World class trout fishing ...on a world class salmon river
Our reporting on Vatnsdalsa has been primarily focused on its huge reputation for big salmon. However what is well known in Iceland, yet not so well known abroad is its outstanding trout fishing.
Vatnsdalsa is in the top five of Icelandic rivers to visit for big salmon. No doubt. Yet it not only has an exclusive trout beat on its lower reaches, the salmon beats upstream have outstanding trout fishing as well. Pétur Pétursson, the rivers outfitter told us, „sea char have been caugth in Vatnsdalsa in great abundance for as long as anybody remembers. Many of them are the usual 1-2 pound Icelandic sea char but there are also scores of bigger fish. Over the recent years the char runs have been somewhat more subdued compared to the old days but the brown trout, both stationary and sea run, have come on strong instead.“
A heavy thick bodied sea trout
In fact, some pix we ran on our Icelandic website last season showed some British guests that tried out the trout beat. They had some great action and just looking at the photos, twhich we are running here again, it‘s obvious what anglers are in for, especially if they use light tackle. And in fact, last year the char runs seemed to be recovering, without harming the upswing of the brown trout.
A big sea char. This one would be a spawner
The sea trout are especially plentyful these days and as a result, the season has been prolonged on the lowest pools on the salmon beats deep into October, exclusively for sea trout fishing. It is extreamly popular with local anglers and practically sold out in advance. These are fish ranging to 10-12 pounds (5-6 kilos) while the norm is anywhere brom 2 to 5 pounds. The char that are caught on the salmon beats are the spawners, so they have a high average weight and it is very good for the rivers char stock that most of the spawners are on the salmon beats as they are not the main quarry there and are mostly released anyway, while the is a licence to kill fish on the trout beat.
Sea char are amazing to eat and cooked here in Iceland. Photo by Einar Falur
To throw back to last season, a good friend of ours dropped in for a visit to Pétur the outfitter and as it happened there was a half days opening. It was a hot, sleazy day and the salmon were lazy. Every pool was full of them but the weather was a put off.
While our freind waited for the evening shadows, a lower centigrade and hopefully a breath of wind, he visitied two pools situated at the bottom of the middle salmon beat. These pools are seldom fished although they do hold salmon. But our friend went there for the char who are not as suspect towards sunshine and low water. In the first pool he hauled out twelve fish, 2-4 pounders in almost as many casts, using a very small red Frances. In the other pool they stopped taking after fish number nine.
Needless to say, a salmon was almost not required to make the day any better, but they did oblige late in the evening when the conditions finally improoved. Placing himself just above two dozen salmon holding midway in a slow running pool, having a mere half an hour left of the days fishing, he managed, by stripping a half inch floating Sunrey tube, to hook four salmon. Two were off in an instant following splashy strikes. The others were landed and released. One was a fine grilse, the other an 85 cm, ca 14 pound female!
