Idaho Falls

30 IDAHO FALLS MAGAZINE APRIL 2019 Iceland • Size: 39,800 square miles (island) • Highest point: 6,926 feet (Hvannadalshnjukur) • Rivers are private property • Farmers own water and the fish in it • Guided fishing is mandatory • Guide pays farmer per fish • Fish one beat (with farmer permission) • One rod per beat • Sheep are common on banks • No trees • Bog cotton • Sea trout • Atlantic Salmon swim a few dozen miles to spawn in Iceland Idaho • Size: 83,600 square miles (landlocked) • Highest point: 12,662 feet (Borah) • Rivers are public property • Farmers own water use rights • Guided fishing is optional • Buy a fishing license • Fish any section(s) • Unlimited anglers with rods • Cows are common on banks • Cottonwood, aspen, evergreen • Dandelions • Brown trout • Pacific salmon swim more than 800 miles to spawn in Idaho times daily. You don't put perfectly edible fish back in the water. Birgir didn't either until the year he counted only 17 Atlantic salmon in the Húsey. "Past days of 17 is ridiculous. It's almost nothing," he says. "My brothers and I prob- ably hooked 10 of those 17. That was the year I knew we needed to make a change." He counted 370 salmon in 2016. The change is significant, but still foreign to natives. When anglers walk into a local café wearing waders, the waiter thinks they're rafters. Rafting in waders is suicide. Trying to explain that to people who would rather sit in hot pools than stand in cold water is frustrating. Figuring out Iceland's fly fishing formula is just as frustrating. Here's a day on the water in Idaho versus Iceland. IF Look familiar? Swap out the mountainscape, throw in some bruiser rainbow trout and this Icelandic scene could easily pass for Harriman State Park right here in eastern Idaho.

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