Visiting the start of the season on the Selá in Vopnafjörður last season, we met one of the owners, Englishman Jim Ratcliffe. Globally Ratcliffe is best known for his business ventures and success making him the UK‘s richest individual. Locals in Iceland know all about that but up here he is best known for his large scale purchasing of land in the Northeast, most notably properties with salmon rights. Not all locals like it, but we met him and asked him what drives him up here and what his intentions are.
Jim Ratcliffe now owns properties with rights to several high-profile Icelandic salmon rivers, most notably the Selá, Hofsá, Vesturdalsá and Hafralónsá. He has since our meeting obtained a majority ownership of the angling club Strengur which has run and managed the Selá for decades.
The date was June the 25th 2018 and Ratcliffe was traveling with his three children, sons Sonny and George, and his young daughter Julia. He had recently had a serious thigh break and hobbled on crutches. This was never going to be easy for him, as Selá asks questions on the physical state of its guests and is tough even on the most outstanding specimens. But that was not going to stop him. He was able to make the first cast from atop the cliff on the north bank of Fosshylur. Below, at least a hundred fresh run mws salmon were holding all over the pool. Hardly room for the all and the river keeper Gísli Ásgeirsson told us that he had hardly ever seen so many fish at the start of a season on Selá. There were, according to him fish all over the lower river. It didn’t take him long to hook up with the first of the season from Selá. He fought it from the cliff until the rod was then turned over to his sons who were waiting at the base of the cliff. It came to the landing net, a superb 83 cm hen fish, fresh with sea lice. And was instantly returned to the river.
Having overseen the landing of his salmon, Ratcliffe decided that this was enough for the time being and met the Angling Iceland editor for a short interview. He started off saying: “It is a great honour for me to be here and open the river. Unusual as well as I have never opened a salmon river before. And what a start! Not surprising as this is an outstanding river, a beautiful evening and a beautiful pool. I have never seen it so full of salmon. I broke a thigh bone two weeks ago and that makes it difficult but I will be back on several occasions later when I will be in better condition.”
Asked from where these strong ties to Iceland had come, he said: “Years ago I knew a man named John Jacobs. He had been a Ryder Cup captain for a while. John had known the late Orri Vigfússon, the founder of the NASF and introduced me to him. That brought me to Iceland, and I saw what an outstanding place Iceland is. It was not just the salmon that enchanted me, it‘s also the endless wilderness and the untouched nature. It is an honor to visit such places and experience them. As far as the salmon are concerned, in Iceland you have a whole river at your disposal, as inn Scotland you are sent to a beat.”
When asked about his large scale purchasing of property with salmon fishing rights, Ratcliff responds: “It is very simple. The only interests that are important are the interests of the Atlantic salmon. I am only interested in protecting them. You cannot do everything, for instance there is nothing we can do about how they fare in the ocean. But we can protect their breading grounds and the rivers themselves that foster them. If we can protect these pearles in the Northeast then that is important for their salmon stocks. The only thing that is on my mind with this input is the well being of the Icelandic salmon. I am lucky enough to be able to lend a helping hand.”
It might be added that Jim Ratcliffe is an expert fly fisherman and he has taken the Vesturdalsá in Vopnafjörður to his heart. A fisherman’s tale we were told of him from the previous season when he made a few visits to the river, maintained that had had landed 98 salmon and every one of them on the same fly, a small plastic local tube fly by the name of Skuggi. A hitch tube with an unusual unevenly cut head. When asked, why not change the fly, he looked puzzled and gave the answer: “Why?”
Here at the end of this short interview, our readers are invited to watch a beautiful video the angling club Strengur has made, outlining in detail the projects that are in motion on their rivers in the Northeast.