Icelandic brown trout are the stuff of dreams. Alex Jardine shares his intimate knowledge of the fishing along with some mouthwatering photos.
In my previous article I looked at the flies I would take to Iceland when encountering their large wild brown trout, but having the right flies is only half the battle. The next part is locating the fish and using the flies.
Throughout Iceland the majority of rivers have crystal clear flows, with the exception of the odd glacial rivers, great you may think, simple you may think... Spot fish, cast to fish, hook fish, job done! Although, as ever, it is not that simple due to several reasons. Firstly, we can put one thing down to Darwinism - these trout have had generations of unmolested evolution improving their camouflage (the very dark colouration and heavily spotted pattern). Then, some of the riverbeds are made up of black lava sand; this makes it quite difficult to judge depth and obstacles, and spotting a dark coloured fish. Lastly, affecting vision are trees, or the lack of. We may complain about them jumping in the way of our casts usually but here as there are no trees lining the water’s edge this creates a lot of glare.
Do not let this put you off, we are not completely out on a limb and there are ways to locate these trout. Firstly we have surface currents and obstacles, and by reading these we can find the likely lies of the trout. Reading water is a subject that has been written about extensively; ultimately it is looking at the surface of the water for any variations such as current changes, bubble lines and obstacles. Below I have turned two photographs from the Laxa I Adaldal in Iceland into diagrams showing the likely lies.
In the first image you will see No. 1 highlights an area of disturbed water, this indicates that something is affecting the flow, in this case a piece of lava rock. Trout love obstacles like this and are often found just behind the rock on either the left or right or directly in front of the rock.
On the outside, No. 2, you will see a distinct difference either side of the line, on the top side you have the main push of the river and on the bottom side is an area of slacker water. Fish are for the best part lazy and greedy, always looking for areas where they have maximum food supply requiring minimum effort. You will often find fish right along No. 2.
In the second image you will see a fairly large obstacle circled, this is causing a lot of disruption including two seam lines marked in red that track back toward the angler. The main obstacle will be constantly stirring up sediment and fresh fish food; all the fish have to do is sit along the red lines and wait for the constant stream of food to come to them.
Aside from reading the water, we are blessed with an even more obvious way of spotting these fish. When a brown trout of 4 – 5 lbs plus decides to take an insect off the surface it displaces a lot of water, usually followed by the wag of a flag like tail. This is a sight hard to miss even at 100 yards! These Icelandic fish love to rise, so when the conditions are right fish can be seen all around you.
So now we have the flies and we know where the fish are, next is to hook them. For the first 11 flies in the previous article, the dry flies and the nymphs, I would personally fish them dead-drift (moving at the same speed as the current), this is easiest when done fishing upstream. As for number 12, the Zonker Streamer, this is best fished swinging across the current like salmon or steelhead fishing.
When targeting the likely areas of the water it is best to fish an attractor style dry fly or a team of flies. The large attractor flies will grab the attention of fish sat slightly deeper in the water and can lure them to the surface. Alternatively you can take your flies to them, for example you can fish Galdra Hopper on a short dropper with a spider or nymph trailing behind on the point. You therefore use the dry fly as both an attractor and an indicator if a fish decides to take the trailing fly.
With the rising fish, like anywhere in the world, they can be infuriatingly difficult or hooked on the first cast, but you must be prepared to change flies! For the one time risers, the fish that show once but then do not rise again, these are generally best targeted with similar methods as above, flies to grab their attention. Alternatively, for the regular risers I would at first observe what they are taking, generally a tiny midge in Iceland – try an F-Fly or Griffiths Gnat. If these small patterns are proving ineffective then don't hesitate to move to the larger flies such as the bibio hopper as sometimes these can persuade the trout to take your offering as opposed to the real thing.
Now all you can do with this information is venture north and test these amazing brown trout for yourselves.
Alex Jardine works for outfitters Aardvark McLeod and hosts trips to Iceland for them. Visit Aardvarks Mcleods site for more information on big Icelandic browns.
