“World-class” is one of those monikers that gets thrown around in the fly fishing world, much like the terms “epic,” “legendary,” and the profanely ubiquitous “trophy.” Those charged with marketing angling destinations are an unimaginitive bunch and even for those that are somewhat literarily inclined, there are only so many ways to say “big fish and lots of them.” In truth, there are few destinations that are genuinely unique amongst their counterparts on the globe. There is no shortage of good fisheries and even plenty of great ones. But world-class? Those are few and far in between and one most certainly does not expect to find them hiding in plain sight. On northwest Iceland’s Blanda River, one of the world’s premiere wild brown trout fisheries appears to have been doing just that — sitting conspicuously present, commingled with the river’s historic north coast Atlantic salmon fishery, all but ignored by half a century of anglers too enamored with its itinerant, silver-sided fish to notice. If one Icelandic duo with a penchant for overturning rocks has its way, however, that’s about to change.
The Blanda
The Blanda River in northwest Iceland has welcomed visiting Atlantic salmon anglers to its banks since at least the 1970s and likely far longer. Though the river’s annual runs are highly cyclical, it’s not unusual for it to be amongst the island nation’s top salmon producers. In 2015, anglers fishing on the Blanda landed more Atlantic salmon than on any other river in Iceland — a staggering total of 4,829 fish. The Blanda, like many north coast rivers, is also renowned for being home to some of the largest salmon caught in Iceland. But as multiple generations have plied the river’s waters in search of its salmon, they have also largely overlooked its other fly rod targets which includes Arctic char, sea-run Arctic char, sea-run brown trout, and the aforementioned resident brown trout.
As of the 2025 season, the Blanda is under the care of Reykjavik-based duo Kristján Páll Rafnsson and Sindri Hlíðar Jónsson. The two have spent the last decade or so growing their company — which began as Rafnsson’s side-hustle when he was running a business cleaning offices after hours in the capital city — from a one-river operation into one of the most prolific holders of angling leases in all of Iceland.
Rafnsson and Jónsson’s recipe for success has been unearthing little-known fisheries. Their first real win came when the pair took a couple of mostly ignored rivers in Iceland’s southern Highlands and turned them into an international destination; one whose brown trout and Arctic char catches can now be seen all over social media, bewildering viewers with the staggering size and beauty of both the fish and the waterfall-pocked landscapes that surround them. A few years later, the duo managed to obtain the lease to a three-river sea trout fishery on Iceland’s southeastern coast. The system had been managed for over 40 years by an angling club out of Keflavik solely as a harvest fishery. These days, years after Rafnsson and Jónsson converted the rivers’ management to one of strict catch-and-release, that system has become likely the best sea trout fishery in the entire northern hemisphere — with an annual waiting list of anglers hoping for their chance to fish it.
A Different River
Their newest project, the Blanda, isn’t like other Icelandic rivers. At least, not most of them. Iceland is dotted with hundreds of rivers and thousands of creeks, most of which flow on relatively short, punctuated runs through sterile landscapes born of volcanic rock and sand. The mighty Blanda, on the other hand, Iceland’s longest river, flows for almost 80 miles, most of it through a long, rich, verdant valley brimming with life.
Arctic fox wander the Blanda’s wildflower-clad hillsides and the valley — home to over 40 species — is a birder’s paradise. Arctic terns, redpolls, redwings, meadow pipit, purple sandpipers and white wagtail are popular sightings and mid-river islands serve as major nesting colonies for greylag geese. Fueling it all is an extensive river and wetland system bursting with bug biomass.
For anglers, however, there is no better evidence of the Blanda’s fecundity than its robust fish populations. With anadromous and non-anadramous trout and char as well as Atlantic salmon in the system, the river is one of only a handful in the nation where anglers can go in hopes of achieving an “Icelandic grand slam.”
A Varying Complexion
It’s not only in length and breadth that the Blanda differs from many of its Icelandic counterparts. It differs and varies in complexion, as well. Borne of the Hofsjökull glacier in the northern highlands, the river is unabashedly tinged throughout much of its course.
In its upper reaches, where the river cuts through a tight canyon, its flow is exceedingly clear. As it makes its way to the sea, eventually picking up discharge from a hydropower plant built in the 1990s, the Blanda takes on a decidedly milky, turquoise hue characteristic of glacially influenced rivers. Once joined by its main tributary, the gin-clear Svartá, the river “cleans up” a bit, offering increased clarity primarily for the benefit of onlooking anglers.
