Lake Inari, Lapland, Finland
Lake Inari Ferox Trip
Four days hunting the big fish-eating brown trout of Lake Inari from a cataraft, with sonar, streamers and a guide who knows where the trout are. Five nights in a lakeside cabin, one or two anglers, autumn colour on the shore.
The trip in brief
- The trip
- Four full days on Lake Inari from a cataraft, hunting the big fish-eating trout along the drop-offs, five nights in a cabin by the lake.
- Who
- One or two anglers, one boat, one guide.
- Included
- Guide and boat, cabin and meals, permits, leaders and the streamers that work here, transfers from Ivalo.
- Price
Price / 5 nights, for the boat
- 1 angler
- €4,900
- 2 anglers
- €5,900
What it looks like
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The fishing
Ferox is the old name for a brown trout that turns predator. At thirty centimetres or so some trout in deep northern lakes stop eating insects and start eating fish, and from then on they grow fast, live long and look different: deep-bodied, heavy-shouldered, with a head built for the job. Lake Inari has them, the same migratory brown trout that run the Ivalojoki in summer, back in the lake and hunting. These are the fish that make the Inari system Finland's most important trout water, and in autumn they are on the move along the drop-offs after the vendace. Fishing for them is a hunt. The guide reads the sonar and the depth charts to find the baitfish, holds the boat on the edge, and you fish big streamers on sinking lines, deep and slow, then fast, then deep again, until something takes. Finding the trout is half the game. Getting one to eat is the other. Some days that is a fish or two. Some days it is one, and it is the one you came for. These trout can reach extraordinary sizes. We can't promise you a specific number, but the chance of the biggest brown trout of your life is real, and it is why anglers come to a cold lake in October. It is one guide, one cataraft and at most two rods. The guide lives in Saariselkä, fishes these waters every season, and runs the boat, the sonar and the net. Every trout goes back. Catch and release is not yet the local custom here, and this trip is part of changing that. How good do you need to be? You need to cast a heavy line from a boat, in wind, and keep doing it. You do not need to be an expert, but this is not a beginner's week. If you have fished streamers for trout or pike from a boat before, you will be at home here.
The water
Lake Inari, the Sámi Sea, is over a thousand square kilometres of clear, cold water with more than three thousand islands, at the top of Finland. It is big water, and the fishing happens along its edges: the drop-offs where the shallows fall away into the deep, the points and island shores where the vendace gather in autumn and the trout come to feed on them. The cataraft is the boat for it, stable, quiet and fast to move when the sonar says the fish have gone somewhere else. When the wind is up on the main lake the guide has sheltered bays and the smaller waters around it to fall back on.
Best timing
The trips run from early September to the middle of October, when the trout hunt the vendace along the drop-offs. September is ruska, the Lapland autumn, when the birches on the shore go gold and the first frosts come. By October the leaves are down, the days are short and the lake is empty of everyone but you. Dates are agreed with each angler, five nights at a time.
Your cabin
A cabin by the lake, yours for the five nights, with the boat moored outside. Warm, simple and close to the water, so the day starts on the lake and not on the road. The nearest village is Inari, with a shop, a hotel and the Sámi museum, and Ivalo Airport is under an hour away. Exactly which cabin depends on the week and how many of you there are, and we'll tell you before you book.
Dates and prices
- 1Pick a week below.
- 2Hold it free for seven days while you check flights and talk to the others.
- 3We email you within 24 hours to help you plan. The deposit link comes with it, for when you're ready.
Price / 5 nights, for the boat
What's included, and what's not ↓
One boat, one guide, one or two anglers. The price is for the boat: the second seat costs €1,000 more, so two anglers sharing pay €2,950 each.
30% deposit, balance 21 days before departure. Terms →
Open weeks: 2027
September
October
Hold a week, free for seven days,
or ask us anything
No payment, no obligation. If you don't take the week, it simply opens up again. Dates don't line up? Send us a message and we can see what is open. Write as much or as little as you like.
Done. That week is yours for the next seven days. We will email you within 24 hours, so keep an eye on your inbox.
Got it. We will email you within 24 hours about that week, with what's open and a price for your group. Keep an eye on your inbox.
Got it. We will email you within 24 hours about those dates and what we can do around them.
Got it. We will email you within 24 hours.
You are on the list for that week. If it opens up, you hear first. We will email you within 24 hours either way.
Included
- ✓A guide and a cataraft for four full days, one or two anglers
- ✓5 nights in a lakeside cabin
- ✓Meals at the cabin, and lunch on the water
- ✓Fishing permits
- ✓Leaders, tippet and the streamers that work here
- ✓Transfers from Ivalo Airport (IVL) to the cabin and to the boat each day
- ✓A packing list before you come, and help with anything you're missing
Not included
- –Flights. Fly to Ivalo (IVL) via Helsinki; the lake is under an hour from the airport. Rovaniemi has more flights and a bus connection
- –Travel insurance
- –Your own rod, reel, lines, waders and warm outdoor clothing. A 7 or 8 weight with a sinking line is the tool here, and we'll tell you exactly what to bring
Day by day
Land at Ivalo. Pick-up to the cabin by the lake, under an hour away. Go through the gear with the guide, look at the charts, eat, and sleep. The boat goes out early.
Four full days on the water. Each morning the guide picks the shoreline and the depth for the wind and the light, and you motor out to the drop-offs where the baitfish gather. Sonar finds the schools. You fish streamers over and along the edges, methodically, moving when the fish move. Lunch on an island. Back to the cabin for dinner and sauna.
Breakfast, pack, and the transfer to Ivalo Airport.
