Despite some extreame cold conditions this spring and early summer, some of the brown trout fishing has been out of this world. Not everybody knows this, but the brown trout is a native to Iceland and it grows to be very big indeed!

The sea trout season started off well despite a bout of bad weather which sparked a run of floating ice and some moderate flooding and discoloring. Anglers set upon a few rivers following a night of heavy sleet and snow which turned to rain in the early hours.

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.

„Dýrbítur“ in Icelandic is a term used for foxes and stray dogs that attack livestock, mainly lambs and occasionally, even full grown sheep. Why would an Icelandic streamer fly be named „Dýrbítur“? And an even more difficult question: How best to translate the name into Englist? Livestock chomper?

At this point there are less than three months until we open the season of 2009 with some outstanding sea trout fishing. Spring fishing for sea trout in Iceland is for the hardy type of angler as the conditions are quite often difficult. But this is an aspect of fly fishing in Iceland that one must add to the collection of adventures.

Litlaá was good in 2008. It starts in April and fishes into October. It is a very prolific river in the early months but by middle June and to the end of August the sea trout are out of the river feeding in salt water. Stationary trout pick up the baton until the sea trout start running again late in the season.