snaevarr
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They just opened Varmá on april 1st and the fishing has been really good with sea trout up to 13 lbs:
And I just drove past the Staðartorfa and Múlatorfa beat yesterday. The river has cleared itself of ice and is looking good 🙂
I took this picture just below the Múlatorfa beat, the river is very narrow and deep here. Up by the two torfa beats the river is a lot wider and more fun to fish.
And please be careful when driving in Iceland, the roads are narrow and bumpy and gravelly. We had a tourist die last week cause he lost control of the car on a slippery road(not the one on the picture, this is just a random car that probably some local crashed).
Varmá has some really nice trout, I’m talking up to 15 lbs brown trout! And Fossá will be an adventure, you’ll probably be fishing in some pools that have never been fished before! Best of luck!
Laxárdalur, Staðartorfa & Múlatorfa beats are all the same river, and if there is any river in Iceland that reminds me of the big rivers in Montana it is Laxá. The difference is that Laxá is spring fed so the water levels are really stable, there is more trout than you can catch in a lifetime and because all water is private, you’ll have your fishing pools all to yourself.
Laxárdalur: Fewer fish but the average size is somewhere between 4-5 lbs! I’d recommend a guide to get those big fish. Laxá is a really, really big river and it’s really hard finding the fish. I’m sure you’ve seen pictures and videos, Laxárdalur is a beautiful place!
Staðartorfa & Múlatorfa: I was fishing there last summer for one afternoon and I could see about 40-50 nice trout rising at the same time, if you like dry fly fishing you’ll love it here! The fish are smaller, this trout I caught last summer is a typical size:
but you’ll get plenty of action. There are bigger fish of course inbetween(and a tiny chance of salmon in July). However, this isn’t a beat I would spent many days at, 1-2 days is fine, not much more. You don’t really need a guide here. It’s a big river and you might need long casts to reach the fish.I can’t promise anything about the weather, foreigners don’t get how unpredictable the weather is in Iceland! You might get caught in a snowstorm in July and really strong winds from the north arctic(or you could get really lucky). Montana is probably a lot safer bet if you’re worried about the weather.
Just ask if you want to know anyhting else.
Actually yes, the PH in 2012 was around 8. Acidity is not a problem in Iceland. There have been done some studies that showed that the river is really suitable for small and young fish, there just isn’t enough food to sustain many big fish(unless they eat other fish). The conductivity is from 80-90 µS/cm which is good on Icelandic standard!
When I was a kid we were catching nice char in amongst the brown trouts, now with the warmer climate the brown trout have completely taken over(arctic char is … well, arctic, and likes colder water) and you don’t see any char anymore(other than the small ones that get swept down river and eaten). But in cold summers and summers that have a lot of snowmelt the river is still pretty cold for brown trout. Actually, 3 of the last 4 summers have either been really cold(2011) or had a lot of snowmelt throughout the whole summer(2013 and 2014). I’m hoping for normal water levels this summer with a bit less and warmer water for my trout 🙂
Thanks. I was posting regular updates last summer on reddit( http://www.reddit.com/user/Urridi/submitted/ ) where Zach noticed me. And I wouldn’t call it a trout factory, the river is cold and not rich of insect life so the population isn’t big. There are a lot of small trout but they seem to hit some kind of size barrier around 14″-16″, those who however do get big enough to eat the char can get really big.
