Now that the carpenters are at work on our new house, things are a bit quieter for us, so we were finally able to take a moment for our annual fishing trip to the moorland lake. We weren’t in any rush to get to the valley; we spent the morning watching thousands of runners in the Reykjavík Marathon stream past our house in the south. This year, 14,300 people participated—a record turnout. We didn’t reach the valley until around two o’clock on Saturday.
Between 6:30 and 7:00 PM, we arrived at our fishing spot by the lake. We walked straight down to the water and began fishing in Breiðuvík. Just before eight o’clock, a three-pound brown trout took a black Nobbler at the western end of the bay. Meanwhile, my wife was trying her luck in the middle of Veiðivík, where she felt some activity. I continued further west to the bank that has so often yielded fish, but this time, nothing bit.
I strolled back, and we had dinner in the middle of Breiðavík. Right after our meal, my wife cast into the center of the bay and immediately hooked a four-pounder, which she landed. It was then twenty minutes to nine. Only seven minutes later, she landed another fish, weighing a pound and a half.
Nearly an hour after that, I walked back to the bank west of Breiðavík. I was certain there were fish there, as is usually the case. The fly didn’t yield anything, but I knew the trout sometimes lie further out than my fly can reach. So, I grabbed the spinning rod and hurled a large Toby lure as far as I could—and then he struck. Another four-pound trout was landed right there.
The temperature that evening was like being inside a refrigerator. It was only three degrees Celsius with a fair bit of wind when we started fishing. One’s hands get quite numb under such conditions. Fortunately, the wind died down a little and shifted slightly to the east, though it continued to blow from the north. We headed to bed just after midnight, very content to have fresh fish for the freezer—and it was a pleasure to be able to give the Lithuanian carpenters some freshly caught, pink-fleshed trout from the moorland lake.