HB Grandi: Mackerel makes a pleasant change

‘We did well on mackerel. There were fish everywhere but we took ours in the Joekull Deeps. We had a specially rigged trawl from Hampidjan and the gear worked just fine,' said Aegir Franzson, skipper of HB Grandi's factory trawler Therney, who has been at the helm while they have been on mackerel during July, reports www.megafishnet.com with reference to HB Grandi.

According to the Minister's decision to allow a 230 tonne mackerel quota for each factory trawler, HB Grandi kicked off with Therney RE and Venus HF taking their shares. Aegir Franzson said that fishing mackerel has made a pleasant change from the groundfish species they are used to targeting.

‘You have to keep the trawl right on the surface, using lightweight doors and trawl warps made of rope instead of wire. This all worked perfectly right from the start. As the mackerel are fat at this time of year, they need to be frozen for longer than we are used to and the 25 tonne per day freezing capacity that we have had been the bottleneck that has set how much we can catch.'

When we spoke to Aegir Franzson, Therney was in the Reykjafjördur Gully where there has been good fishing for the last few days. As the fishing was starting to slow down, they were preparing to shift to new grounds. Aegir Franzson said that there is mackerel still to be seen over a wide area, including significant amounts of mackerel on shallow grounds off the western fjords.

‘Hopefully there'll be more mackerel to be seen in the future and we'll be able to make the most value out of what's available,' Aegir Franzson said.