Iceland – Land of Water and Fish

08-14 August 2026

Robert has a bucket list of places he wants to fish—both for the fish and for the experience of places he has not yet visited. Patagonia, Alaska, and Solvenia are a few. This year we decided to go to Iceland with Fish Partners. Robert had heard about them from Leo at Fish First in Albany, California.

But how did we get there

We flew out of SFO on 7 August first to Calgary, then from Calgary, with an unexpected stop in Winnipeg to refuel, and finally to Keflavik Airport outside of Reykjavik, landing about 9:00 AM, 1.5 hours behind schedule. Passport control was backed up with hundreds of people, many arriving for the solar eclipse.
The shuttle driver taking us to the lodge, about three hours north, was running late too. We arrived at the lodge a little after 3:00, and the staff immediately hustled Robert out to get in a half day of fishing before dinner.

**ScreenshotThe van from the lodge was a bit late.**

Long Valley Lodge

The lodge is located next to the Blanda River with access to several other rivers nearby. It has 12 guest rooms.

**With lodge staff, Bonnie waited for the eclipse that was barely in evidence because of the heavy cloud cover.**

Our room

The interior of the lodge. The guides had a separate wing for sleeping and eating.

Fishing by Beats

Fish Partners has about three locations in Iceland, with another lodge soon to open in Greenland. Fishing in Iceland is unique in that all the rivers are under lease from landowners. Where we fished, 80+ owners formed a fishing association and built out the infrastructure to support the sport. This includes the lodge buildings, trails, stairways, bridges, etc. There are even self-service lodges that give you the right to fish a section of a river.

The rivers are divided into beats. In the case of our lodge, the Blanda River is divided into Beats 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4. There are other rivers nearby that they also access, Each beat allows a maximum number of rods (people) to fish it at one time. Fish Partners assigns a guide to one or two people and they rotate the beats according to how productive they are and to the fisher’s casting ability. Robert fished six days, a half day at the start and the end and five full days in between.

The lodge said that our group was one of the most successful they had this season. There was a 20-year-old who was on the US National Euronymphing team and his dad, another 20 something from Montana who fishes a lot, and 23-year-old, and his dad, from Georgia where he manages some acreage for fishing. The group were all friends. One young guy took 40 fish euronypmhing in one half-day outing! Robert came in close second with six fish from the same river! Ha.

Each day, Sindri who runs this lodge, posts the assignments matching a guide with each guest. The days starts at 7:00 am with breakfast, out to fish at 8:00 AM, and back at 1:00 PM for lunch. The afternoon shift starts at 3:00 PM and finishes at 8:00 PM, dinner at 9:00/9:30 PM. This allows a rest for the river that is required—12 hours each day. Not much rest for the guests.

We were the last set of guests before the lodge shut down fishing for season—then it serves as a hotel for the next few weeks. This makes for a short operation, with the season starting in April and closing in mid August. One of their other lodges operates longer.

And what did Bonnie do?

Bonnie came prepared with books to read, naps to get over the seven hours or jet lag, and one outing to a textile museum in the nearby town. (See photos at the end of this post.)

Equipment and Techniques

Robert brought his nine-foot 5 and 6 wt rods along with a ten-foot 7 wt rod. Both guides also brought 8 wt rods. Many in the group brought two-handed spey rods. This allowed them to reach greater distances and to do less wading into the river when fishing for salmon. Something to think about.

Although Robert brought a myriad of fly lines, the guides opted for the floating lines. In one case, we added an intermediate head to bring the flies slightly below water level. Spit shot was also used. We fished with and without indicators; dry fly and droppers, and larger flies that we swung across the currents stripping the flies with short fast strips. Your goal is to direct the fly to cover as much water as possible, sometimes mending the fly to direct it to targeted areas.

When nymph fishing, we sometimes used two to three flies below the indicator. The last day, we hitched (skated) the fly across the current for salmon. The tube flies are tied on from the front side of the tube to create a skating action to attract the salmon. Very effective.

Guides

Guides are always interesting. They are usually young —in this case early to late thirties (in comparison to Robert at 76). At this lodge, the guides were from Argentina, Serbia, Sweden, and Iceland. They use an app where they pin locations where they have caught fish, including number, type, and size. When their clients have caught a good sized fish, they message each other along with a photo.
If you catch a resident artic char, a brown trout, and an Atlantic salmon on the same day, it is a Grand Slam, with a t-shirt as an award. When you have caught your first Atlantic salmon, you are greeted at lodge with a shot of aqua vit and hakarl (fermented shark). Robert took the aqua vit. Not the shark.

Ahmed

Iraqi heritage, born in Sweden where he lives during the off season. Nice fellow. Very patient and instructive. Even when you have hooked a large salmon as Robert did on his last day, Ahmed remained calm, instructing Robert on how to guide the fish to the bank. He commented that he is beginning to feel some aches and pains at 31 years of age. Robert told him to just wait a bit. Ahmed finds employment in Sweden during the offseason.

Thio

Born in Serbia, he guides in Iceland for the season—April through September. He was very instructive to Robert and greatly helped his casting with the 7 wt rod. (Robert still needs much improvement and promised to practice more at the casting ponds in Golden Gate Park.) Thio is 37 years of age and is working towards his certification as a fly fishing guide. The process is quite extensive and spans three years after you have passed the entry requirements.

How Robert Did

Day 1 (afteroon)—Thio – Beat 2 — One 20 and one 18 inch brown trout
Day 2—Ahmed – B1 and Svarta— 34+ inch Atlantic salmon and 1 brown
Day 3 —Thio —B2 and B3—2 lost. 2 bumps
Day 4 —Thio—Kolka and B1— 6 Ocean Char and one 33 inch salmon
Day 5 —Thio—B0 and B2—One bump at mouth. Low tide
Day 6 —Thio—Svarta and B1—One 18 inch brown; one char; and three salmon — one 23+ inch, 25 inches, and one 30+ inches
Day 7 (morning)—Ahmed—Beat 4—Two salmon – One 24+ inches and one 33+ inches.

Day 1

Day 2. The salmon did not survive being hooked through the gills. We took it back for dinner. Another group had the same experience. Ahmed claimed the roe for breakfast the next day.