Séamus de Búrca in Cork and Pat O'Donnell in Mayo are among some 1,500 licence holders who might have fished their last summer for wild salmon at sea.
Their short, sharp season ended on July 31st and their future is now in the hands of a Government review group, which has limited terms of reference and a fast-approaching deadline.
Anglers and private fishery owners have already been proclaiming victory in a highly emotive and protracted debate which, as de Búrca argues, "has characterised us as roughies and toughies and which was never about the fish".
Last March, Minister of State for the Marine John Browne accepted recommendations made by the National Salmon Commission, a Government advisory body, advising that all indiscriminate "mixed stock" fishing of salmon should end from 2007.
Mr Browne appointed an independent group, involving former IDA chief executive Pádraic White, Prof Tom Collins, chairman of the National Rural Water Monitoring Committee, and John Malone, former secretary-general at the Department of Agriculture and Food, to "examine the implications" and "to make recommendations on the options available to address any financial hardship that may arise".
O'Donnell, fishing from Erris in Mayo, says a progressive reduction in quotas in past years has been a "form of slow and steady shutdown anyway".
De Búrca, who represents 106 licence holders over 112 miles of coastline from Ballycotton island to Dursey Head, also knows that many of his colleagues will "look at the maths".
"Ten years ago, a government task force review identified many factors putting wild salmon at risk, including predators and pollution, so we agreed to quotas and tags, to new limits and to a much shorter season."
Climate change has also been cited as a significant factor. A promise was made to put counters on all rivers to make accurate assessments - only 16 are in place throughout the Republic, some of which are not working.
"For our co-operation, the resource is going to be transferred to private fishery owners - not even the 30,000 anglers out there," de Búrca says. "This is not about saving the salmon, but about changing the point of kill."
Wild salmon traders - represented by the Irish Fish Processors and Exporters Association - believe that de Búrca and O'Donnell have a point. They estimate that the commercial industry is worth €10 million annually and that any sudden cut-off threatens the collapse of a trade which depends exclusively on wild fish caught offshore.
De Búrca and O'Donnell also warn that any decision has to be taken in the context of a new management plan for inshore fisheries, which Bord Iascaigh Mhara has been brokering.
