Every registered voter in the Kaldrananeshreppur municipality (83) in the eastern Westfjords was granted a day of fishing in the river Bjarnafjardará because the owners didn’t want to rent the river to the fishing company Lax-á anymore.
“This began as plain silliness,” the chairman of the district council in Kaldrananeshreppur municipality, Jenný Jensdóttir, told Fréttabladid. “When I noticed that the number of fishing allowances was almost the same as the number of voters I figured it would be best to distribute them among the local residents instead of selling them.”
“I had meant for it to be a joke, but my idea was approved,” Jensdóttir said. “This will be an interesting experiment which may get people to angle who have never held a fishing rod before.”
The first trout from Bjarnafjardará was caught two weeks ago by a young boy from Drangsnes, Baldur Steinn Haraldsson.
Bjarnafjardará river belongs to the farms Skard and Klúka in Bjarnafjördur fjord, which also hold the rights of fishing allowances in the river. Bjarnafjardará is popular among sea trout fishers.
For the last few years the river has been rented to Lax-á, which has sold fishing allowances to hobby fishers. The farmers at Skard and Klúka did not want to rent the river to Lax-á anymore – Bladid did not reveal why – so they agreed to Jensdóttir’s idea.
Jensdóttir said it is unclear whether this arrangement will remain in place next summer.
