Ian Gordon
- Jul 17, 2021
- 4 min read

Iceland 2021 The Beautiful Blanda River

Iceland Trip 2022 – River Blanda 8th - 15th July

Travel

Having arrived in Iceland on the 4th July, to give us time to prepare for our group of 8 rods arriving on the 7th, it soon became obvious during the 3 hour drive up Icelands west coast, without rain, a great many rivers would be struggling for at least one of the 3 basic elements required to catch salmon. Thankfully we were heading to the Blanda river where, because its Lake fed, had a good supply of fresh water.

When fishing the Blanda our group is spoiled by having up to 60km of the river and over 100 beautiful salmon pools to just 8 rods. This would be equivalent to having Gordon Castle – Tulchan for just our Group. Spoiling or What!?

Cadence Microspey Rod

Playing a fish in one of the top pools where wading is simple

Having said that, the Blanda river is characterised by having an extremely powerful waterfall around one mile from the sea. Immediately below these falls, lies a large pool in which almost every fish is taken in until enough fish have ascended the falls to populate those beautiful pools above.

Salmon Fishing Iceland

Another Pool on beat 2 on the Blanda. A double hander is important.

What does this mean for the fishing? Well, for those fishing this pool it means you have a great chance of a fish or two off each tide. However, if the rotation takes you above here then you're reliant on decent numbers having crossed the falls. That said, we had fish in a few of the pools above the lodge and this was on what has been a very mediocre run of fish so far around Iceland.

Beautiful Blanda Iceland

The Falls and Lower pools. Wading here is more tricky but fishing fantastic.

Another feature of Blanda are its fish. All, including Grise, are noticeably more powerful than that of home, their strength coming from being genetically adapted to ascend the falls. Unlike many others and most people's perception of Iceland, the river also has a great run of MSW fish, making for some seriously epic fights with fish. And that not all, the resident population of Brown Trout and Arctic Char are the strongest fishing fish of their class I’ve ever encountered.