30 Rod-Fishing in the Nith. 



The past season has been a bad one both for rod-fishers and 

 netters, but there is little real hope of satisfactory auaendment till 

 the net-fishers learn that it is to their advantage that a larger 

 number of salmon should be allowed to go up the rivers to lay 

 their eggs, and should combine with upper proprietors to fight 

 manfully against pollution whatever form it may take. 



You may perhaps think that I have strayed a good deal from 

 my subject and have treated the matter too generally. But 

 eveiy word refers to the Nith as much as to other rivers. If trout 

 are scarce and salmon absent till too late in the season there can 

 be no good rod-fishing, and I feel sure that if you are not anglers 

 yourselves, you would be glad to see your jjoorer brethren and 

 your fishing friends get better sport than they do now. 



This brings me to a very much vexed question ; that is Free 

 Trout-fishing. There are some who assert that trout-fishing in 

 Scotland is free, and many who think that it ought to be. You 

 probably know that there is no such thing on the Nith, nor on any 

 river that runs into the Solway. The Solway Fisheries Act is very 

 stringent, and the penalties for rod-fishisg in any water without 

 the permission of the proprietor are heavy. But a great part of 

 the Nith can be fished by ticket from one or other of the angling 

 associations for a very small sum. Therefore practically a large 

 portion of the river is free to all who will conform to the rules 

 under which the tickets are issued. 



Free trout-fishing as some understand it — ^that is, that every- 

 one should have the right to fish wherever he pleased — would 

 very soon complete the ruin of our fisheries. Something which 

 happened to me a few years ago opened my eyes to the danger 

 of free-fishing. I was in the habit of giving leave freely to 

 all who aske,d for fishing in my waters. One man, to whom I 

 fancied I might safely give unlimited leave, was found with his 

 pockets full of pheasants' eggs, which he picked up in coverts by 

 the waterside. A right of free fishing would give to evil men the 

 opportunity of collecting the eggs of grouse and black game to 

 such an extent that the moors would be denuded of game. A 

 whole army of keepers would not be able to protect them. 



It is my earnest wish that our rivei'S and streams should be 

 thrown open as much as possible to hard working men who fish 

 legitimately ; and if they would band themselves together against 

 the poacher, and all illegal methods of capturing- trout and salmon. 



