Fly fishing for Atlantic salmon in Iceland is one of the best options for Atlantic salmon fishing in the world today.
The fishing packages for salmon are most often 3 to 6 days including fishing permit, full board accommodation local transfer and one guide with for every two rods, private guide by request. A few rivers also offer shorter terms and self catering accommodations.
Most of the salmon rivers in Iceland are gin clear and some times easy to spot the fish. Fishing for salmon in Iceland is most often with floating line riffling hitch, small flies or Sun ray shadow for aggressive surface action in the gin clear Icelandic rivers is fantastic if you fish salmon
The salmon season: June 5th to end of sept
The fishing hour: 08:00 to 13:00 lunch break to 16:00 to 21:00
The prime: July 15th to August 15th.
Salmon fishing has been practiced in Iceland since the first settlers arrived here in the late 9th century. Dragnets were widely used, but now people argue whether our ancestors fished by rod or not. (A fine topic for debate, as no one can prove his point) Soon after 1860 English and Scottish gentlemen came here to fish for salmon. They frequented rivers in the south-west area, such as the Ellidaár, Grímsá, Langá, Thverá and Norduá. Some even bought all fishing rights in rivers, like the Elliðaár and the Langá.
This continued for the next 50 years until the First World War put an end to it.
Attendance was never the same.
In the late 1960′s some American anglers rediscovered Icelandic salmon fishing and soon became the most common foreign fishermen in Iceland. In the last two decades the number of European anglers has increased and today they almost equal the Americans.
The flow of foreign anglers increased the demand for good fishing and raised the prices considerably, so local fishermen were not at all pleased. Today this dispute has settled and Icelandic anglers acknowledge that salmon fishing is a costly sport.
Iceland is a great destination for your fishing holiday
River Miðfjarðará (Queen of rivers)
The River Miðfjarðará is one of the best rivers to fish for salmon in Iceland today. The last 5 years average catch is 3.138 salmon per year.
The river system is based on 4 rivers, main river the Miðfjarðará, the Austurá, the Vesturá and the small Núpsá. There are over 220 named pools on the whole system and we only fish with 6 to 10 rods depending on the time of the season.
Anglers will have enough space to fish and the pools are well rested between fishermen to keep the fishing pressure down. The Midfjardara is perfect for those who like to use single or small double-handed rods with floating line and small flies or hitch-tubes.
The main run of the river is predominantly made up of grilse but in the early season the majority of fish tend to be multi-sea-winter fish in the 10 to 18 pound range. The joy of the Midfjardara is that there is so much water to fish that even if one opts out of the canyon section in the Austura there are numerous different pools to fish.
River West Ranga
The river West Rangá is one of the Iceland most providing salmon rivers of Iceland, this 16 rod river provides 4000 – 7000 salmon each year.In the river you fish for Atlantic salmon few Arctic char and sea trout are also caught each year. The Salmon size is 5-7 pounds and 9-16 pounds the multi winter salmon. The salmon in the river has great shape, and the male fish that are coming after spending one year in the sea are often be 6-9 pounds.
River Fossá
River Fossá is medium size salmon river in the South of Iceland. Foss is the Icelandic word for waterfall and you will see Tree stunning waterfalls where you can fish in. Háifoss at the top of the trout beat is the second highest waterfall in Iceland 122m. Fossá river system is fly only, catch and release. The salmon beat is below the waterfall Hjálparfoss.
River Sog
Go salmon fishing in Iceland and fish River Sog for Atlantic salmon
The River Sog lies in the south of Iceland, around a one hour drive to the east from Reykjavik. It is the largest spring-fed river in Iceland and runs from Lake Thingvallatn to its junction with the glacier-fed river Hvita although, due to hydro-electric installations, only some 12 kms are passable by salmon.
