BREIDDALSA SYNDICATE
The Breiddalsa River, Breiddalsvik, East Iceland
The Breiddalsa and tributaries are a truly stunning playground for the adventure obsessed fly fisher. Located in the East of Iceland, one hour from Egilstadir Airport, it is widely recognised as one of the most beautiful rivers and valleys in the country. Breiddalsa is populated by brown trout, arctic char and some of Iceland's largest Atlantic salmon.
A decade ago Breiddalsa held a five year average of 900+ salmon landed to 6-8 rods in 90 days, with a high percentage of multi sea winter fish, including some of the very largest 3SW salmon, a relative rarity in Iceland. This was partly due to the small amount of naturally successful spawning and in large part due to the hatchery program releasing salmon smolts reared from Breiddalsa adult salmon. 2010 and 2011 witnessed the peak fishing with 1,178 and 1,430 salmon landed respectively.
Recent years have been tougher however, with a greatly diminished hatchery program resulting in rapidly diminishing numbers of adult one, two and three sea-winter salmon returning to Breiddalsa.
New Leaseholders
In early 2022 RIPP Sporting’s partners took over the management of Breiddalsa signing a long term lease contract for the years 2023-2032 and the decision was immediately taken to review, revive and accelerate the hatchery program, again using only Breiddalsa adult brood fish. Simultaneously it was decided that 2023 would see the river rested and closed to fishers.
In June 2023 four release ponds received a total of over 55,000 healthy Breiddalsa smolts which were cared for daily by our fishery manager Albert Jenssen and his team, before being released during July to migrate to their feeding grounds in the north Atlantic and Artic oceans.
2023 was the first of the larger releases of Breiddalsa smolts that will take place each year going forwards with an expected curve of 80-90,000 (2024), 100-120,000 (2025), 180-200,000 (2026) and a sustained circa 200,000 smolts released per year by 2027 and thereafter.
An Exciting Future
We have no doubt that this hatchery program, supplemented by further good stewardship procedures including and most importantly encouraging and monitoring the maximum possible successful natural spawning, will see this river return to its former glory and beyond. We are committed to this project, and to achieving a scale and quality of returning salmon runs that will not only make for truly exceptional sport, but which will also be a source of pride for everyone involved.
The Breiddalsa Syndicate
In order to continue to fund the current progress and maintain the rapid acceleration and quality of the hatchery and other regeneration programs, we are inviting a very limited number of fishers to consider becoming Breiddalsa Syndicate Members. Syndicate Members will select from the most prime Breiddalsa fishing dates, paying the fishing element (not guides or board) for a fixed number of years in advance, in return they will benefit from a heavily discounted fishing rate and other preferential options.
We hope that Breiddalsa Syndicate Members will also be as excited to take part in this project as we are. If our common goals are achieved they will hold amongst the most desirable Atlantic Salmon fly fishing in Iceland and perhaps the world.