As each season progresses, the river’s complexion ebbs and flows, clearing or clouding in tune with the weather and the amount of sun that strikes the Hofsjökull over 50 miles and more than 2000 feet in elevation away.
The Blanda’s fish, for their part, don’t seem to care all that much. Its resident trout and char keep rising to dry flies and chasing down nymphs and streamers and its sought-after salmon continue to slash at skated and hitched flies, regardless of what pigmentation the river greets anglers with on any given day.
5-In-1
Each of the salmonid ecotypes that swim in the Blanda’s waters are worthy fly rod targets on their own and each calls anglers to far flung places on the globe. Anglers travel to Greenland, Iceland and other northern climes in search of both resident and sea-run Arctic char. Sea trout (sea-run brown trout) hail fly fishers not just to native strongholds like Iceland and Scandinavia, but also as far as Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of the South American continent, where the fish were introduced more than a century ago. Atlantic salmon, for their part, have as storied a heritage as any fish in the annals of angling lore. And brown trout are so beloved by trout fishers that they have been introduced to almost every corner of the planet that has proven hospitable enough to host them.
On the Blanda, anglers have access to them all not just in one system, but in the course of a single day’s fishing — and the river’s brown trout may just be the true star of the show or, at the very least, a worthy challenger to the Blanda’s famous Atlantic salmon.
Big Fish and Lots of Them
Those who’ve been in the angling world long enough to let common sense and restraint take the reins from less productive inclinations such as hyperbole and exaggeration have learned that talking in terms of fish size and numbers is a good way to do a hatchet job on your own credibility. After all, fish are notoriously fickle, watersheds all over the planet are changing at a pace we’ve never seen before, weather has a habit of doling out unwelcome surprises, and anglers have a bad habit of looking at the world through rose-colored glasses — adding inches and pounds where they don’t exist and losing count in a way that always manages to err in the positive. Better, time teaches most of us, to just say the fishing was good, not great and be done with it.
Every now and then, however, you find yourself on water that compels you to betray those well-learned lessons. Fisheries that, for the (literal) lack of a better term, have “big fish and lots of them.” With an average trout size of 20 inches, catches of fish two feet or longer a near-daily if not daily occurrence on the river, and resident brown trout stretching the tape to over 30 inches swimming in the system, the Blanda is one of those rivers.
How great is the true potential of this long ignored trout fishery? Much of that is still unknown. The coming seasons will have much to reveal, as visiting anglers ply the waters of the Blanda, the Svartá, and other small tributaries in the system both on foot and from rafts (a first in Iceland for trout anglers), casting dry flies, dry-dropper rigs, nymphs and streamers into riffles, runs, pools and pockets where, in many cases, no one ever bothered to look for trout before.
But these days, with the trout program now squarely in focus, each evening at Long Valley Lodge — which serves as home base for the river’s salmon and trout fishers — is a little bit different than in years past. As anglers show off photos of the day’s catches, a few cocksure anglers steal the early spotlight with images of successfully landed Atlantics, but then the resident fish take center stage. As a parade of photos of fat, often butter-hued, blue-cheeked brown trout make their way around the room, they elicit oohs and aahs from the crowd.
Looking On
As an historic and productive Atlantic salmon river known for possessing one of the highest ratio of returning multi-sea winter salmon (MSW) — which migrate much farther out to sea than single-winter fish (also known as grilse) and are celebrated for their aggressive takes and hard-fighting battles — the Blanda will rightfully continue to call to Atlantic salmon anglers for many years to come. For the first time, however, Iceland’s longest river seems poised to finally get its due credit as a preeminent wild brown trout fishery. One that’s world-class, you might say.
If You Go
When To Go
Fishing season kicks off in early May on the Blanda, as Iceland shrugs off winter and turns its eyes to spring. For the next two months, it’s solely a trout and char show on the river. Come July 1, salmon season begins and anglers can ply the Blanda and the Svartá for trout, char and Atlantic salmon. The season wraps up in mid-August, when snowmelt from the glacier typically creates enough runoff to make fishing conditions unpredictable.
Getting There
Anglers visiting Long Valley Lodge fly into Keflavik (KEF), the airport that serves the island nation’s capital city, Reykjavik. From there, guests take a scenic drive approximately 3 and ½ hours to the north coast of Iceland to the town of Blönduós, where the river meets the north Atlantic Ocean.
Choosing An Outfitter
Fishing on the Blanda, Svartá and other waters within the system is managed solely out of Long Valley Lodge.
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