Vesturdalsa looking lively
Fish on in a nice pool on the delicate Vesturdalsa. Photo by Lárus Gunnsteinsson.
Vesturdalsa in the northeast Vopnafjordur only opened this afternoon and things were looking relatively good all things considered. There were salmon running the river, sea char also. A few salmon have actually already been landed.
The outfitter took a short break from getting the river ready for the first clients over the weekend and the family landed five salmon plus some twenty sea char of a good size. This morning 46 salmon had gone through the fish counter and 244 char, although 96 of the char had turned back for some reason. There are several good pools below the counter so its statistics don‘t tell all the tale.
Vesturdalsa has been the subject of a research program aimed at reviving a flagging salmon stock. The river was in a bad way, due to overfishing according to Larus Gunnsteinsson, the managing outfitter. The program dates back several years and the river is on the market this year for the first time in quite a while. There is a mandatory rule for releasing mws‘s and grilse may only be killed up to the point that no more than 30% of the salmon may be taken from the river.
