Brim : Good fishing for saithe on the World Champion Ridge

08.02.2022

Good fishing for saithe on the World Champion Ridge

All of Brim's vessels were in port Yesterday due to the storm that passed over the south and west of Iceland Sunday night and in the morning. Örfirisey was on its way to Westfjords fishing grounds and the others are alongside. Akurey's skipper Eiríkur Jónsson said that the plan is to leave at midnight today, because poor weather was the forecast.

'The last trip went well, apart from the heavy weather. We had a catch of 110-115 tonnes, most of which was saithe and we also had 30 tonnes of redfish plus some cod and haddock. Vigri hit some very good fishing for saithe on what we call the World Champion Ridge at eastern end of the Skerja Deeps, but then the number of trawlers there increased and the fishing slowed down. We were mostly on the ridge and sometimes there would be a good patch of fishing, and nothing in between. The main problem was to stay clear of the others, as there were at least 15 or 16 trawlers fishing there at the same time.'

He said that a showing of fish in this area is rather unusual, but the saithe were of a decent medium size. This saithe had first been noticed on the Reykjanesgrunnur grounds

'The big winter season saithe haven't shown themselves much so far, but they will. Although they have been seen to a limited extent on the Eldey Bank. In the same way, the season cod will show up, but they aren't to be seen now,' he said, adding that they finished the trip on the Toe where they also found some saithe.

So far this year Akurey has landed four times in Grundarfjörður and twice in Reyjkavík. Eiríkur Jónsson said that it's good to be able to discharge catches there on the north side of the Snæfellsnes peninsula when they are fishing on Westfjords grounds, as Grundarfjörður is only two and half hours by road from Reykjavík.

He said that catches have been good so far this year, when the weather has been good enough for them to fish.

'Non-stop storms have made life difficult for us, but that's the way January and February usually have been. This isn't the favourite time of year for those who spend time at sea. There's yet another storm forecast for the next 24 hours, with a wave height of up to 14 metres. We were fortunate with the last trip and were docked well ahead of the storm's arrival. But steaming home from the trip before that was horrendous. We were fishing off the south and there was a south-westerly wind with a wave height of up to eight metres while we were steaming home. I've been at sea for fifty years, and don't remember seeing anything like this before,' Eiríkur Jónsson said.