Powerful west Iceland salmon river with dramatic canyon pools and falls. Medium-sized water with excellent multi-sea-winter salmon. Strong hitch tradition. Volcanic bedrock underlies this river. Iceland's salmon are managed conservatively under operator and national rules — quotas, size limits and catch-and-release are widely applied; check the river's rules before fishing.
The Norðurá rises from Lake Holtavörðuvatn at about 326 m on the Holtavörðuheiði moor and runs roughly 65 km through Borgarfjörður to its confluence with the glacial Hvítá. Physically it is the classic West Iceland lava-carved pool-riffle and step-pool river: the channel is cut directly into young basaltic lava and postglacial flows (notably around Grábrókarhraun), and that hard, columnar-jointed bedrock organises the water into an unusually stable sequence of pools, runs and bedrock chutes — roughly 150 named pools along the fishable length. Three significant falls stand out: Laxfoss and Glanni in the middle river, where the channel drops over stacked basalt columns, and Króksfoss upstream. Substrate is dominated by basalt cobble and boulder with the bedrock close to the surface. Tributaries (Gljúfurá, Hvassá, Sanddalsá, Bjarnadalsá) add cobble bedload from the surrounding uplands. Wet basalt at step lips is the main wading trap.
Wading: Wet basalt bedrock at step lips
- River
- Volcanic
- Partly confined
- Pool riffle
- Step pool