246 SALMON FISHING 



The TEES is improving. Last season, as regards 

 both net -fishing at the mouth and rod -fishing 

 in the upper reaches, was the best that can be 

 remembered. The salmon, which are of good size, 

 are going up the river earlier every year. Last 

 season the first fresh-run fish, weighing 19 J Ibs., was 

 caught in March. Many salmon were taken in April 

 and May, and there was excellent sport in autumn. 

 Mr. T. M. Barren, Secretary to the Fishery Board, 

 says that the earlier running of the fish is probably 

 attributable to the removal, a few years ago, of 

 Dinsdale Dam. Trout fishing also has much im- 

 proved. Every year several thousand yearling fish 

 have been turned down. Durham County Council 

 and the Fishery Board are sedulous in preventing 

 pollution, and the riparian owners have helped 

 effectively by forbidding the taking of small trout. 

 Good baskets have become common on the Tees 

 and its tributaries. 



The Yorkshire ESK, though small, is a prolific 

 salmon river. It is in a splendid state. Mr. 

 William Brown, Whitby, Clerk to the Board of 

 Conservators, informs me that before the Salmon 

 Fishing Act of 1861 hecks attached to the mill weir 

 at Ruswarp, at the head of the tidal water, caught 

 great quantities of fish, and that those which got over 

 the dam were the subjects of wholesale poaching 

 in the upper water. "It is questionable," Mr. 

 Brown writes, "whether any mature fish ever re- 

 turned to the sea. Whether the Esk at any earlier 

 time had harboured salmon (solar) cannot now 



