Iceland fly fishing adventure travel tips

Iceland: A Fly Fishing Dream

DIY fly fishing adventure travel films, photographs, blog postsIceland fly fishing adventure travel tips

We recently returned with huge smiles fresh off a DIY fly fishing trip to the land of fire and ice to provide you with Iceland fly fishing adventure travel tips. By no means was this an easy itinerary. But, we worked hard, chased and caught fish of a lifetime while surrounded by Iceland’s unmistakeable and ethereal volcanic landscape. During our 8-day adventure we wandered the countryside and fly fished a variety of lakes, creeks and rivers. Hundreds of hours went into planning this trip. Having learned some hard lessons, we came back with a few Iceland fly fishing adventure travel tips to pass on to you to help make your fly fishing adventure to this one-of-a-kind destination seamless and fun.

Is Iceland worth it?

This is a question about Iceland often heard in the fly fishing community. The answer is a resounding “hell yeah”. This country boasts some of the best trout and char fishing I have ever experienced. Having said that, it’s one of the most difficult places to fish in terms of logistics and the understanding of where to fish (not to mention obtaining permission to fish). All of Iceland basically acts as “private property fishing” meaning permission and/or permits must be obtained prior to fishing any waters. This might sound like a big turnoff but it actually makes sense and can be a positive in the long run. The local Icelandic people are still a bit old-school and seem to kill every fish they catch. When doing research for this trip you will see photo upon photo of smiling locals standing over there dead catch on the bank in numbers ranging from dozens to hundreds. In some lakes they drag big nets through and harvest huge amounts of fish. This mentality comes from historical suffering during hard times where they had to rely on fish yields to get them through—understandable when you stop and think about it. That’s why the “pay-to-play waters” really are a good idea as these waters are protected from being cleaned out. Not to mention the fish grow big… very big. If you’re thinking about heading to Iceland to chase large brown trout and arctic char, here are a few Iceland fly fishing travel tips from lessons we learned.

 

Iceland fly fishing adventure travel tips

 

Tip #1: Turns out Iceland is a big country

We greatly underestimated the size of Iceland as well as the time it takes to navigate the winding roads found throughout the island. If you’re traveling for a week or less it’s highly recommended that you focus on specific areas to avoid spending your time sitting in the car the entire time.

 

Iceland fly fishing adventure travel tips

Tip #2: Rent a 4×4

Rent a 4×4 if you want to fish the highlands, a real 4×4! Early in the planning process we realized we needed to rent a 4×4 rated for “F” roads if we were going to travel within the interior to the more remote highland lakes. We encountered problems when our 4×4 had very little clearance and had to turn around when trying to access some sought-after, high country lakes and creeks. Spend the $$ and get a real 4×4 if you’re planning on going into Iceland’s interior.

 

Iceland fly fishing adventure travel tips

 

Tip #3: Buy the fishing card

Buy the fishing card but use it wisely. Purchasing this card is an economical way to fish a bunch of water around Iceland and get more bang for your buck! This card costs about $60USD and gives you access to 36 lakes in Iceland. We found these lakes to be hit or miss—mostly misses, unfortunately. The fly fishing card a worthwhile purchase when planning around the other rivers you’ve already set up, especially if you’re close by one of the lakes or have extra time to kill. Order it well in advance of your trip. Once ordered you should receive it in about 10 days with a solid brochure with some great information and options to study.

 

 

Tip #4: Contact a local fly fishing company to book private rivers

I know this is a little different from fishing in other countries but it’s really the way to go in Iceland. Most booking companies, like gofishing.is, have a lot of options to choose from and will put you on the best water for the season you’ll be in Iceland as the fishing changes greatly throughout the year. The rivers we chose were $200/day per angler. We shared two rod fees between three people in order to save money which seemed to work great. You usually get 12 hours of fishing for the full day so we didn’t mind sharing the rods.

 

Iceland fly fishing adventure travel tips

 

Bonus Travel Tip

If you lack cold weather camping gear or just don’t want to travel with huge bags, there is a great company that rents out most camping gear you’d want. They also have camping gas for stoves for sale. We traveled with most of our gear but rented camp chairs and a table while in Iceland. Having essential camp gear definitely made our trip much more comfortable. Order your gear well in advance of your trip as it’s a very popular service: iceland-camping-equipment.com.

Here’s a few other links to check out:

 

We hope these tips help in planning your own Iceland fly fishing trip and, as always, feel free to contact us with questions.

 

Story, Photos and Film by Ryan Bonneau
cofounder • Chasing Scale
ryanbonneauphoto.com

4 Responses

  1. It is possible to fish in Iceland really cheap, well, in the vicinity of cheap at least for you have to get tickets, transportation and stuff so it adds up. We agree on the tips here above for sure. Here are some more things to have in mind. Also info about Veiðivötn, paradise on earth:
    http://bit.ly/2CFEay9
    Tight lines!

    1. Thanks for the comment GO Iceland, and sorry for the late reply as we were traveling and overlooked it. This is some great info ,Veiðivötn was an place we really wanted to get to but ran out of time. We are thinking about another August trip this year so will definitely hit you up if it happens. Tight Lines!

  2. I have a dream to have it from my childhood. Just searching for this exactly. Glad to find your post. I will love to go there for fishing. Will be full of so much fun & enthusiastic. Lovely post. Happy blogging.

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