372 THE SALMON RIVERS OF SCOTLAND 



The Hon. A. E. Gathorne-Hardy has written of the Add 

 from long personal knowledge, 1 to which I can in no way lay 

 claim, and relates that on one occasion, in a dead calm, he stood 

 watching a shoal of small salmon and grilse swimming round 

 and round one of the slack quiet pools. From his position on 

 the high bank he says he must have been as clearly visible to 

 the fish as they were to him. Nevertheless, one after another 

 followed his fly when he presented it and began to lay hold, 

 so that he ultimately landed three and hooked and lost one or 

 two more. 



With reference to the water near the mouth, he says that 

 99 sea-trout were on one occasion landed by a local angler 

 in a single tide. The salmon average 7^ lb., and the largest 

 fish Mr. Gathorne-Hardy has taken was just over 20 lb. Col. 

 Malcolm of Poltalloch, who owns all the lower river, has killed 

 a 21, a 22 and a 27 lb. fish. He has killed as many as nine in a 

 day, of average weight. One has to be on the spot to take 

 advantage of the quickly passing opportunity to score like 

 this. The rise and fall of the Add is naturally very rapid, and 

 it goes quickly out of ply. Mr. Gathorne-Hardy says, in the 

 book referred to,- that the largest season's catch he has made 

 was 49 salmon and 167 sea-trout. Fish do not put in an 

 appearance in this little river till about the end of July, and 

 from recent accounts, it would appear that the river has not 

 been yielding great results to the rod. I have repeatedly 

 marked kelts in February, however, and have always found 

 plenty of them. I am informed also that in the month of June, 

 one year, as an experiment, two pools of the river were netted, 

 one haul in each, and that the catch was 292 salmon. This 

 was shortly after Col. Malcolm succeeded to the property. 



1 Fur, Feather, and Fin Series (Salmon), p. 98. 



