THE TAY 65 



from the bank, and I understand that, on some of the waters, 

 bank fishing is rather on the increase. 



Below the Bridge of Perth, in the tidal water, the public are 

 allowed to fish by rod. This is only taken advantage of in the 

 autumn when the nets are off. The banks are in places rather 

 muddy and sedge-grown, and wading or bank work is quite 

 unnecessary. Some heavy fish are taken at times. It was here 

 that in the back end of 1907 a citizen of Perth took, by what 

 method I have never heard, a salmon of 61^ Ib. The head of 

 this immense fish is now in the Perth Museum. 



Above the Bridge of Perth and still within tide reach a 

 limited number of permits are commonly granted either by 

 Lord Mansfield or Sir G. Stewart Richardson of Pitfour for 

 angling in autumn on the Woody Island and Inch waters 

 respectively. The Inch Water is not however particularly 

 good, although fish are got. It is a long, uniform and rather 

 shallow stream along the North Inch. A good pool exists 

 below the Woody Island, and the stream abreast of the island 

 is the top of tide reach. 



Immediately beyond this is Bertha fishing and Almondmouth 

 Pool, and here at the end of the season great numbers of fish 

 accumulate. I recollect going to mark salmon here one Novem- 

 ber day. I had intended to net and mark from Almondmouth 

 to Perth, but when daylight failed I was still busy where I had 

 started and had not got to the end of the fish that were in the 

 pool. I have known the Tay Board's men, when ova fishing, 

 land 430 salmon in one haul from this pool, and not a few 

 clean run fish are then taken. The late Mr. Lumsden, the 

 Superintendent, has also told me that at times fish are so thick 

 below the first dam dyke on the Almond as to make it impossible 

 for any one to miss hooking a fish at some part of its body if 

 minnow tackle were used, and that quite a Pacific Coast 

 salmon story could be manufactured by a person of suitable 

 imagination. 



It is on the whole rather unfortunate that so many breeding 

 fish insist, as it were, upon running up the Almond, because 

 this tributary is in great part rocky and unsuited for spawning, 

 and moreover is obstructed by five dam dykes, and finally by 

 the impassable Falls of Buchanty. The first or lowest obstruc- 

 tion was only recently added to the river. The course of the 



