Many anglers had the same idea as my partner and I: to celebrate the National Day (June 17th, 2014) at Lake Þingvallavatn. The weather was absolutely fantastic—warm, calm, and overcast.
We decided to try fishing at a new spot, either Davíðsgjá or Gjáendar. I’m not entirely sure how far south we had come, so I might not be using the exact correct place names here. We ended up scrambling over rocks and fishing in rather difficult conditions for fly fishing—there was very little room for a backcast. We saw immediately that there were fish there, as the char swam along the cliffs in the crystal-clear water. It was a beautiful sight, and now it was just a matter of offering them something they would be interested in. That didn’t work, so we moved further north along the bank where the conditions were better.
After a rather long struggle, we managed to hook six char. Four of them were landed. We persisted for a considerable time and tried numerous flies. The char were picky, but they seemed to like the Pheasant Tail and Peacock best. One char took a Frisco. It would be a crime to say things were moving fast for us, so eventually, we got tired of the slog and headed to more familiar grounds. We drove around Arnarfell and fished from the gravel bank there. We landed two small char on a Pheasant Tail just before heading home.
