Astonishing record for Leirvogsá
Photo by Heimir Óskarsson.
The season of 2008 will long be remembered on the banks of Leirvogsá as the river cracked a hugely good looking record dating back to the year 1988. That year 1.057 fish were landed on the two daily rods over the period of 90 days. This year the river totalled 1.191 salmon plus 87 sea trout, most of them ranging from 3 to 7 pounds, placing them in the same weight class as the salmon.
What makes this new record all the more impressive is the fact that when the older record was set, Leirvogsá had strong runs of pen reared escapees and „lost“ ocean ranched salmon from ranching stations on the west coast. 1988 was a huge season but most river on the southwest and west coast were affected by the huge runs of these „implants“. This year, there was no such uncalled for help. This year the runs were clean and fully natural.
To take a better look at just how good the season was, look at the average total from the river ranging from 1974 to 2007: 475 salmon. As Leirvogsá is a small river, long draughts knock the water level down and make fishing difficult. It affected the fishing in 2008. There were however so remarkably many salmon running the river that a record was soon on the cards. Some rain in the middle of July sparked of an explosion and there were some astonishing days, among them a record day of 64 salmon for the two rods. During July, the average catch pr rod was 10 salmon.
Leirvogsá has long been one of Iceland‘s most prolific rivers as it‘s vast popularity explains. We can hardly expect another record for 2009 but as these statistics will tell you, that even a big dip down would still account for an excellent season!
