planning · Updated
Fly fishing in Finnish Lapland: a travel guide
The overview for planning a fly fishing trip to Finnish Lapland: the season, getting north, grayling, wild brown trout, whitefish and Arctic char, and the wilderness that comes with them.
The rivers and lakes of Finnish Lapland hold grayling that rise all day, wild brown trout, whitefish and Arctic char, and north of the Arctic Circle the summer sun does not set.
This article is the overview for planning a trip. The sections link to deeper articles where they exist, and we add more as we write them.
When to go
- Late June: the rivers settle after the spring flood and the season opens properly. Midnight sun at full height.
- July: high summer, hatches through the endless day, and the mosquito peak. The migratory brown trout from Lake Inari run up the Ivalojoki.
- August: the nights come back and the air clears of insects.
- September to mid-October: ferox season on Lake Inari. The big lake-run brown trout follow the baitfish onto the drop-offs and take a streamer fished deep from a boat: our Lake Inari Ferox Trip.
Where Lapland fits in the whole fishing year, from Patagonia to the Arctic fjords: where to fish, month by month.
Getting there
Fly Helsinki to Ivalo, about ninety minutes; Rovaniemi and Kittilä serve the southern and western rivers.
Packing the rods for the flights: travelling with fly fishing gear.
The weather, and the mosquitos
Summer days run 15 to 25 degrees and the light never really leaves between June and mid-July. It can also rain for three days straight and frost arrives in late August nights, so layers and a real rain jacket, always.
July’s mosquitos are the famous tax on all of it. They are at their worst in the forests on still evenings, nearly absent in wind and open country, and gone by late August. A head net, long sleeves and a repellent that works cost little and save the trip.
Planning a trip
Want the wilderness without the logistics: rafts, camps and a guide? See the Ivalojoki Wilderness Float, or in autumn the Lake Inari Ferox Trip. Everything Lapland is collected on the area page.
Tommi Heinonen · Founder, Kalakamu
I'm Tommi, a Finnish fly fisherman. Lapland and Arctic Norway are my home water. I started Kalakamu to set up the trips I wanted to take myself, here and in Patagonia.
Related reading
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.
From €2845 / trip →
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.
From €2950 / trip →
