THE TAY 63 



Below the Bridge of Perth, in the tidal water, the public are 

 allowed to fish by rod. This is only taken advantage of in the 

 autumn when the nets are off. The banks are in places rather 

 muddy and sedge grown, and wading or bank work is quite 

 necessary. Some heavy fish are taken at times. It was here that 

 in the back end of 1907 a citizen of Perth took, by what method I 

 have never heard, a salmon of 61 J Ib. The head of this immense 

 fish is now in the Perth Museum. 



Above the Bridge of Perth and still within tide reach a limited 

 number of permits are commonly granted either by Lord Mansfield 

 or Sir G. Stewart Eichardson of Pitfour for angling in autumn on 

 the Woody Island and Inch waters respectively. The Inch Water 

 is not however particularly good, although fish are got. It is a long, 

 uniform and rather shallow stream along the North Inch. A good 

 pool exists below the Woody Island, and the stream abreast of the 

 island is the top of tide reach. 



Immediately beyond this is Bertha fishing and Almondmouth 

 Pool, and here at the end of the season great numbers of fish 

 accumulate. I recollect going to mark salmon here one November 

 day. I had intended to net and mark from Almondmouth to Perth, 

 but when daylight failed I was still busy where I had started and 

 had not got to the end of the fish that were in the pool. I have 

 known of the Tay Board's men, when ova fishing, land 430 salmon in 

 one haul from this pool, and not a few clean run fish are then taken. 

 Mr. Lumsden, the Superintendent, has also told me that at times 

 fish are so thick below the first dam dyke on the Almond as to 

 make it impossible for any one to miss hooking a fish at some part 

 of its body if minnow tackle were used, and that quite a Pacific 

 Coast salmon story could be manufactured by a person of suitable 

 imagination. 



It is on the whole rather unfortunate that so many breeding fish 

 insist, as it were, upon running up the Almond, because this tribu- 

 tary is in great part rocky and unsuited for spawning, and moreover 

 is obstructed by five dam dykes, and finally by the impassable Falls 

 of Buchanty. The first or lowest obstruction was only recently 

 added to the river. The course of the river was utilised for the 

 formation of a loch, and a new channel was cut for the ascent of 

 fish. The retaining wall of the loch itself was a high perpendicular 

 structure with no outlet except for flood water. I never heard that 

 the loch was of much use as a fishing, and I fear it sometimes held 

 up a good many kelts. The huge flood which took place on 16th 



