fog and mist all play their part.  Disembarking into a small tender dinghy and then to land, it takes a couple of minutes to walk up the hill to the lodge.  Bags and general resupplies are delivered with relative ease via an ingenious motorised pully system.

What was apparent the moment we stepped into the lodge and adjoining accommodation was that an enormous amount of effort and attention to detail has gone into providing an exceptionally comfortable albeit remote base.  Quite apart from the solid timber construction, the water from the taps is spring water, solar panels provide the bulk of the electricity, the beds are comfortable, furnishings simple but well-appointed and the walls suitably decorated with inspiring pictures.  The dreaded long drop toilet or equivalent has been replaced with a ‘Cinderella’, a gas powered loo where all waste is converted to ash without so much as a whiff or need for a wipe down.     

I have been to a great many remote camps over the years and can testify that what has been created here, in a remarkably short construction window, is really pretty exceptional.  I am sure it will be followed with additional refinements over this season and years to come but it is unquestionably top-end.  Jesper, the Danish / Greenlandic owner and partner with the Solid Adventures team has both listened to the requirements and requests and has done an exceptionally good job co-ordinating as well as constructing the lodge.  One should never forget that every single building material has followed the same journey that the anglers do to reach the lodge, namely boat, dingy, track, pully to the top of the hill!

With the base camp established and logistics more or less ironed out, it allowed us to turn our attention to our focus for the trip, the prolific runs of Arctic Char that make their way up the two rivers we would be fishing.   Being the first week of the first ‘Solid’ season at Two River Valley, there were always going to be a number of unknowns and some puzzles to uncover and resolve.  As with any migratory fish, although the first Char enter the river in June, knowing where they might be, how far up the river system they had got or in what volume was anyone’s guess.  A frantic and concerted last minute effort to get the lodge finished and the area tidied up meant that the normal few days of test fishing by the guides, Lawson & Franco, prior to our arrival, was almost wholly taken up with lodge tasks.  This therefore presented our group with an exciting process of discovery over the following week.

It did not take long to establish that the Char were very much in the river systems, with some pools clearly holding more than a decent number of fish, whilst others were comparatively empty.   It was also very evident that the bulk of the fish were moving, all the time.  A pool that had a good stock of fish one minute, might have emptied out hours later and vice versa.  Where there were vantage points you could see the Char making their way upstream, at a steady walking pace, and if you looked carefully over some of the shallow riffles, a spray of water and a flicker of fins hinted at another pod of fish on the move.  A level of water clarity that compares with any of the best Icelandic rivers, along with some good light over our week meant that it was possible to see the char resting up, both in the larger deeper pools but also holding in tiny pockets of water in the rapids.   

Fishing techniques were adapted to suit.  There were certainly sections of the river where just covering the water would produce fish, but where visibility allowed, a much more targeted approach could be adopted, focusing on quite tight holding spots.  In the faster water this tended to be around obvious features, whether they be stones and boulders or dips and indentations.   In the flatter sections, notably in the shallow parts of the lakes, they were much more spread out with fish in singles or pairs over a wider area, although still with a  strong preference for areas which had a flow of water vs the deeper glacial blue holes or indeed the lakes.

Single-handed rods in the 5-7 wt range, with a short-bodied floating-head line and a sink tip allowed almost all the water to be covered easily and effectively.  The bread & butter Char we were catching mainly ranged from 1-3lbs, with 5-6lb char feeling like a good fish, all of which would provide a good account of themselves, especially when fishing with such light tackle.   In the pools that allowed good visibility it was possible to see some obviously bigger Char which followed many a fly.  I have no doubt many much bigger fish will be caught over the season. 

The fly selection we used was mainly centred around flies that had been developed for the faster flowing Kangia river, with white, olive and grey streamers of assorted designs with bead or coneheads proving the most effective.  Brighter chartreuse and pink flies are reputed to be more effective when the numbers of char in the pools increase as the season progresses, as are floating ‘row-boat’ style patterns.  A downstream cast and a degree of movement whether methodical or faster strips and plucks were the go-to techniques.  As the week progressed upstream nymphing proved equally popular, and indeed there was a good degree of fly experimentation.  I imagine for next year an updated range of patterns will be being used along-side the proven regulars.

On the fly topic, it is always worth discussing the bugs!  Greenland has mosquitoes, but nowhere close to the volume you might expect to find in the likes of the Kola Peninsula.  Applying deet in the morning and then on hot days when a few are about, whenever you wet your hands or similar will keep them at bay.  Have some anti-itch cream in your jacket, apply if you get bitten, do not scratch for 10 mins and unless you are hyper reactive to bites, that shoud be that.  Non-biting but more irritating are the flies which are at their worst over July-mid August.  On a hot still day they are busy, but are easily remedied with a net, ideally a mosquito net vs a midge net as larger holes allow for better visibility.  Suitably deployed when required, the flies really are not an issue at all.

The Char are however only part of the offering.  Fishing at the river mouths and along the coastline could be productive beyond imagination.  The number of Cod in the fjord was staggering, with concentrations near the river mouths which could be caught using the exact same techniques and fly-tackle used for the Arctic Char.  A high proportion were probably in the 1lb category but with the right tide conditions, in some spots near the river mouths, 4-6lb Cod could be caught as well as Char waiting to run the river.

And then there was the sea-fishing.   Another unique attribute to the Two River Valley program is the daily use of the boat to access the 2^nd river.  Over and above the boat being a means of transportation, it allowed for teams to target Halibut, Wolfish, Cod and Char via some heavy-duty conventional jigs, light spinning gear and fly.  Whilst we failed to hook a Halibut over our week, we secured a number of Wolffish including one absolute giant of a specimen.   Whales, although absent with the exception of the sighting on the way to the lodge, are typically a common sighting in the Kangia Fjord, adjacent to ours.

The final cherry on this extraordinary destination is the scenery and surroundings.  As a casual amateur photographer, I can only say that this was one of the most exhilarating destinations I have had a chance to immerse myself in.  The mountains rise up over 500m on either side of the rivers in a scale that I would more closely  associate with British Colombia, albeit devoid of trees.  The water clarity and the glacial hue of the lakes, river, rapids and waterfalls is mesmerising, the weather as unpredictable as it is in Britain!!!   There is a local dwindling  island community of about 350 souls which we visited on one excursion, about twenty minutes boat ride from the lodge, and there are occasional scattered summer huts dotted around the fjords, but this really does feel about as  remote a destination as you can get without being utterly isolated .   The air you breathe has that crisp mountain feel and is truly invigorating.  Two River Valley may have fishing at its heart, but it could easily be a mountain spa retreat, aided by some really great cooking from Florencia, the Argentinean chef and long-standing employee at Las Buitreras Sea Trout lodge in Southern Patagonia.

By the final two days of our week the quantity of Char in some of the pools was really starting to build up and this resulted in some spectacular catches in certain pools of 30+fish/angler.  Had every pool been delivering this amount of Char from day one, possibly the trip might have lost its edge, the desire to get a ‘wriggle on’ sated too early.  That said there will always be holding pools where the numbers of Char will eventually reach  into the many hundreds if not thousands and there will be other pools where they are more transient.   The question really boils down to whether individuals can keep their hands out of the proverbial cookie jar of super-stocked pools and opt for a more refined Crudité, in one of the less prolific spots, or just keep on munching the chocolate chip until you have a Mr Creosote moment (Monty Python).   Regardless of the actual fishing experience and each and every angler’s individual fishy expectations and limits, to be able to soak up the beauty and the wilderness makes this a truly special one-off location with genuinely wide-ranging appeal.