Early season catches on the East and West Rangas have not only broken all previous records, they’ve smashed them to pieces!
More than 500 salmon have been caught on the East river up to the end June and nearly the same number on the West.
“If it goes on like this, we are going to be in for an amazing salmon season,” said one regular fisherman. “This isn’t just the kind of fishing we dream about – it’s way beyond that!”
To give these fantastic catches some perspective, the best East Ranga catch over the last ten years for the same period was 120 fish. Catches to end-June last year and the year before didn’t exceed 40. So this year’s figures are more than 12 times those of 2015 and 2014.
On the West Ranga, the best previous early season catch in the past ten years didn’t even pass 100.
The vast majority of these fish are two-sea-wintered ranging from five to nearly 10 kilos and, straight in from the sea, are ferocious fighters.
It’s not just fishermen on the Rangas who are basking in this unbelievable good fortune. On the Blanda, catches to the end of June – at 762 – are three times higher than those of last year while the Nordura booked 450 compared to 280 last year.
Marine biologists will agree that ocean conditions must have been perfect for these numbers to survive and thrive. Certainly, most Icelandic and visiting anglers are unlikely to have seen anything like this before.
If there was ever a year to come to Iceland for the salmon fishing, this is it.
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