Iceland: 2026 Long Valley Lodge Hosted Trip Report + 2027 Dates Announced

Last month we returned to Iceland for our second annual hosted trip at Long Valley Lodge, located on the Blanda River system, one of Iceland's most unique fisheries. The Blanda's hallmark is its incredible diversity, offering anglers the opportunity to complete an "Icelandic Grand Slam" — landing a Icelandic brown trout, Arctic char, sea-run brown trout, sea-run Arctic char, and an Atlantic salmon all in the same trip (or same day, depending on who you're asking). 

Overall, the week was a rousing success. While the weather threw us a few minor curveballs — sunshine was in limited supply and we had a couple of days with uncharacteristically high winds for July — the fish didn't. The result was a week filled with milestones, more than a few personal bests, and plenty of good cheer thanks to a diverse, amazing group of easygoing, intelligent, interesting anglers that all seemed to love to laugh.

Following is a rundown of the week and details about our next Iceland hosted trip (skip ahead to 2027 hosted info).

The Blanda

For those unfamiliar with the Blanda, it's Iceland's largest river and one that for generations was managed solely as an Atlantic salmon fishery — and a fine one at that. Historically, the Blanda has featured seasons where its anglers landed thousands of wild salmon and more than on any other river in Iceland. But, as its new leaseholders quickly discovered, hiding in plain sight on the Blanda was one of the most prolific brown trout fisheries in Iceland and a robust fishery for Arctic char and other sea-run fish, as well (you'll even encounter the odd, unwelcome pink salmon in the river's waters).

Atlantic Salmon

The week's salmon fishing was nothing short of excellent, something that's in short supply in the world these days. As most anglers know, Atlantic salmon are a dwindling commodity, and finding good salmon fishing usually requires the patience to soldier through multi-year wait lists and tolerate some of the highest price tags in the angling world (other premier Icelandic salmon fisheries can run anglers more than $3,000 a day).

But the Blanda offers one of the best value propositions in the world of Atlantic salmon and it delivered on that promise this year, with over 50 salmon caught during 6 days of fishing, including several very large MSW (multi-sea winter) fish over 90cm landed during the week. Every angler in the group caught salmon, which is no small feat given that many were fishing Atlantics for their first time ever.

Trout

The trout fishing was characteristically solid all week, albeit with a bit of ebb-and-flow. The shifting weather seemed to have the trout shifting personalities, voracious and aggressive in a given morning, only to turn timid and selective in the afternoon (or vice-versa).

Much to everyone's delight, trout were taken throughout the week virtually every way that one can fish for them — dries, nymphs, streamers ... and even a few on mouse patterns.

Char and Sea-runs

The Arctic char fishing was a bit tougher than is typical, with the char seeming to be a bit tight-lipped, though they seemed to become more agreeable as the trip wore on. 

The sea-run fishing followed its normal pattern, with the "sea pool" delivering the most anadromous fish (as far as sea-run brown trout and sea-run char go), with the odd sea-run fish showing up here and there upriver.

TOURING ICELAND

Iceland is a welcoming, wonderful country with relentless landscapes and so much more to see and do beyond the world of fly fishing. It's for this reason that we are filled with gratitude when our clients give us the opportunity to help them plan time touring the country in conjunction with their fishing trips. This year, almost half of our group elected to spend additional time touring the island nation. Some embarked directly from the lodge while others returned to Reykjavik to meet family who flew in to join them. We planned touring itineraries ranging from 2 days to 18 days — with several of this year's hosted trip goers circumnavigating the entirety of Iceland.

We're looking forward to helping next year's group do much of the same. And we'll be embarking on our own add-on adventures as well. Regardless of how many time you return, there's always more to see and do in Iceland.

2027

Speaking of returns — next year is already queued up. We'll be returning to the Blanda and Long Valley Lodge in July of 2027 once again. While several of this year's anglers have already signed up to return with us next year, we still have room for more. 

We expect our 2027 hosted trip to fill up quickly, so we encourage those of you that are interested in joining us to contact us ASAP to sign up or simply chat about the trip. You can do so by submitting an inquiry here, sending us an email, or calling us at +1-(253)-780-1530.

See you in Iceland next year!