Chris Donegan is ready to hook readers with his look back at the lockdowned start of 2021's salmon fishing season in Bundoran, and a preview of the 2022 salmon fishing season ...

What is the biggest attraction to living in Bundoran? If you had asked me that question a couple of years ago, I would have scratched my head and been hard-pressed to come up with an answer.

Having scratched for a while, I might have suggested that being able to walk down to the seafront on a hot summer’s day, pop into the American House for a '99' before plonking myself down on one of the seats overlooking the ocean, then licking my ice cream while watching surfer dudes strut their stuff, had a certain appeal.

Those hardy bucks in their black rubber suits can be seen riding the waves year round, but in the winter months the shutters are down on much of Bundoran as the town goes into virtual hibernation.

So why would I want to live there outside of the ice cream season?

Well, for the past couple of years, we have been in a Covid-19-induced lockdown for the start of the salmon fishing season on the River Drowes on January 1.

Surfers like catching waves; I like catching salmon. (Well, I like fishing for salmon – catching them is an altogether more difficult proposition.)

During the lockdowns, there was a ban on inter-county travel and from straying more than two kilometres from your front door.

Bundoran is two kilometres-ish from the Drowes. I say “ish”, because some kilometres are longer than others.

My two kilometres – about a mile and a quarter in old money – will barely take me from one side of Enniskillen to the other.

However, it can take a Cavan man from Ballyjamesduff to the drinks section of my local Asda.

My car has 50,000 miles on the clock. His has 50. Not a bit of wonder he has a smile a mile wide.

Not only can he stock up on cheap booze and go fishing when the fancy takes him, but when it comes to changing his car, because of the low mileage on his clock, he will get 10-times what I would be offered for my old banger.

Of course I could have ignored the regulations, taken the chance and driven down to the Drowes, parked in some secluded nook and thrown a camouflage net over the jalopy.

Stepping out from between the bushes onto the river bank, I would have found myself standing beside my friend from Ballyjamesduff.

“Have you come far?" I can imagine him asking. “Couple of K,” I would have nonchalantly replied.

Then there would have been a rustle in the undergrowth behind me, sending a shiver down my spine, as a Garda Special Branch officer stepped out from a tree and felt my collar.

Before you could say “Ballyjamesduff”, I would have been whisked off to Mountjoy Prison, there to languish in a cold, damp cell and reflect on the heinousness of my crime.

To avoid a spell in jail and becoming an outcast for such an anti-social breach of the lockdown restrictions, the only answer would have been to move house, to Bundoran, from where I could fish the Drowes without fear of prosecution.

So, to cut a long story short – that would have been the biggest attraction to living in the seaside town.

Those fortunate enough to have a Bundoran post code or to reside within two kilometres of the Drowes made the most of what an estate agent would have called their “location, location, location”.

The river opened on New Year’s Day as usual, but that was the only usual thing about it. Where once hundreds of anglers would have lined the river banks hoping to catch Ireland’s first salmon of the season, only a handful of locals turned up for the occasion.

Nothing was caught, but the locals continued to make the most of their location, testing the waters as the days rolled by, watching and waiting for that increasingly elusive first spring salmon.

Eventually, on February 4, Joe Broderick from – you’ve guessed it – Bundoran crossed the path of a fish with a black Flying C spinner in the Old Sea Pool. It weighed 10 pounds.

A little-known side effect of Covid-19 is that it can turn anglers like me green. With envy.

Joe’s fish would have done that all right, but another Drowes local, Seamus O’Neill, turned me 40 shades greener when, a couple of weeks later, he landed the salmon of the season: a magnificent 20-pound specimen.

As we approach 2022, the owner of the Drowes fishery, Shane Gallagher, has his fingers crossed.

“We would be hopeful of having the first normal year in two years,” says Shane.

“All being well, the 2022 salmon fishing season will commence on the Drowes at 8.30am on January 1.

“The fishing tackle shop at Lareen will be open for permits and licences from 9am on Wednesday 29, Thursday 30, and Friday 31 of December, and from 6am on Saturday, January 1,” he adds.

“The price of permits and licences will remain unchanged for the 2022 season,” Shane confirms.