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Henry Mountain reports on his trip to Laxa in Kjos, Iceland, 26 - 30 July

Having not fished the Laxa in Kjos for a few years, I had forgotten what a beautiful river it is and what fun it can be.

Travelling with a small group of clients, we found extremely low-water conditions but the river was stuffed with salmon. Peering into some of the meadow pools on a bright day, you could see them packed in, with sometimes up to 300 salmon in a pool.

Despite the low water, fish were caught by adjusting techniques accordingly. Most people were using trout rods (9ft 6wt or smaller) and generally tiny flies down to size 16. That said, Sunray Shadows, Monkeys, and even a Sculpin, produced fish which shows just how aggressive these Icelandic fish can be. Small hitched flies worked a treat which was superb as you saw every fish actually take the fly. Everyone caught fish (four rods caught about 60 fish over four days) but what made it such fun was the amount of other interest we got for every fish that actually made it to the bank.

It was unanimously accepted that the guides were knowledgeable and worked hard to get us all some fish that we otherwise would never had caught. It goes without saying that they know the river well. Would you dare fish a nymph with a dry fly as a strike indicator or would you simply try a dry fly for salmon? We caught some big sea trout on upstream dry flies (sea trout up to 8lbs were caught) and even a salmon was taken in the same way.

There were a few really notable moments for me. There was one afternoon where we had a very strong wind blowing consistently at 30-40 mph. Not fun for casting but the fish in one pool were clearly agitated. We must have seen more than 200 fish roll and jump over the space of a few hours. Sharing a rod, we caught nine fish all off exactly the same spot. This was all using a hitched fly, and at least another 30 were raised.

On our last evening, we witnessed one of nature’s spectacles as we watched fish running a small fall of perhaps six foot. For several hours you could barely look at the fall without seeing fish trying to get over. Similarly, in the same place, the following morning, we saw fish pouring into the pool and pots below the fall, yet none of them trying to run the fall.

The cost of a 4 night/4 day trip to the Laxa in Kjos is £3,900 per rod. The cost if sharing a rod is £2,250 per person.

Call Henry on 020 3301 330 if you are interested in fishing the Laxa in Kjos.