Short guide on Stora Laxá.

With no doubt , Stora Laxá is not only the most beautiful river that I have ever fished , it is also my all time favorite! Stora Laxá have 3 different beats , beat no 1 and 2 fishes 4 rods , beat 3 fishes only 2 rods and beat 4 fishes 4 rods. Every beat is very spacious , beat 1 and to 15 km , beat 3 is around 5 km and beat 4 is 15km , enourmus freedom for anglers with endless numbers of beautiful fly water. I will explain the beats and my experience how to fish Stora Laxá , i will start on beat 1 and 2 wich is the lowest beat on the river.

Beat 1 and 2 as all the beats have a self catering romantic lodge , lodge have 4 twin rooms and all modern facilitise including a jacuzzi. I fish Stora Laxá at all times with full floating lines , if water is cold i might fish heavier flies but still using floating line , Stora Laxá Salmon is super aggressive and love to come up and eat the fly on the surface! My favorite fly is Sunray Shadow 2 to 5 cm long , I will hitch it as well , I hardly take this fly off for the whole season , i might use heavy brass version if water is cold. I will use both single handed rod 7 weight 9.6 foot and double handed rod 9 weight 13.6 foot or similar. My favorite pools on beat 1 and 2 starting from the top of the beat is , Kalfhagahylur pool .. hot spot is from 15 meters above the cliff nose and until 30 meters below the cliff , amazing pool , 500 meters below is the Ofaerustreingur pool .. here you simply have to fish from the very top to the very end .. hot spot is the lower middle part of the pool. Below Ofaerustreingur is a pool called Flatistreingur , you fish that pool from the gravel side that is the on the east bank , high middle part of the pool you will see a blue sign on the oppesite bank with the name of the pool , the hot spot is from 5 meters above the sign until 30 meters below the sign , hot spot is exactly 5 meters below the sign. I am jumping over many pools that you may or not catch fish … I am only telling you abot the most important places , rest you can figure out your self. Next pool below is a great great pool and must be the best pool on the whole river Bergsnos pool, here you start on the very top .. you fish the run until it hits the big cliff , then you fish slowly beside the cliff until you come to a rock sign in the cliff which is like a line going down the whole cliff .. like Elephant trump … the hottest place is from the Elephant trump and 10 meters up, still you have to fish like 10 meters below the trump , another hot spot is the very tail of the pool if the water is good or high , fantastic taking spot , but useless in low water. Next great hot spot and just 200 meters below the tail of Bergsnos is the Fjosahvammur pools , they are three pockets , they are all great taking spots , i find the middle one to be the best one , it is amazing place and my best afternoon on the middle pocket was 18 salmon in a row! Next great hot spot is below the lodge pools called Stuðla Streingir and Laxárholt , they are connected together , you will have to start right on the top and fish through , the very hot spot is from where the Green Bank starts until the Green Bank ends , then you have a dead sone for 30 meters , the lower hot spot is where the nose of cliff stands out to the river , the red hot spot is from 3 meters above the nose and 2 meters below the nose , you still fish the pool trough but fast until the very tail. 1 km below the bridge on the high way is a pool called Langibakki very long pool , just fish the last 80 meters of the pool to the tail , here I have saved many days fishing Stora Laxá. Some km below there is a pool called Reykholmi , here you cross the river by feet and walk down stream on the east bank , there will be a point with rocks on the lower part of the pool , fish from 5 meters above the point and 70 meters below the point. Next great spot is few km below a pool called Kongsbakki , you will see many man made rocky points on the ather site , the hot spots is at point no 1 , 2 and 3 from the top , fly have to reach all the way to the points. Next pool below is called Stekkjarnef .. great pool but boaring , this pool can give you great numbers of fish if you hit it right, you cross the river by feet , then look for the first point on the bend , look for iron stick standing out of the ground , start 20 meters above the iron stick , hot spot is 5 meters above the stick and then all the way down..it must be 200 meters! A very good spot on this pool is when you are 50 meters below the stick , normaly if I have not found fish at that time i leave the pool , if I am caching fish i go all the way down. Now we are at the bottom of the beat , there will be still some 5 km to the end of the beat with fishable pools , same for the whole river there is endless amount of pools that you may catch fish , but this pools that I have been telling you about are my favorite and the most important ones , it will be the pools that in any case you will fish 80% of your Salmon , once you have fished the best pools carefully it is a time to explore and fish ather pools , rest the good pools and perhaps come back in the evening and catch another one!