SALMON FISHING 109 



worst is the case of the opposite bank being let to an hotel, the 

 landlord of which places no limit on the number of rods, and to 

 fish opposite such a water as this is terribly uphill work, as 

 each pool gets incessantly splashed over all day. That fine 

 stretch of the Awe that is now let with the Taynuilt Hotel is 

 a notable and melancholy example of this sort of fishery. 

 There are, to the best of my recollection, some fourteen pools 

 on this water, some of which are high water catches and others 

 vice versa, so they are rarely all in order on the same day ; 

 but the late landlord of Taynuilt Hotel let almost anyone fish, 

 and I once counted eighteen rods out ; and that sort of thing- 

 went on for many years, while the pools on the opposite bank 

 which the hotel anglers could reach were entirely spoilt. There 

 is now a new landlord at Taynuilt, who proposes to limit the 

 rods to six ; but even this is twice as many as the water 

 will fairly carry, for each rod has only one and a half, or 

 at the most two, pools at his disposal, while each is compelled 

 to engage a gillie, who fishes as soon as his employer has 

 had enough of it, so thus the water is most mercilessly 

 flogged, and the pools on the opposite bank are quite spoilt. 

 In our opinion it is not quite fair to one's opposite neighbour 

 to let a fishery to an hotel without strictly limiting the number 

 of rods ; this is carefully done on the Dee, and anyone getting 

 a rod from the hotels at Aboyne and Ballater * can make sure 

 of an ample beat to himself The Taynuilt Hotel water has, 

 however, recently changed owners, for the discovery of some 

 missing documents in the muniment room at Inveraray Castle 

 enabled the late Duke of Argyll to establish his right to it, 

 although the late possessors, the Campbells of Loch Nell, had 

 owned it for over 1 50 years. 



The second worst neighbour an angler can have is the 

 one who does not fish himself, but gives indiscriminate leave 

 to friends, tradespeople, and servants, a matter which is 

 certainly very trying to the temper of any keen fisherman 



* The Invercauld Arms Hotel no longer has this fishing. 



