Ellidaar: Mayors first salmon
Reykjavík's mayor, Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir with the first salmon off Ellidaar for 2009. Photo by gg.
Reykjavík mayor Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir duly caught the first salmon of the season from the Ellidaar in downtown Reykjavík this morning. As it turned out, it was a mere formality and it always adds gloss to the ceremonial opening of the river when the mayor manages to land a fish.
It all had a funny feeling though, as all were arrived well on time, except the mayor and with the clock ticking she failed to matreialize. At five to seven, still no Hanna Birna, but suddenly in a blurr of motion she dahsed into the lodge and had switched from working clothes to waders in the space of a few minutes. As tradition will have it, the mayor always starts by worming the Sea foss pool. Hanna Birna did so, yet for once the foss pool did not deliver. Aided by the expert guide Ásgeir Heiðar, she quickly made her way to the Breiða, a hundred meters downstream, and the first stop for salmon entering the river from the salt. It is a place that quite frequently holds new arrivals in the early mornings, and so it turned out. A few minutes later all was done and dusted and the mayor not only had landed her salmon, a nice fresh run 5 pound grilse, but her maiden salmon as well, complete with the ceremony of biting off the adipose fin and swallowing it!
