Frosty start close to the volcano
Sea trout under the ice sheet at Tungulaekur. Photo by Heimir Óskarsson.
We had a pretty frozen start to the seaon of 2010. Early March was very promising, it really looked as if spring had come early, but no, we seem to to need remembering that we live in Iceland and not someplace far further south!
So, as April 1rst arrived we had seen several days of intense freezing. Rivers and lakes that had shed their ice, where again under an ice sheet, making fishing very testing indeed. Finnish anglers fishing Tungulaekur landed 15 sea trout but only after the high noon sun had upped the tempertures considerably. On Minnivallalaekur, things where also difficult, although the group that opened the river landed eleven browns, among them to specimens of 70 centimeters each, 7 to 9 pounders, according to their condition. On the morning of day one, the temperture said 11 below zero celcius plus the wind factor, pulling it all up to 20plus below zero.
On Tungufljot the first group at first thougth that they may well have gone straight home at first. Yet, they found a hole in the ice and landed several sea trout. The same was to be said of Varmá, the anglers starting in the sever cold of day one landed close to 40 fish. Varmá is warmer than most, due to hot springs emptying into the river. What was out of the ordinary was the fact that almost half of the catch where 4 to 12 pound char. A few years back the big char where prominent in the river, yet they then seemed to disapear. But they are obviously back.
The cold snap will delay the sea trout retreating from the rivers so it is not to late to book a trip to Iceland. The fishing may well endure into May. The volcano, although close by, has no bearing on the fishing.
