The time of the frozen idiots is at hand!
Valli shows us a typical springtime sea trout "fly". Photo by Heimir Óskarsson.
Just a few days ago Icelanders were starting to feel that spring was just around the corner. They should have known better. It‘s on course according to the almanac but weatherwise it is at a standstill at the moment and winter is back in full force. Nevertheless, our first sea trout rivers open up on the 1rst of April which is less than a month away. This though, is fishing for those wishing to brave the elements. And their reward can often be amazing in terms of the quality and quantity of the catch.
We usually travel east to the Vestur Skaftafellssysla to cover the first rivers for our websites, this one and also www.votnogveidi.is which is our Icelandic publication. One typical „spring“ we met Valgarður Ragnarsson, „Valli“ who is a local expert and spring fishing fanatic. The scene was frosty. The terrain was snow covered, the wind was blowing from the north, greatly adding to the chill factor and making it feel that the temperture was at least a half a dozen degrees colder .
Looking for a break. Photo by Orri Magnússon.
But this did not deter Valli and his friends. The friends responded by using their neoprenes and every sheet and layer of fleece and wool available under their wind breakers, making them look more like overweight puffns than anglers. Valli on the other hand was having nothing of the sort, insisting on using his gore tex waders and usual high season attire. Upon meeting them we joked that on our way eastward we had heard a radio announcer introduce the winners of a school level rock band competition . The band‘s name was „Freðnir fávitar“, easily translated as Frozen idiots, which we of course applied to the fly fishermen on location, much to their amusement.
No breaks here! Photo by Orri Magnússon.
Fingers were pretty cold that morning and it took most of the three hour mid-day rest to generate some life back into them. The river was littered with drift ice, some of the rafts so big that it was clearly dangerous to be caught of guard and smacked over the backside by one of them. But as the day wore on, the wind slowed and the sun started to make an impression. Valli showed us his specially tied flies for the spring sea trout, huge heavy tubeflies he used with short fast sinking leaders. „It may take a while, but the trick is to find the fish. The water is so cold that they will not make a dash for the fly. They will not budge to follow it. But if you make it swing right in front of them, they will respond. The strike is slow and heavy and it will feel as if you have hooked a full sized sofa,“ Valli told us. He had, along with his friends, landed and released almost twenty fish late in the morning after the sun had managed to warm things up a bit.
But they are there, you just have to keep trying and looking. Photo by Orri Magnússon.
Part of the spring fishing for sea trout in Iceland is for the retreating fish from last years spawning. They are mature fish, many of them very big. The biggest are several that range from 90 to 100 centimeters and would weigh in their prime 18 to 20-something pounds. 60 to 85 cm sea trout are commonplace. The rest of the catch are smaller juvenile sea trout that are coming and going over the winter months. Most of them are 2 to 3 pounds but quite a lot of them are 4 pounders and some individual juveniles are even bigger. The young trout are generally fatter and firmer. In great condition, while most of the spawners are in better condition than most tend to believe. Most sea trout fishing in spring in Iceland is catch and release fishing but some rivers allow the killing of small quotas of young fiish while all spawners are to be put back.
As said, it is not to late to book a truly different adventure of this sort. You may have seen Iceland in summer, or not, but this is a different experience. The snowline is receeding, the migrant birds are flocking back home. The weather ranges from nasty to tolerable, all of this adding to the mystique and adventure of the fishing trip. All this is on the cards in just a few weeks time. Of our listed rivers, we reccomend Tungulaekur, Litlaa, Tungufljot and Eldvatn.
