What flies to use for fishing in Iceland - Streamers

So now for the streamers. These can of course be used for brown trout, sea trout, char and salmon and are by no means limited to trout fishing. I remember a fun trip I guided with a group of women from the US for sea trout and we kept catching Atlantic salmon on the "official" sea trout streamers.

But streamers are usually imitations of small baitfish, fry, minnows, smolts or whatever you want to call them. Here all we have are sticklebacks and then of course fry and smolts. There is this salmon river here in Iceland that is too cold to maintain a very healthy stock of salmon and so the managers use a smolt releasing program. This is a feast for the brown trout in the river that rarely take nymphs but will hammer a well presented smolt imitation such as the Rektor fly or Flaedarmus.

Some of these flies I prefer to use for some species of fish rather than others and I've put those comments with the flies in question. Obviously these are not rules just something I personally prefer to do. I like streamer fishing very much as it is a very exciting sport for me. Usually nymph fishing is a lot more effective but sometimes I prefer a violent strike over simply lifting my rod when I notice a fish has taken my dead drift nymph.

My favorite sea trout river is The Huseyjarkvisl River and there I've mastered the method I like the most for targeting sea trout. I like using a Jim Teeny - T-300 line, short leader and a heavy Dyrbitur fly. On the sea trout beats the river is slow and winding with deep holes right next to high, sometimes undercut, banks. I go in where the low bank and shallow part is, cast my fly square and try and hit it right up against the bank. I give it a second to sink and then I start slowly stripping. The take is so violent it gets my heart racing every single time and the beauty of it is the sea trout there are huge!!

So please browse through these patterns and drop me a line if you'd like to buy any of them, book a sea trout trip with us (after reading about the Huseyjarkvisl) or simply chat about what flies to for fishing in Iceland.

Stjani Ben - This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Black Ghost

Kotturinn - "The Cat"

Flaedarmus

Creator: Sigurdur Palsson

Hook: size 2-6 streamer hook

Thread: black

Tail: blue squirrel tail

Tag: black ostrich herl

Body: half silver chenille, half red wool

Ribbing: oval gold

Throat: white bucktail and a few strands of silver flashabou

Wing: red bucktail, two red cock neck feathers, then two grizzly cock neck feathers

Head: black with red eyes and yellow pupils

Designed for the glacial rivers on the south coast of Iceland, especially for fishing in colored water. This fly is one of the most used and most effective sea trout patterns in Iceland. Also works very well on brown trout in rivers where there are salmon smolts available for the trout to feast on. I like to use this fly for sea trout fishing and if you've seen the DVD "The Source - Iceland" this is the fly that huge sea trout that broke off on me took. Available for purchase both the fly and the DVD from us - This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to order some copies.

Nobbler

Bleik & bla - "Pink & blue"