Just like the highway to Hell, the road to the Drowes to catch Ireland’s first salmon of 2014 is paved with good intentions.

Cinderella anglers across Fermanagh will already have taken the pledge. They’ll have vowed to leave that New Year’s Eve Ball and be safely tucked up in bed long before the clock strikes midnight, ready for an early start the following morning.

Such promises can be as empty as any New Year Resolution, especially if the glass on the table is full.

Some Cinderellas will arrive on the river bank, mid to late morning, sunken red-eyes staring unfocused from a grey, pasty, unshaven face. With any luck they will have swapped their ball gowns for something a little bit more apropos but that’s as far as their preparations will have gone. Just watching them getting into their waders and tackling up can be as funny as any Christmas pantomime.

Of course some anglers prefer the Wellington. I’m not talking about the knee-length rubber boot worn by farmers but the Wellington Bar in nearby Kinlough where the worst casualties of New Year’s Eve go in search of “the cure”.

Elsewhere the walking wounded will complain of a sore foot and claim they are only staggering because some prince or other asked them to try on a glass slipper for size. They are likely to be found in Dr. Bill Likely’s surgery at the tackle shop at Lareen, seeking out the hair-of-the-dog. This is not to be confused with the well known salmon fly, the Garry Dog, unless you want a pierced lip!

By the time they get to the tackle shop the first salmon of 2014 could already be there, lying in state, with groups of envious anglers and curious spectators filing past, paying their respects.

And then there are the serious anglers for whom January 1, is the chance to catch Ireland’s first salmon of the season and put their name on the Drowes Perpetual Cup. They’ll be on the river bank before dawn, tackled up and raring to go on the dot of the season opening at 8.30am.

When its light enough to see, expect to find them crowded around the Mill Pool, Upper Mill Pool and Crooked Hole, all just above the Four Masters Bridge on the Ballyshannon to Kinlough Road. This is a key staging area in the salmon’s migration up river from the sea to Lough Melvin and has produced the first salmon on several occasions in the past.

However, it is the Black Water stretch further upstream that has produced the first salmon for the past three years and is likely to attract a lot of angling attention this New Year’s Day.

At the other end of the river the Sea Pool can’t be overlooked as there is a new moon on New Year’s Day and the chance a fresh salmon might slip in from the Atlantic on the high tide around 5am.

Recent rain has seen the water level rise but as fishery owner Shane Gallagher points out, that is not necessarily a bad omen.

“The water had been low so it’s not bad to have a little rise in the level,” he explained. “As long as it doesn’t rise for the next week it should be in fair condition.” Shane and his staff took advantage of the unusually low water level during the closed season to carry out repairs to the catwalks on the lower river. It also gave them the opportunity to witness a bumper year for spawning as last season’s fish dug redds in the gravel on the river bed and laid their eggs.

“There was good spawning this year,” says Shane. “It was very easy to see it because the water was so low. Nearly every bit of gravel in the river was turned over so that’s a good sign (for the future).” Shane estimates that between 1,200 and 1,300 salmon were caught on the Drowes last season, although official statistics from Inland Fisheries Ireland won’t be available for some time yet. The pick of them was a 17.5 pound springer landed by Fermanagh angler Marty O’Hara.

Those catch figures aren’t bad given the horrendous conditions for fishing that persisted throughout much of 2013. The peak of the spring salmon fishing was blown away by six weeks of very strong east winds. When the wind finally settled the sun came out and stayed out, leading to a drought and incinerating the summer grilse fishing.

“I think there was a good return (of salmon) but conditions were difficult throughout the season generally,” says Shane.

This year for the first time he is offering the prize of a GoPro action camera for the first angler to catch-and-release a salmon. There’s also a box of flies for the first fish caught on a fly.

A day’s fishing on the Drowes will set you back 25 euro. A season ticket is 300 euro.

Licence fees remain the same as last year at 20 euro a day or 100 euro a season. Those anglers who only fish the Drowes and Duff can save themselves a few euro by buying a district licence costing 56 euro.

Tag and bag regulations are also unchanged. Catch-and-release continues to be promoted as a conservation measure but an angler can catch-and-keep one salmon a day up to a maximum of 10 salmon for the season. Of those 10, only three can be caught and kept between January 1, and May 11. From May 12, until August 31, an angler can catch and keep three salmon a day.

The tackle shop at Lareen is open for the sale of licences and permits on Monday and Tuesday, December 30 and 31, from 8.30am and on New Year’s Day from 6am. A final word to those planning New Year’s Eve celebrations. I’ve been at the Drowes ever year for the past 30 and witnessed some wonderful sights but I’ve yet to see a man in a ball gown catching the first salmon of the season.

But 2014 could be your lucky year Cinders!