CHAPTER X 

 THE SPEY DISTRICT 



ANGLING SEASON: llth February to 15th October. 

 NETTING SEASON: llth February to 26th August. 



District Fishery Board sits in Elgin. 



The drainage area of this district is 1,097 square miles, being 

 the largest but one the Tay in Scotland ; but the district 

 is peculiar in this, that large lochs do not exist, and the entire 

 length of the area is practically occupied by the river. Tribu- 

 taries such as the Druie and Avon rise in part from lochs, and 

 at one part of the main river a shallow loch (Loch Insh) exists, 

 but this last is merely a large widening of the river over a flat 

 surface of surrounding country. None of the tributaries is of 

 first-class importance for angling ; but several of them are 

 first-class spawning streams. The Tweed is the only other 

 district in Scotland in which so much actual river channel 

 exists, and in which spawning grounds may be found over a 

 very widely-extended waterway. 



THE RIVER SPEY 



The total length of the river is about 100 miles, and in 

 character it may be divided into an upper and lower section 

 at a point a short distance above Castle Grant. From this 

 point downwards the Spey is uniformly good in its succession 

 of pools and long streams of fine flowing water ; and this 

 section of the river is the one over which angling is most steadily 

 practised with success. Above this point the river is very 

 variable in character, now presenting a broad rippling surface, 

 now an eddying pool, and not infrequently a long stretch of 

 still, meandering water with earthy banks and weedy edges. 



The river actually rises away in the western portion of 

 Badenoch, south-west of the Findhorn's source, on the high 



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