Freezer trawler Vigri is in Reykjavík with 360 tonnes on board. This is the result of the second part of the current trip, following a half-landing a week previously when 420 tonnes of frozen production was offloaded, making this trip’s catch a green weight of 780 tonnes.
‘We got about a lot in this trip. The aim was to get as much saithe as possible on the days when the weather would let us fish, and apart from that, the weather pushed us from north to south,’ said skipper Árni Gunnólfsson.
He said that the trip started on Westfjords fishing grounds. But that didn’t last long as the weather hit them with full force and there was no option but to beat a retreat.
‘This pushed us off those grounds and to calmer conditions off the south coast. We went south to the Skerja Deeps and also did some fishing on the Mountains. There was some saithe there, but mainly golden redfish. Although it’s not the time of year for redfish, it was no problem to get six to eight tonnes of golden redfish for a short tow. My assessment of the conditions is that we could be fishing much more golden redfish than this year’s quotas allow.’
After a half-landing in Reykjavík, Vigri headed back to the Westfjords, where the storm had abated.
‘Overall, there was fine fishing on the Westfjords grounds on the days we were able to work. There’s a lot of golden redfish in the Víkuráll Gully, saithe over a wide area and haddock getting in the way, as usual. We had some cod as well and worked our way north to the Hali grounds. So fishing was good there, when we didn’t have to retreat from the Westfjords weather,’ Árni Gunnólfsson said, adding that for the last few days they have been fishing to the south and south-west of Reykjanes.
