WhenPétur took over the management of river Gljúfurá a few years back, he instantly installed a strict catch and release code. He has wrapped the river in cotton wool, he for instance sold a mere twelve days on the river in 2016 and not much more during the following seasons, as the rivers juvenile stock had been dismal in 2013 and he never expected to have any salmon runs of note. Yet, the twelve days yielded almost thirty salmon. Over the last years salmon runs have been below par in most rivers throughout the country, yet the state of the juvenile salmon has been improving. The river has been lightly fished, yet produced some good catches.
Pétur Pétursson and colleagues are most noted in the Icelandic salmon world for being the outfitters of river Vatnsdalsá, one of Iceland‘s foremost salmon rivers. But they have a smallar project as well, an intresting sideshow that looks like it may pick up and become an extremely good looking option. They are building the river Gljúfurá, Vatnsdalsá‘s next door neighbour, up in many ways and have been reaping rewards recently.
Over the years, a group of local anglers have not been exactly kind to the river. Having expert knowlege of the whereabouts of the salmon, and allowed to fish with worms, to many of the spawnging stock were killed. This was especially bad in the years just ahead of Pétur, as the outfitter in charge at the time sold a fly only period over the main summer weeks, only to allow worming again toward the end of the season. Big catches were taken and all fish killed.
Pétur tells us that when he thought about taking charge of the river he had gone through all sorts of data on the river along with the catch books. One season only 108 salmon had been tagged in a fish counter stationed not far from the rivers mouth at the lake Hóp. Of the 108 salmon, 90 were pronounced caught and killed in the years catch book. Leaving only 18 fish to spawn over quite a few kilometers in the upper river.
„Since we took over, the bait fishing has been banned, the salmon killing stopped and the river has been lightly fished as we build up the rivers salmon stock again. The juvenile stocks have started an upswing, in 2016 all generations were strong in the river and we counted an average of 55 juvenile salmon of various ages in each one hundred sqare meters. The salmon have also started to run further into the moorlands and are now spawning at 200 meters over sea level. We intend the river to work this on its own, as we do in Vatnsdalsá, we preserve the salmon and do all we can to help nature with the project, such as moving boulders to strategic spots in order to have more safehouses for the young emerging salmon. It also makes for warmer water. But that is as far as it goes. We do not release parr or smolts, nothing like that. The managers of Sæmundará, a small river east of us, have done this to great effect. It has been extremely satisfying to see how the juvenile stocks have bloomed and it will not be long now when we can proclaim that the river has become self sustaining. Smolts leaving the river in 2016 were so numerous that we expected a fine return, however grilse for some reason did not have a good year in the feeding areas. Still we had some runs and another fine group of smolts leaving in 2017, so we have our fingers crossed. This river has at it‘s best delivered 180 salmon on three rods, yet the fisheries biologists working with us have told us that they expect it could move up to 250-300 during good alround conditions, and when all the spawning grounds are delivering. This is in fact one of the most thrilling „smaller“ rivers due to it‘s great potential. And once we have it up to standards again, this is a river that gives you the element of adventure. A lot of hiking as well as lurching along 4WD paths. You are quite alone as far as other humans are concerned. You will along with the salmon, have the company og minks and foxes, ptarmigans, plovers and falcons.“
Gljúfurá empties into the huge lake Hópið. Slightly to the west of the estuary, the famous Víðidalsá also empties into the Hóp. As well as being one of Iceland‘s best salmon rivers, Víðidalsá also is one of the countries top, top sea char rivers with sea trout stock on the up as well. Quite often, the mouth of the Glúfurá will fill up with huge scholes of sea char with quite a few sea trout thrown in. Frantic fishing may well be on the menu and using light gear it is quite comparable to fishing the famed Salmo Salar.
The river has a good well equipped self catering lodge just north of the main higway. It is still far enough from it so that anglers do not hear the traffic, which is yet another plus. It is spacious enough and has among other utilities, a hot tub and a gas driven barbecue. Plus a tremendous panoramic view of mountains in the south, west and east along with the lake and incredible sunsets in the north.
For more info, contact petur@vatnsdalsa.is
