Lakes Skriðuvatn and Haugatjarnir Jule 7th, 2016

It was worth a shot

Haugatjarnir are two small ponds on the land of the farm Haugar in Skriðdalur. The ponds only contain small brown trout. Here, we are looking south along the water toward the farm.

From the first to the eighth of July, my wife and I, along with our daughter Lilja, my sister Jenna, and my mother, stayed in an Efling union summer cottage at Einarsstaðir in Fljótsdalshérað. There were interesting fishing opportunities all around us. However, we decided to limit our fishing trips to lakes included in the Veiðikortið (Fishing Card), as there was naturally much else we wanted to see. We aren’t on the other side of the country every day, after all.

The lakes offered by the Fishing Card near Einarsstaðir are Skriðuvatn, Haugatjarnir, and Urriðavatn. We found Skriðuvatn to be the most intriguing, so we headed there on Sunday evening, July 3rd. Skriðuvatn is located by Highway 1, just before drivers choose between Breiðdalsheiði or the Öxi pass. The lake is about one square kilometer in size and is said to harbor large brown trout along with smaller ones and Arctic char. It appeared deeper on the northern side, so we stayed there for the two hours we allotted for fishing. To put it briefly, we had no success.

Looking north along Skriðuvatn, where the river Múlaá flows out of the lake.

Looking south. The ridge where the river flows down the gorge is Vatnsdalsháls, and this is either Höfðalækur or Forviðará. Further in at the head of the lake, the river Öxará flows into the water. It is shallower there than at the northern end.