Straumfjardara: Struck with a heavenly golf club
One of the good number of mws's caught on Straumfjardara this season.
Straumfjardara had an ok total of 350 salmon this season. Not bad comparing to many seasons of late, but comparing to the last two outstanding seasons, the amount of fish running and the general fine display of other rivers, there is a sense of disapointment on the banks of Straumfjardara. „Struck with a heavenly golf club“ is how the outfitter describes it.
This was a far cry from last seasons grand total of 718 salmon which was a mere few from a new record for the river. But it was not to be. Thing started out very well, there were a fair number of mws‘s running early on and the water levels were very good. But when the grilse runs started, there was no rain and the water levels sank and sank. „Things were ok to start with but then it was as if the river had been struck by a heavenly golf club.
Two fresh run grilse for the barbecue, caught on the Sea foss pool.
It simply was out cold for a good slice of the prime time. Plenty of fish but hot weather and no water. Every now and then I would look out over the Faxaflói bay and see the dark clouds gathering on the south coast of the bay. It is far off and we kept hoping that some of those clouds would eventually end up at our doorstep. They never did and whatever, they turned out to be more or less without rain anyway,“ riverkeeper Ástþór Jóhannson told us.
To make things worse, the autumn rains were late and did not pep up Straumfjardara until during the final days of the season. „When it did start raining, it turned out to be to little to late. Well actually not to little as it rained heavily, but without a doubt to late for us. The river was brimming with salmon and we could easily have had a season total of 550 to 600 had the conditions been better but on a positive note, we at least know that there are plenty of fish doing the spawning so the future stocks are obviously looking good. Plus, we had more mws‘s in the river than we have seen for years,“ Ástþór concluded.
