THE ANNAN 433 



From 60 to 160 tons of salmon may be despatched from 

 Annan railway station in a season, 1 so that a very great stock 

 of fish would have to be present to allow of a good run, or a 

 good proportion of every run getting to the upper waters. As 

 a matter of fact, I believe the rods do not get what might very 

 well be expected in a river like the Annan, although it not 

 infrequently happens that towards the close of the season 

 some very heavy fish are taken. In 1903 a 40-pounder was 

 taken at Hoddam, and in 1905 a 36 Ib. fish was caught. Salmon 

 of about 30 Ib. are not very uncommon on the rod. The haaf 

 net has repeatedly taken heavier fish. In 1901 a fish of 46f Ib. 

 was taken by this means, which is the heaviest fish recorded 

 from this district for some years. 



This chance of getting an occasional heavy fish is no doubt 

 some compensation to the angler who finds blank days on the 

 Annan all too common. It is a great pity, however, that more 

 fish are not present in the river during the netting season. 

 Some 50 or 60 fish may be caught in the lower waters in the 

 autumn, and considerable sport with sea-trout is had in 

 summer, more especially at night, but this is really a poor 

 result for a river such as this. The best angling months may 

 be said to be July, September, and October, but a few of those 

 hundred tons of salmon just referred to would be acceptable in 

 the river. 



It has been somewhat emphatically stated before now that 

 the Annan never holds spring fish ; that it is essentially a late 

 river, and that the fish locally spoken of as spring fish are in 

 reality silvery kelts. I grant it is often difficult to tell the dif- 

 ference between a well-mended silvery kelt and a lean spring 

 fish, but a river the size of the Annan, if unobstructed by swift 

 water or weirs or by serious pollutions, and if properly stocked 

 with salmon, should certainly hold spring fish. In the Annan 

 and Nith districts, the whole Solway question would need to 

 be dragged out if the reasons for a reduced stock of fish were 

 fully gone into. Suffice it to say that the stock is not what it 

 might be. In The New Statistical Account, 2 under the account 

 of Annan Parish, which was written in December 1837, I find 

 an interesting footnote which runs as follows : "A species of 



1 Minutes of Evidence, Royal Commission on Salmon Fisheries, 1 902, 

 p. 426. 



8 Vol. iv., p. 521, 



