First salmon landed on the Drowes
By Rodney Farry
Once again the River Drowes in Kinlough has recorded the first Salmon catch of the year.
Retired fireman, Colin Gardiner from Lurgan, Co Armagh caught the 13lb fish at around noon last Saturday on the Lareen estate on the Leitrim Donegal border. Over 200 anglers from across Ireland and abroad descended on the estate on New Year’s Day in an effort to claim the first salmon catch of 2008. However, this year the river’s salmon population weren’t in biting mood.
“It just happens some years. Over the last 30 years, the first catch of the year has gone past the first of January on around five or six occasions,” fisheries manager Shane Gallagher told the Leitrim Post.
The Drowes has been the scene of the first salmon catch of the year on 25 occasions in the last thirty years. This year the honour fell to Northern Irish angler Gardiner, who landed his bounty in the ‘Money Hole’ pool, using a Black flying c with silver blade.
The Armagh native has been a regular visitor to the river for 30 years and also claimed the first catch of the year in 2005. Gardiner’s catch will be the main attraction at a special fundraising buffet in the Fox’s Lair restaurant in Bundoran this Friday night. All proceeds from the event will be donated to the paediatric ward of Sligo General Hospital
