Our listed rivers where mostly outstanding
A typical view from a Midfjardara pool last summer. Many rivers were full of fish and many registered records, as did Midfjardara. Photo by Heimir Óskarsson.
The salmon season has come to a close and the counting is under way. We have the final statistics for most of the rivers already and it is established that this was Iceland‘s second best ever season for Atlantic salmon. Only last year was better and this one ran it close. So the Atlantics are obviously in great shape up here. Lets have a look at how our listed rivers fared.
Six of her listed rivers recorded record ctahces and many of the others either recorded their second best ever totals or generally outstanding season totals. This was a great year for salmon fishing in Iceland indeed. Our listed record rivers are Midfjardara which blew away a thrity year old record by the margin of 1.423 salmon!, Vatnsdalsa which bettered it old record ONE!, Sogid, which has been on an upward spiral every year since a net buyout in the glacial river lower in the system, Hrúta, Jokla and Svalbardsa. Svalbardsa is something of a wild card in the pack as it is the only northeast coast river to register a record, much the same as its neighbour Hafralonsa did last year. Here we list the rivers and please note that the latter number, the one on the right, is last years total for comparison:
Miðfjardará(rec)) 4.004 (1.731)
Norðurá 2.408 (3.307)
Langá 2.254 (2.970)
Selá 1.993 (2.025)
Haffjarðará 1.622 (2.010)
Vatnsdalsá (rec) 1.520 (1.233)
Laxá í Kjós 1.404 (1.530)
Grímsá 1.339 (2.225)
Hofsá 1.143 (1.226)
Laxá í Aðaldal 1.117 (1.226)
Skógá 911 (1.537)
Elliðaár 880 (1.457)
Leirvogsá 877 (1.173)
Hítará 824 (1.298)
Breiðdalsá 782 (910)
Sogið (rec) 730 (600)
Andakílsá 706 (839)
Hrúta (rec) 647 (402)
Stóra Laxá 640 (425)
Hafralónsá 508 (582)
Vatnsá 500-plus (992)
Fáskrúð 456 (432)
Svalbarðsá (rec) 446 (367)
Fnjóská 413 (501)
Straumar í Hvítá 367 (400plus)
Straumfjarðará 350 (718)
Gljúfurá í Bo. 323 (315)
Jökla (rec) 322 (184)
Krossá 254 (346)
Vesturdalsá 206 (120)
Laxá í Nesjum 140 (162)
Apart from this, four other Icelandic rivers registered record catches this season, they were Húseyjarkvísl, Blanda, Fljotaá and Laxá á Refasveit, all of them north coast rivers
