The salmon fishing season was barely an hour old when the first fish of the year was landed on the River Drowes. This means the Co Leitrim river has produced the first salmon in 18 of the past 21 years.
An Enniskillen angler, Mr Brian McEvoy, caught the 12lb salmon at 9.04 a.m. on New Year's Day and the fish was later sold at auction to the Grand Central Hotel in Bundoran for £500.
The owner of the river, Thomas Gallagher, who has been fishing it since he was a child, says there's no secret formula. It's all down to good management. The 5 1/2-mile Drowes meanders from Lough Melvin through woodlands and under old stone bridges to join the sea at Tullaghan, near Bundoran. It came into Thomas Gallagher's ownership in 1977 when he bought the 200-acre Lareen Estate, near Kinlough village.
It was a case of gamekeeper's-son-turned-landlord, because Thomas's father, John, earned one shilling a day as gamekeeper on the estate 60 years before, when it was still in the hands of the Blacker-Douglas family. Until recently, the river powered a sawmill and a corn mill.
When Thomas and his wife bought the estate, the river had been badly neglected and several weirs had to be rebuilt. "It took nearly 10 years to get the place in middling shape," he says. Small wooden walkways have been constructed along the banks, and pools created which provide ideal conditions for salmon.
The most successful of these is at the Four Masters Bridge - so-called after the Annals of the Four Masters, an early history of Ireland, written in a nearby friary in the 17th century.
The idea came from a story, told by Thomas's father, about the time when the bridge was blown up during the War of Independence. The bombers had unwittingly created perfect conditions for salmon: stones from the bridge were left lying in the water and fish stocks flourished.
The story inspired Thomas to try a similar idea, building up a weir close to the bridge, and as he says, "it has worked magic".
More than half the anglers who use the Drowes are from the North but it attracts people from all over the world: on New Year's Day, four of the 150-plus fishermen on its banks were from Tokyo. Many visiting fishermen stay in nearby guesthouses and make a significant contribution to the local economy.
Thomas Gallagher believes it is a resource under threat unless the Government takes immediate action. Salmon stocks are declining all over the State. He blames overfishing at sea. From a high of 1,500, the number of salmon caught on the Drowes last year was 1,052.
"England, Scotland and Canada have all banned commercial exploitation of salmon. If our Government is serious about preserving the wild Atlantic salmon, action will have to be taken.
"They should start where the problem is - netting at sea. The salmon is a game fish and I think the wild Atlantic salmon should be left to game anglers. There is enough farmed salmon now for the commercial market."
Thomas believes the local people should benefit from the salmon. "It is one of our Godgiven natural resources, and it is as good as a small factory to this area. It has to be protected, but I am concerned that something will be done only when it is too late."
He says anglers are not greedy. Most would be content if they caught a couple in the season. Thomas is always amazed at their knowledge of wildlife and appreciation of nature. "Even if they don't catch a salmon, they come back for the peace and tranquillity."