The sky was overcast and a mild southerly breeze blew as I drove across Mosfellsheiði this morning. Not a single car was in the parking lot at Lambhagi, so I decided to commit to the twenty-minute hike out to Leirutá. It had been quite some time since I last tried fishing from Leirutá, so I felt it was time to reacquaint myself with the spot. On my way out, a vixen (lágfóta) bolted ahead of me down toward the riverbank. I didn't spot any mink, though I’ve heard they used to be quite aggressive toward fishermen in the past. It's my understanding that efforts to cull their population have yielded great results.
There was clearly some fish in the area. At the very least, I saw one sizeable char dart away from me as I waded into the water. I had been fishing for about an hour when my former high school chemistry teacher appeared on the bank.
Together, we fished Leirutá until nearly noon, chatting about fishing in the lake. The Arctic char seems to be larger now, though despite reports on social media of great catches, the fish are likely fewer and further between. We weren’t exactly in a feeding frenzy, but I did manage to land a 1200-gram snail-eating char on a caddis larva imitation (randafluga). The chemistry teacher landed two good char that morning. I then fished eastward from Kríunes until I was nearly at Vatnskot. That particular hike was entirely uneventful.