The late Haraldur Brynjólfsson, my father-in-law and former farmer at Krókur in Norðurárdalur in Borgarfjörður, told me countless stories of all kinds of fishing in the vicinity of the highland farm Krókur. Halli always had a great interest in fishing, as fishing was a rich part of the struggle for survival at Krókur. One of the stories relates to Krókavatn, as he liked to call it, but on maps, the lake is called Tangavatn.
Tangavatn is a small lake a short distance from the main road at the top of Holtavörðuheiði. A short distance north of Tangavatn is another lake, Djúpavatn. According to Halli, there was once magnificently beautiful char in both of these lakes. To confirm this, he told me about the time when he, as a young man, worked on road construction over the heath. He would sometimes wake up extremely early and dash up to Tangavatn to get fish for the pot. He also told of how sometimes, when he and his brother Gísli were on their way home to Krókur after fox-hunting, they would occasionally stop by the lake and cast for fish. The catch was often three-pound char.
As I sit in the summer cabin Brautalæk and listen to these stories, a desire naturally awakens in me to verify if there is any truth to these tales. Halli believed it was hardly worth the effort because the lakes had become completely useless due to overexploitation by mink and men. I decided to head up to the heath anyway and look at the lakes. In short, I had an exceptionally enjoyable day on the heath in beautiful weather. At the end of the day, the heath actually showed how treacherous it can be. I was sitting comfortably by Djúpavatn eating my lunch when I saw a thick bank of fog coming from the north. I decided then to walk over to Tangavatn and make my way home to the cabin. By the time I arrived at Tangavatn, the weather had turned unpleasant, and visibility had become low. I noticed no fish, so perhaps Halli was right that the lake had been overfished. Or could it be that the blue haze of time had amplified the fishing stories?
I have gone up to Tangavatn with the family several times and always wetted a line but never caught a fish. Indeed, we have noticed fry in the lake, so there is some fish. A few years ago, it happened that I was bored at Brautarlæk and decided to pop up to Tangavatn. I took the fly rod with me, of course, but did not expect anything, as the stories and previous success did not give cause for it. This was in the middle of July, the weather was nice, a little bit of wind and cloudy. I had been pottering around there for three or four hours when suddenly it calms down. The surface of the water becomes mirror-smooth and flies start emerging. I see that there are some rises in front of me, so I put on a dry fly and cast onto one of the rings. The fly had just landed in the water when it was grabbed with force. There, my father-in-law’s story was confirmed. There was beautiful char in Tangavatn. At least one, because I have tried fishing in the lake later and caught nothing.
