It has been customary to publish a list of the best salmon rivers in Iceland. This is done weekly, but that list only takes into account the number of salmon and not the number of rods. Thus, the real definition of the catch rate is best obtained by calculating what each day’s rod was giving. Last summer, only two salmon rivers reached the rate of over two salmon per day. These are the neighboring rivers, Selá and Hofsá in Vopnafjörður and it was Séla that had the best ratio, or 2.28 salmon per rod per day. River Hofsá had almost exactly two salmon a day.
When a set of 27 salmon rivers were explored, only ten of them reached the rate of one salmon per rod/ per day or more. Surely, there were quite many rivers there just below. This really says all about how poor the salmon fishing was this summer. One salmon per rod/per day means that if two anglers shared a rod for three days, they could hope to land three salmon.
Below is a list over the rivers. In parentheses to each fishing stream is the number of rods. The next column indicates the total catch, and in parentheses is the number of salmon per rod over the summer. Finally, how many salmon were caught per rod/per day and within brackets the same percentage for last year and in the summer of 2021.
Fishing river Final catch/per rod Per rod/per day
Selá í Vopnafirði (6) 1.234 (206) 2,28 (2,15/1,41)
Hofsá in Vopnafjörður (6) 1.088 (181) 2,01 (1,92/0,95)
Laxá in Ásum (4) 660 (165) 1,83 (2,28/1,66)
Leirvogsá (2) 303 (152) 1,69 (2,53/1,55)
Haffjarðará (6) 905 (151) 1,67 (1,61/1,70)
Miðfjarðará (10) 1.334 (133) 1,48 (1,69/2,00)
Svalbarðsá (3) 340 (113) 1,26 (1,41/0,88)
Elliðaár (6) 625 (104) 1,16 (1,48/1,14)
Laxá in Dölum (6) 601 (100) 1,11 (1,41/1,89)
Þverá/Kjarrá (14) 1.306 (93) 1,04 (1,15/1,10)
Grímsá (8) 697 (87) 0,97 (1,15/1,05)
Straumfjarðará (4) 345 (86) 0,96 (0,97/1,02)
Andakílsá (2) 170 (85) 0,94 (1,82/2,88)
Flókadalsá (3) 248 (83) 0,92 (1,92/1,04)
Hafralónsá (4) 333 (83) 0,92 (1,08/0,63)
Víðidalsá (8) 645 (81) 0,89 (1,12/1,02)
Laxá in Kjós (8) 603 (75) 0,84 (1,41/1,47)
Haukadalsá (5) 373 (75) 0,83 (0,81/0,81)
Laxá in Leirársveit (7) 516 (74) 0,82 (1,48/1,51)
Norðurá (15) 1.087 (72) 0,80 (1,05/1,06)
Hítará (6) 426 (71) 0,79 (1,31/0,76)
Vatnsdalsá (6) 421 (70) 0,78 (0,77/0,79)
Mýrarkvísl (4) 283 (71) 0,78 (0,75/0,50)
Langá (12) 709 (59) 0,66 (1,00/0,77)
Hrútafjarðará (3) 177 (59) 0,66 (0,95/1,38)
Laxá í Aðaldal (12) 685 (57) 0,63 (0,37/0,37)
Stóra – Laxá (10) 465 (46) 0,52 (1,03/0,62)
Picture/ Nice one from river Laxá in Aðaldal
Based on a news from mbl/Sporðaköst