148 SALMON FISHING 



the tributaries ; and the season on the loch, as far 

 as it has gone, has been as good as the best of which 

 there is any chronicle. 



The TAY, about 126 miles in length, is the 

 greatest river in Scotland. I have not known it 

 intimately long enough to be able to say from my 

 own knowledge whether it is as prosperous as it used 

 to be. My impression is that there must have been 

 a falling-off for a few seasons before I became in- 

 timately acquainted with it a few years ago. This 

 surmise is based upon what Mr. Watson Lyall, who 

 knew the river thoroughly and fished it often, used 

 to tell. Once he caught nineteen fish, salmon and 

 grilse, weighing over 200 Ibs., in a day ! Though 

 reasonably proud of this feat, he did not speak of it 

 as if it were unprecedented. I gathered that it was 

 hardly more than about twice as good a basket as a 

 man might expect any day in a moderate September. 

 There have been no tales so thrilling since I have 

 known the Tay. It is not easy for one observer, 

 however vigilant, to give more than a general 

 account of so great a river. I will, therefore, recite 

 what I have learned from three thoroughly com- 

 petent actors and witnesses of sport on the magnifi- 

 cent stream. 



Mr. C. A. Murray, who has Lord Mansfield's 

 stretch at Stanley, says that there is a falling-off. 

 He believes that this is due partly to over-fishing, 

 and largely to fishing with sunken lures, such as 

 prawns. Mr. Murray thinks that only fly-fishing is 

 proper. 



