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This week so far

See each day's largest fish and individual beat catches on our Latest Catches which is updated page each time a ghillie uses the automatic reporting system.

Last week

Last updated: Friday 13th January

The 2011 Salmon Season

The salmon season opened on June 5 and came to an end on October 10. It looks as if this season will be the fifth or sixth best ever. Also, the five most recent years have all produced record salmon catches for so many fisheries. Hats off to the Icelandic freshwater laws, regulations and salmon management policies.

One could of easily imagined a total disaster season as climate conditions in 2011 were very poor for fishing. There was heavy snow up north at season start, cold spring in all regions which fed cold rivers, then floods and later droughts on the west coast. However, the most common best rivers produced very good numbers of salmon in most all regions.

The northeastern rivers of Iceland such as Sela, Hofsa, Svalbardsa (record season), Hafralonsa (record season), Vesturdalsa and Breiddalsa (record season) constantly produced steady catch numbers throughout the season. In contrast, the northwestern rivers, except for Midfjardara, all produced less catches when compared to their records set only two years ago. The southwest rivers that offer substantial runs of salmon, predominantly grilse, had slightly less catch numbers except for Nordura which did very well with over 2,100 salmon.

The sea ranching rivers of East and West Ranga had modest catches compared to recent record years although Breiddalsa broke its best ever record by 250 salmon reaching a total of 1,430 salmon. Why did the sea ranched Ranga rivers have less numbers? One theory points to the very abundant mackerel stocks around Iceland the last two years suggesting that the mackerel may be feeding on the sand eels and capelins that the sea ranched salmon feed on.

Let us highlight once again the fact that the 2011 salmon season is likely to be the fifth or sixth best season ever. Also, the fact that the past five salmon seasons have given three record breaking seasons.

The Application Form for 2012 is on this link

Here is a list of the top twenty-five salmon rivers in catch numbers for the 2011 season:

West Ranga 4,961 East Ranga 4,387 Midfjardara 2,364 Nordura 2,134 Blanda 2,032 Sela in Vopnafjordur 2,021 Langa 1,934 Thvera-Kjarra 1,825 Haffjardara 1,526 Breiddalsa 1,430 Grimsa 1,370 Ellidarar 1,150 Laxa in Kjos 1,112 Laxa in Adaldal 1,067 Hofsa 956 Laxa in Leirarsveit 907 Sog 901 Vididalsa 747 Vatnsdalsa 743 Fnjoska 690 Haukadalsa 667 Nordlingafljot 654 Laxa in Dolum 568 Jokla 507 Brennan 501

Jon Sigurdsson, FishIceland.com


Last week was in the close season so no beat catches to report