Not much snow this winter….so far! But so what?
Row upon row of Atlantic Salmon. Photo by Gunnar Yngvi Þórisson.
We are obviously starting our countdown for the next season which we are hoping will be on par with the last two which have delivered a record season (2008) and a near record season (2009) on the salmon front, with many individual river recording their best ever catches over the course of both seasons. Not much snow this winter so far, but the same did not hamper the last two bumber years.
The last two brilliant salmon seasons have by far not only been due to the increase in catches in rivers with smolt releasing projects. Many of the wild stock rivers have been blossoming as well and this must all be down to great conditions in the rivers as well as at the ocean feeding grounds. Plus of course the excellent know how of the smolt managers. These past two stunning seasons, many rivers have had spells of serious draughts and have run very low for extended periods of time. This of course makes the fishing more difficult, yet anglers and guides have come to know various tricks to catch the salmon despite the difficult situations. One might say that salmon fishing during prime conditions tops it all, yet success during less than great conditions is sure to fill every angler with a sense of fullfillent.
Not long ago, local fisheries biologists warned that mws salmon in Iceland we in steep decline while the grilse were becoming more and more numerous. They expressed their worries that at the same rate the mws's would soon be extinct.
A huge fish from Breiddalsa
Over the last few years mandatory releasing of mws's has been implanted on most rivers and on many grilse are released as well. While the danger is still real and looming, it is a general opinion that the mws's are now pretty stable and a marked increase has been seen on many rivers. It will with little doubt be a slow process but may the upswing long continue.
And speaking of low rivers, draughts and snow. There has been little snow in Iceland this winter, and while we had a lengthy super frosty spell in December, we have now had an equally extended spell of warm, almost springish weather in January. The lack of snow however no longer means that low rivers are a certainity. The weather in Iceland remains unpredictable to say the least and while the last few summers have been dry, warm and sunny, all in Iceland know that as the sunny summers mount up, the rainy one looms ever closer. And as said, tactics have confronted conditions so this is not the same big deal as it used to be.
