Hello clients and friends,
The salmon season started formally on June the 4rth as the Norðurá was opened, followed by Blanda up north the day after. Over the least week the Þverá/Kjarrá also started off and over the next few days most of the rest will get going. Our rivers are however late starters and do not open until the 1rst of July. The season has gotten off to a phenomenal start, nearly all rivers so far started have registering a record opening catch.
Most of the catch so far are very solid looking and big mws's with quite many ranging from 90 to 100 cm. Also, grilse are turning up early which is generally seen as a good sign that the grilse runs will be large, although that still remains to be seen. What is concrete so far is that the big salmon are more numerous than they have been for quite a lot of years and many think that the c&r applying to the big salmon in almost all of Iceland's better rivers over the last decade or so is now starting to reap rewards. This is good news, as our three main salmon rivers, Jökla, Breiðdalsá and Hrútafjarðará all have a very high average percentage of mws-salmon. The runs are generally early this year, most of the rivers had substantial salmon sightings as far back as the last days of May and despite our rivers being traditional late starters, all three have already had sightings so we are really looking forward to the season.
Hrúta is sold out but both our east coast rivers Breiðdalsá and Jökla still have openings, some even during early July which is often a borderline part of the season but this time looks like being an exciting time to fish the rivers. So do not hesitate to contact us on that matter. Also we have already seen run of arctic char early in those rivers so it looks promising for the season as well.
The trout fishing has been fine so far. Minnivallalækur started slowly due to a somewhat cold spring, although it was nowhere close to last years semi-winter deep into the traditional spring months. As soon as the centigrade rose a bit, the river woke up and has been excellent since, registering many very big brown trout. Below is a nice photo taken in Minni recently, angler playing one of the famous monster brown trout found in this exklusive river!
All in all, things are looking outstanding. Last season was Iceland's fourth best salmon season ever and the signs are that this one might even better it. Hopefully, perhaps, etc, etc!
Throstur Ellidason
