Vatnsdalsa: Mws stocks in fine condition
As stated in an earlier news item, Vatnsdalsa registered a record season, thumping its older record by the dizzying total og ONE salmon! Whatever, a record is a record, and 2009 ranks as the all time outstanding season on Vatnsdalsa.
Having a look at the statistics, a few things stand out. One of them is the apparent lack of very big salmon in the river, the very salmon the river is known to produce, usually 10 to 20 pr season. Yet, only two such fish this time out. One of the two is one of the very biggest salmon to be caught on an Icelandic river this season, a 108 cm cock fish hauled out of the pool Vaðhvammur late in the season. Alas, no camera! These are the salmon that measure 100 cm and onward. While there were only two such fish in the catch, there where several measuring from 90 and upto 100 cm.
But despite the lack of huge salmon, the river remains one of Iceland‘s main remaining strongholds for the faltering mws‘s. Out of 1.398 salmon, an average weight of 3,69 kg has been established and an average lenght of 69,14 cm. In Icelandic pounds this is an average weight of ca 7,5 pounds which is very good for Iceland. On rivers that only commit anglers to release the mws‘s the lenght guideline is 70 cm. So in fact, half of the Vatnsdalsa catch could be regarded as mws‘s according to these statistics. The photos portray typical Icelandic mws's, both photos are from the website www.vatnsdalsa.is the official website of the outfitter
