272 AUTUMN ON THE TWEED 



waters on October 31st. On a few northern streams 

 the close season begins in September; October 15th is 

 the date fixed for the Tay, and in a few of the Solway 

 streams angling is allowed to continue till November 

 15th. On the Tweed alone the season is extended till 

 November 30th, a concession intended to compensate 

 sportsmen for the excessive havoc wrought by improved 

 netting machinery in the tidal and lower reaches, 

 whereby the spring and summer fish, which used to 

 give excellent sport not many years ago, have been all 

 but exterminated. Immense rents are paid by rod- 

 fishers for the best casts on the Tweed, but hardly 

 any one thinks it worth while to cast a fly before the 

 nets are taken off in September. It makes one's heart 

 sore to see a noble river so greedily used, and one longs 

 for the enactment of the recommendation of the Royal 

 Commission, that the weekly close time for nets be 

 extended to forty-eight hours, that no netting be allowed 

 above the tideway, and that rod-fishing shall cease on 

 November 15th. But all this will avail little unless the 

 foul fishing in the upper waters be put an end to. At 

 present, almost every fish that makes its way into the 

 shallow streams about Innerleithen is doomed to die by 

 the gaff, the leister, or the still more nefarious stroke- 

 haul. Ghastly objects they are, poor things, swollen 

 and discoloured, with milt or spawn running from them 

 as they are dragged from the spawning beds. Wasteful 

 and disgusting as the practice is, it will require a strong 

 effort to check it, for poaching has been instilled into 

 the very blood of the ' braw lads o' Gala Water/ and for 



