Breiddalsa: A tragic death of a huge salmon
This magnificent salmon regretfully died...a 100 cm 12 kilo monster...
A tragic death occured on the Breiddalsa this weekend when the biggest salmon caught on an Icelandic river so far this season died while in captivity as it was due for the hatchery. It was an awesome 100 cm hen fish weighting 12 kilos, 24 Icelandic pounds, 4 more than the guidelines will have it. According to them the slamon should have been 20 pounds, 10 kilos.
It was the outfitter himself, Thorstur Ellidason who caught the huge salmon in a seldom fished pool. On the Breiddalsa the mws‘s are relesed this early in the season but come late July, early August they are placed in containers which are stationed at most of the key pools and shipped to the hatchery house were they are stripped of brood stock. There were no containers at the pools, except for one in Skammadalsbreida, when Throstur caught the huge fish so while he fought it, he called a guide on his mobile and asked him to meet him with a plastic bag for shipping. Having landed the salmon, he had to wait with it in the landing net for quite a while while they waited for the guide with the plastic bag. Once he arrived they drove as fast as they could to Skammadalsbreida and put the fish in the container. It was weak but managed to hold its own after a while of holding it upright. The next step was to drive to the hatchery and make ready a pen for the fish, which took a good two hours. But when Throstur arrived back at the container in Skammadalsbreida, the salmon was dead. It was all simply to much for it and instead of contributing to future salmon runs, it will grace the walls of the beautiful lodge at Eyjar.
Throstur is a broken man at this moment in time. It is his biggest ever salmon but he has for years worked in the field of building salmon stocks, first on the Ranga rivers, later on Breiddalsa and most recently on the Jokla system. And a 24 pound hen fish is quite a contributer! We hope he will recover soon!
