Reykjadalsa: Outstanding season
Into a brown trout on the lower river, called Eyvindarlaekur. Photo by Jón Eyfjörð.
Reykjadalsa had an outstanding season whichever you look at, the salmon or trout fishing. Most of the river is stacked with brown trout and the salmon stock is on an upward spiral.
According to Pétur Pétursson, the rivers manager, there were almost one hundred salmon entered into the catch book which is several more than last year. The river used to produce catches upto three hundred in the best of seasons, and it might produce far more than it does these days as it is fished a lot by foreign anglers, mostly from France, who actually shun the salmon in favor of the trout. They come for the trout fishing and some of them have been known to leave a pool if a salmon shows the fly some interest!
Two thousand brown trout were enetered into the catch book which Pétur says is a normal total. „We know that there are far more actually, as many anglers never enter the smaller fish that they release. Others catch so many that they simply cannot recall all the details. We have a catch and release rule for the salmon as we are trying with much success to get the stock back on its feet. There are so many trout in the river that we do not have strict rules on them and allow our guests to take as many of them back home as they wish to for eating. Some take a bit, others release them all, whatever, it does the river no harm at all,“ Pétur told us.
