Dream Waters: Lake Thingvallavatn

If you’re into fly fishing for monster brown trout, you’ll definitely want to check out Iceland. And if you’re into the biggest and baddest brown trout of them all, you should check out a lake called Thingvallavatn. (Pronounced “Think-vatla-vat’n”).

Thingvallavatn is located half an hour’s drive East of Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland. It is a beautiful geo-thermic rift valley lake with a surface of 84km2, which remains cold throughout the year with water temperatures rarely exceeding 4 degrees. There are, however, some hot springs and rivers coming into the lake, and here, massive and ultra-powerful Ice Age brown trout come in to digest and heat up after having prowled in deeper water. When things go really nuts, schools of more than 100 brown trout will be circling around close to shore, and with an average weight around 3-4 kilos – and fish in excess of 10 kilos thrown into the mix, the fishing can be completely outrageous.

Access to the lake can be tricky, and the fish can tricky to locate. The two best beats, which consistently hold trout because of heavy thermal activity, are managed by ION Fishing - and they are located in the Southern part of the lake. They have tongue-twisting names like Þorsteinsvík and Ölfusvatnsárós, and while the fishing can sometimes be as tricky as pronouncing the names of the two beats, day catches of 10-15 wild brown trout per rod aren’t uncommon. Last year, there were regular reports of fish between 9 and 12 kilos, and a fish around 13,5 kilos was landed.

The ION record is considerably bigger though. It was caught a couple of years back and measured to 102cm with an estimated weight around 17kilos!!!! Additionally, there’s great arctic char fishing to be had throughout the warm summer months.

The ION Beats are catch and release only, and four rods are available per day. The fish are found close to the shore and depending on the general conditions, they can be caught on everything from streamers to nymphs and dry flies – as long as the presentation is just right. Oh, and there’s one other pivotal thing: Make sure you have in excess of 250meter of backing on your reel, if you don’t want to get spooled. The Thingvallavatn brown trout are built like bulldogs, and broken leaders, straightened hooks, and reels emptied of backing are part of the daily routines.

They also offer world class lodging: http://ioniceland.is/