Exactly a week ago, I parked my car south of Arnarfell. At that time, there were no other cars in the lot, and for a long while, I had all the fishing spots to myself. This Sunday morning, however, was a different story. There were already four cars in the lot, I was the fifth, and I had barely stepped out of my car when a sixth pulled up behind me.
As expected, all the usual fishing spots near Arnarfell were occupied. This congestion prompted me to look for new territory. I walked south along the eastern bank—certainly further than I usually go, as from where I stopped, I could see the farms of Miðfell and Mjóanes. On my way south, I soon came across a spot that looked promising, but I decided to save it for the walk back. I eventually stopped in the bay where my wife and I had fished on August 4th, 2017. I had a brownish nymph on, cast it out, and it was taken almost immediately. The strike wasn’t particularly aggressive, so I assumed I had hooked a small Arctic char or a ‘murta’ (small landlocked char). I took my time reeling in the slack line, handling it rather casually. Suddenly, the fish bolted—it turned out to be much larger than the initial strike had suggested.
Afterward, I strolled back along the bank, casting in places where I thought fish might be lying. I hadn’t gone far when another fine snail-eating char took my fly, a Peacock. I continued along the bank and saw that two boys had claimed the spot I had scouted earlier. I’ll just have to save that spot for another time. Just south of them, I took a few casts and got a powerful strike. That fish got away, but of course, I cast a few more times. After a few tries, there was another hard hit. The fish immediately showed itself by jumping several times. It was clearly a brown trout, not a char. This time, I managed to land it.
I then landed one more char in the hollow by ‘the stone.’ So, in this trip, I landed three Arctic char (1 lb, 1.5–2 lbs) and one brown trout (1.5–2 lbs). I sat down for a bit with the fisherman by the stone; he had landed one handsome trout. There seems to be no question about it: the trout population in the lake is increasing. Back at the car, I ran into the boys who had been fishing ‘my’ spot. They had landed about ten char.”