Ivalojoki, Lapland, Finland
Lapland
Wilderness Float
Five days and fifty kilometres of roadless river by raft, camping on the banks, with wade fishing in the evenings. Lake-run brown trout and grayling, one or two anglers to a guide.
Overview
Casting streamers from a raft to trophy-size lake-run brown trout, days away from the nearest road. These trout spend years in Lake Inari bulking up on a diet of fish and run the Ivalojoki all summer. Your guide knows where they hold. The Ivalojoki is one of the few places left in Europe where a wilderness float like this is possible: fifty kilometres of river, five days, one raft, one guide, one or two anglers. The connection out here is excellent. Not to a cell tower, to the river and to yourself. Evenings are spent in a tent camp with wade water in front of you, and the grayling take a dry fly.
What it looks like
Included
- ✓A guide and a raft for the whole trip, one or two anglers
- ✓4 nights camping on the river: tents, mats and the camp kitchen. Bring your own sleeping bag
- ✓All food on the river, cooked at camp. It's a hands-on trip: you help with the cooking and the tents
- ✓Fishing licence
- ✓Life jackets on the raft
- ✓Transport between Ivalo or Saariselkä and the river
- ✓A packing list before you come, and help with anything you're missing
Not included
- –Flights. Fly to Ivalo (IVL) via Helsinki, 30 minutes from Saariselkä. Or fly to Rovaniemi (RVN) and connect to Saariselkä by bus
- –A sleeping bag. Bring one rated for Lapland summer nights, which can touch zero
- –A night in Saariselkä before or after the river, if your flights need one. Hotels, apartments and cabins have plenty of room in summer, and we can book it for you
- –Travel insurance
- –Your own rod, reel, line, waders and outdoor clothing
Day by day
The start is timed to your flight: land at Ivalo in the morning and you're picked up at the airport and on the river after midday. Transfer to the put-in and load the raft. Fishing on the move with streamers and big dries while you get the feel for casting from the raft. Camp goes up by the first good run in the afternoon, and you wade it until the light goes, which in July it doesn't.
The rhythm of the trip. Fish the camp water at dawn, break camp, then eight to fifteen kilometres of river, fishing on the move from the raft and stopping to wade the runs the guide knows hold fish. Camp again by the next good water. Fifty kilometres of river, four camps, and not a single road.
Float the final stretch to the take-out, where the car is waiting. Flying out in the afternoon? The last camp goes as far downriver as possible, you're up at four and at the take-out by ten, in time for the flight. Otherwise, back in Saariselkä by the evening.
The water
The Ivalojoki, the Ivalo River, runs out of the Lapland fells and down to Lake Inari through the Hammastunturi wilderness area, a roadless valley of pine, birch and rock. The float covers fifty kilometres of it: long pools, rapids, gravel bars and rock ledges, with a tributary mouth here and there. Most of the daytime fishing happens on the move from the raft, eight to fifteen kilometres a day. Camps are set up in good wade fishing spots. No crowds, and no phone signal for most of the way.
Best timing
The brown trout run up from Lake Inari all summer, so there are always fresh fish in the river. By late August the nights are dark enough for the northern lights. The grayling feed on dries all season. Float dates run Tuesday to Sunday, late June to the end of August.
Camp on the river
Tents on the riverbank, pitched each afternoon by the water you'll fish that evening. Tents, mats and the camp kitchen come with the raft; you bring a sleeping bag, your clothes and your rod, and you help the guide in setting up the camp. If you need a night before or after the river, Saariselkä, 30 minutes from Ivalo Airport, has hotels, apartments and cabins all summer.
The fishing
The fish that makes this river is the migratory brown trout of Lake Inari. They run up the Ivalojoki all summer, trophy-size fish that have spent years in the lake, and they hold in the kind of water you can only reach from a raft. Big streamers for the trout from the raft, and dry flies for the grayling at camp. It's one guide, one raft and at most two rods, which is as personal as guided fishing gets. The guide lives in Saariselkä and has fished these rivers every season for years; he rows, he reads the water, he runs the camp, and he will tell you why the fish are where they are. You pitch in with the tents and the cooking, which is part of the trip, not a chore. Every trout goes back. Catch and release is not the local custom here, and this trip is part of changing that. How good do you need to be? This is a trip for anglers who have done some fishing: you should be comfortable wading a rocky river, casting from a moving raft, and spending long days outside in whatever Lapland decides to do with the weather. You also need to be happy sleeping in a tent and helping around camp. The raft does the travelling.
Ready to go?
Tell us which dates and whether you're one or two, and we'll confirm the raft.
A 30% deposit secures the booking. The balance is due 21 days before departure. Cancellation terms are in the terms; the FAQ covers the rest.
Price / 5 days, for the raft
One raft, one guide, one or two anglers. The price is for the raft: the second seat costs €900 more, so two anglers sharing pay €2,845 each. Any questions? Send us a message →
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