There has been some fine fishing in the last few weeks south and west of Reykjanes in Iceland, mainly golden redfish and cod, plus a spell of good saithe fishing. There are trawlers and smaller boats fishing from the Westmann Islands all the way west to Reykjanes.
All of HB Grandi’s trawlers are now fishing south of Reykjanes, apart from Therney which is discharging in Reykjavík and Helga María which is on the slipway. Many other vessels are also fishing on the same grounds as as the HB Grandi fleet.
‘Nobody needs to chase cod all the way to the Westfjords these days as there’s plenty of large cod across the fishing grounds between the Westmann Islands and Reykjanes,‘ said Eiríkur Jónsson, skipper of HB Grandi’s fresher trawler Sturlaugur H Böðvarsson.
‘We sailed on Monday and have been fishing on the Eldey Bank and the Mountains and now we’re on the Selvogur Bank. There has been heavy fishing on golden redfish and cod, but the saithe fishing is slowing down although this has been good for the last few weeks,’ he said, commenting that the average cod weight they saw during Sturlaugur H Bödvarsson’s last trip was 4.50kg.
He said that weather was kind to fishermen last winter, making a change compared to the previous two or three winters.
‘We can say that there have been hardly any delays due to weather last winter, compared to the previous winter when we had to dodge bad weather all the time. We spent as much time dodging as fishing,’ he said.
Sturlaugur H Böðvarsson has a landing date booked for tomorrow, the same day that factory trawler Höfrungur III is also due to be alongside for a half-landing, although it has not been at sea for long. Another of the company’s factory trawlers, Örfirisey, was in before Easter for a half-landing and should have a respectable tonnage behind it by the time the trip comes to an end.
