Paul Procter reports on his recent 10 days in Iceland…..
According to records the summer of 2015 in Iceland will go down as the coldest since 1979. With snow still clinking to surrounding peaks, I accompanied a small group to the Minnivallalaekur in southern Iceland. Reputed for producing glass case specimens, huge trout filled our minds that finger crossed, would respond to dry flies. Thankfully the Minni’s midge population didn’t seem deterred by those frigid temperatures and around 11am each morning a hatch got underway. No stranger to travel, Steve Bodley was soon off the mark with some handsome trout (Photo 1), a wee CdC shuttlecock being his choice of medicine. I too found the very same pattern devastating on a clutch of feeding fish holding in one of the many side channels (Photo 2).
Far from being a conformist, Kevin Stolz bucked the trend by opting for a deer hair hair sedge, which worked its magic in more streamy flows (Photo 3). Mind you, judging by the number of cased caddis we found, he’d made a good call (Photo 4). Over a 3 day window we experienced a range of conditions from driving hail, to sunny, flat calms. As for the fish they ranged from 1.5lb to 7lb with a good average size around 4.25lb. Most trout succumbed to dries, yet when a nasty downstream breeze kicked in, weighted nymphs and the occasional streamer saved our bacon.
In stark contrast to the Minni, which resembles a spring creek, the Breiddalsa tumbles down a steep sided valley that constantly churns up a substrate of boulders and pebbles (Photo 5). Granted, such stonework is far from an ideal midge habitat, but caddis and terrestrials kept the trout going here. And what fish they are, some of the cleanest, well marked trout I’ve come across (Photo 6). I think it fair to say, few of these fish had crossed paths with man before! Best of all, they responded positively to dry flies, even when natural insects were absent.
Naturally, wild brown trout were high on our agenda, but it takes a strong willed person to ignore dimpling arctic char. When the wind fell light, literally hundreds of them would gather in wide pools close to the estuary. There were salmon too and not just an odd one. That several fell to our nymphing tactics whilst trout fishing is testament enough (Photo 7). So, whilst Iceland itself shivered, we experienced fishing that can only be described as “blistering”…
Paul Procter July 2015