Today, Saturday sees the start of the spring salmon fishing season on Lough Melvin - weather permitting.

The Melvin produces an abundance of salmon but this year nervous fishery officials have halved the number anglers can catch and keep.

The lough straddles the Border with the Fermanagh portion managed by the Garrison and Lough Melvin Anglers Association.

As Association secretary Malcolm Finney explains, fishery scientists at DCAL (the Department of Culture Arts and Leisure) estimate that there were 2,000 surplus salmon in the Melvin last year. That’s 2,000 more fish than necessary to maintain a healthy, self-sustaining population of salmon in the lough. They reckon there will be a similar number to spare this year. In theory those fish could be caught and kept by anglers without threatening the future of the salmon in the Melvin.

However, the Melvin is one of very few fisheries with a healthy stock of salmon. In many others the numbers of fish have dwindled to dangerously low levels.

As a result DCAL operates a blanket ban on anglers catching and keeping salmon and introduced mandatory catch-and-release, requiring anglers to return any salmon they catch back to the water alive.

Again, Melvin is the exception. Last year anglers were allowed to catch and keep 10 salmon for the season. This year that number has been halved to five. That shouldn’t trouble most anglers, who are content if they catch a couple of salmon in a season.

DCAL is also being quite specific about when an angler can catch and keep salmon. The Melvin is prized for its spring salmon fishing so anglers are being allowed to catch and keep three salmon between February 1, and March 1. From March 1, until the season closes on September 30, two salmon can be taken.

The concession on catching and keeping salmon has been granted because of the Garrison and Lough Melvin Anglers Association’s fishery enhancement work. Last year, in a joint operation with staff at the Erne and Melvin Enhancement Company’s Marble Arch Fish Hatchery at Florencecourt, it produced 40,000 salmon fry and released them into the Roogagh River in Garrison. The Association had hoped to repeat the exercise this year but high water levels in the Roogagh just before Christmas hampered the capture of sufficient numbers of adult salmon to provide the eggs and have them fertilised. However, there are currently 5,000 salmon eggs in the hatchery and the fry that emerge from them will be released into the Roogagh in the spring.

A day’s salmon fishing on the Association’s water costs £20, a season permit is £80 and a season permit for two rods is £100.

Anglers also require a rod licence.

All salmon caught and kept must be fitted with tags, available from permit sellers, including Jo-Anne Burns at Garrison Post Office, Melvin Tackle in Garrison, the Holiday Centre in Garrison and Association Secretary Malcolm Finney, phone 07999677869.

Anglers are also being requested to record all salmon kept or released, along with details of weight, when, where and how the fish was caught. The Association says this information has been requested by DCAL and is very important as it will greatly influence future bag limits on the Melvin.

Once again the Association is making the opening day of the season a bit of an event. Soup and rolls will be served in the new clubhouse at 1pm on Saturday. The Riverside Bar in Garrison is putting up a £100 prize and Sean Maguire of Melvin Tackle a £100 voucher for the angler catching the first salmon. The winner will also receive the Melvin Perpetual Trophy.