The best dry fly fishing for brown trout in the world
One of the best pools, Geirastadaskurdur. Photo by Jón Eyfjörð.
The established and popular British angling magazine Trout and Salmon ran an article in its latest edition on the brown trout fishing in Laxa í Thingeyjarsyslu, above the dam. The upper beats known as Laxardalur and Myvatnssveit. The verdict was exceptional.
The article is by Howard Taylor, a well known British dry fly specialist. He fished both e upper beats last year and was extremely impressed. He called the brown trout fishing, the best dry fly fishing for brown trout available in the world! Not bad. The article is richly illustrated so the beauty of the river is lost on no one who reads the article. Talur has some observations. One of them was an amazement that many of the local anglers fishing the beats had a heavy preference on using big streamer flies. He failed to see what that was all about until he saw the pictured hanging on the walls of the lodges. Pictures of anglers displaying the huge brown trout.
This one is on the small side. Far bigger fish are the norm. Photo by Jón Eyfjörð.
One particular photo was of the insides of a huge trout that had been killed. The contents of the stomach explained why huge streamers work well. Among other things, Howard saw three ducklings and something that looked like a rat! Which was probably a mink pup rather than a rat. But despite the streamer trend, Taylor stuck to his dry flies and was not disappointed.
By the way. Brown trout are famous carnivores in Iceland. One huge fish caught years ago in the westland lake Langavatn had seven half grown Merganser chicks in its stomach. Others have swallowed swimming mice. One well known local fly fisherman, Rafn Hafnfjord, once tied a huge mouse like fly. It was hell to cast but big trout dashed at in a frenzy. The fly however was to big and bulky and Hafnfjord failed to hook any. He also said later that tying the fly and casting it was a pain and it was far more fun to fish normally.
