Salmon fishing in Blanda Beat III

Salmon fishing in Blanda Beat III is in many ways similar to beat 2 but has slightly less volume of water (the tributary Svartá converges with Blanda between beats 2 and 3) especially the lower part of the beat.

The upper part of beat 3 is more demanding, there the river runs through a canyon and pools are more diverse.

Most of the best pools are accessible by car (4×4) but there are some that require a bit of walking. As with beat 2, beat 3 is not known for the volume of salmon but the size and strength.

Annual catches range from 100 – 200 salmon with a steady increase in recent years.

Number of salmons caught per year in river Blanda:

2007: 1117 – 2008: 986 – 2009: 2413 – 2010: 2777

2011: 2032 – 2012: 832 – 2013: 2611 – 2014: 1931  2015: 4829! 2016:2386

2017: 1433 – 2018: 870

Blanda is a glacial river and even though it has changed drastically, due to the hydro-electric power plant situated at the top of the river, the water is rarely gin-clear. But during June, July and the beginning of August the water is relatively clear.

Most of the glacial silt sinks to the bottom of the reservoir before the water is channeled through the turbines at Blanda power station. This means that the visibility below the surface is measured in yards, so more than enough to fish.

In  late August the water sometimes becomes gradually darker until it becomes very hard to fish. Even though most local anglers curse this every year, the side effect is that this way the river automatically protects its stock of salmon.