Now is the peak season for the sea-running Arctic char. The last big tide is often accompanied by good fishing, and then there is another one ahead, around August 4th. Despite this, the fishing in many of the Arctic char rivers is quite weak and it is questionable whether there is evidence of an even greater decline. Let’s explore the catch so far:
In Eyjafjörður, there are four well-known sea-running Arctic char rivers. River Eyjafjarðará (12 rods) has long been their best known.So far, recorded catches are 56 char and by far most of the catch came from the same beat, nr. 5. There is probably not a lot of traffic to other beats and it is known that registration of catches is lacking. River Hörgá (14 rods) has 65 char booked so far and probably there is also some lack of registration. It may be pointed out that in river Hörgá only 22 char were released, all the others were killed. Next is Svarfaðardalsá (10 rods), but it stands out in terms of numbers. There,157 char have been registered. There, as in the other rivers, it can be assumed that something is still unrecorded.The last river in Eyjafjörður, worth mentioning, is Fjarðará. Since it opened, 109 char have been caught. Which is acceptable, considering that it only uses 4 rods and it opened on July 15th.
One of the best-known sea char rivers in the Westfjords is Bjarnarfjarðará. So far 47 sea-char have been caught there. If we go to East Iceland, the best sea-char river there, Norðfjarðará, is doing well with 275 caught. This is a good result, especially due to the fact that only 3 rods are used.
Finally, we do want to mention river Fljótaá, which usually gets more attention for salmon fishing, where 909 sea char have been caught as bycatch. In that river are 4 rods used. What can be the explanation for this great fishing there?
Pictures/ From river Eyjafarðará and river Fjarðará
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