Helga María fishing well

‘We can say that everything has worked out fine over the last few weeks. Finally, after a long uphill spell, we have some good weather and the catch for last trip, which ended at the beginning of this week, was 600 tubs, or around 180 tonnes,’ said Helga María’s skipper Friðleifur Einarsson.

He said that they had been fishing mainly around the Mountains region.

‘We were searching for saithe and did everything we could to avoid species such as cod, haddock and golden redfish. That worked out fairly well, considering just how much of these species there is. So we had 65 tonnes of cod and 55 tonnes of saithe for the trip, as well as haddock and redfish,’ he said, commenting that saithe isn’t to be found in dense marks. Instead, the saithe are somewhat dispersed and finding them calls for patience.

‘We can say that saithe are distributed around the Mountains area. We called at the Eldey Bank, and there were only cod and haddock to be had there.’

According to Friðleifur Einarsson, it makes a difference to be at sea in reasonable weather, after the battering they have taken so far this year. Good weather also means better and steadier fishing than the extended stormy weather that they have been through into April.

‘Production ashore needs the fish. Viðey is on the slipway at the moment so there are only two trawlers fishing to keep production supplied,’ Friðleifur Einarsson said.