smolt program & salmon migration
Fascinating? Certainly. Contentious? We don’t think so. The East Ranga river has a naturally consistent flow of cool, well oxygenated water all season long. This ensures adult salmon take well and are incredibly strong, but it also lowers the availability of natural food for juvenile fish.
The smolt rearing system.
In conjunction with low water temperatures, the volcanic sand that forms the riverbed inhibits the success of natural spawning – the salmon do spawn but few eggs hatch or survive.
Therefore during the fishing season larger male and female fish landed by guests are released live into metal grilled boxes located in the river’s edge on each beat.
These ‘boxed’ salmon are then carefully transported to the East Ranga hatchery ponds nearby and in the autumn their eggs and sperm are mixed to begin the next generation of East Ranga salmon.
Painstakingly careful husbandry of these fertilized eggs results in alevins turning to fry, the fry to parr and eventually parr to smolts, which are then released in late spring / early summer into the release ponds on the main river.
These smolts then make precisely the same journey as their cousins from Iceland’s other rivers, braving estuaries and then a migration through the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans to feed and grow before returning to the East Ranga the following summer or, for the larger fish, the summer after.
This smolt rearing system, all but perfected by the Icelanders over decades, has resulted in the East Ranga being a famously reliable and prolific Atlantic salmon river.
The east ranga.
The East Ranga is one of the most productive Atlantic salmon rivers in the world. The season runs for just 120 days, from mid June to early October, but with an average annual catch of over 4,000 salmon the river is quite extraordinary, even by high Icelandic standards.
The Fishing.
The East Ranga is often referred to as being the “perfect size”. This means large enough to be interesting and keep some of its secrets, but small enough to cover most holding spots well with a 12-14ft double handed rod or indeed a switch or single handed rod in many cases.
The Lodge.
The lodge complex is comprised of 10 buildings, all linked by a wooden walkway and veranda, pair of hot tubs and a small sauna. Guests are accommodated in fully furnished rooms each with either twin or double bed and private bathroom.
