Hello Clients and friends
The season of 2017 is over and it was a mixed bag, not only for us at Strengir, but throughout the country. There was a downswing from last year, 13 percent, which is quite a lot, yet still 10 percent over the overall average catch dating back to 1977. So perhaps "good and bad" sums it up nicely.
Speaking of Iceland as a whole, only rivers in the southwest and west were bettering themselves from last year. A few rivers were at the same level, others were down in comparison with last year.
Two of our three salmon rivers are placed in the delicate northeast which is vulnerable if things are not right in the environmental conditions. Breiðdalsá in particular had a difficult season. Only 106 salmon were landed which is of course not good. There were several factors leading to this decline. As in most eastern and northeastern rivers, salmon runs were less than the seasons before. Add to that 5-6 weeks of record droughts with the water levels receeding by the day and the salmon cramming into ultra deep small potholes. Add to that far above average autumn flooding, some of the most fierce seen ever, rendering the river unfishable exactly when the fishing was supposed to pick up due to the autumn rain.
Despite conditions the char and trout fishing was great with nearly 800 fish caught which is good increase from previous years.
Jökla did far better. The runs were average and the river and its tributaries are not as affected by the droughts and floods as is the Breiðdalsá. The river finished with 355 landed salmon including one of the biggest of the country for the season an old male 107 cm long as seen here below. Jökla has a short history as a salmon river, dating back to 2010. Over the course, three seasons have been worse with catches of 306, 335 and 305 salmon, with the better years producing 815, 585, 507 and 385 salmon. So Jökla may be considered a consistent river by now and by research the natural stock is building up fast so numbers are expected to explode in coming years!
Char and trout fishing was one of the best ever with hundreds of them caught, specially sea-run arctic char in estuary of the tributary Fögruhlíðará river.
Hrúta is in the western northland. It had a fair season during difficulties due to the long droughts. 384 landed in Hrúta is not bad, over the past few years the rivers catch has twice dipped lower, 280 in 2014 and 117 in 2012, both seasons were very bad in Iceland and Hrúta was no exception.
MInnivallalækur was good, some 400 brown trout landed and many heavyweights. The river has it's trusted clientele and we have many requests. We often have to tell people the so called "prime time" is sold out June-midd August but the are some openings still here and there then. What many also do not know is, that the late season is a very underestimated part of the season, as the browns get aggressive as the spawning starts to loom larger.
Please feel free to call us or contact us in any way. We are starting our 2018 sales and things are ticking along nicely but sure we can find something suitable for every enquiry. We are optimistic for the coming season and look forward to hear from you!
Throstur Ellidason
