LOCH OICH 175 



as well as in certain parts of the lower water, the placing of croys 

 at well selected spots would, I have no doubt, materially improve 

 results. 



At present the annual catch may be said to be from 30 to 50 

 fish. 



LOCH OICH. 



This loch is a very important adjunct to the Garry fishings. At 

 the opening of the season, and more especially in very cold winters 

 and springs, fish which have run the river Oich usually check their 

 upward progress in Loch Oich for some time. It usually happens, 

 therefore, that a good deal of boat fishing is done in the loch in the 

 early part of the season, and as a matter of fact the heaviest fish 

 are generally caught in this way. 



The record salmon for the Ness District was taken by the Duke 

 of Portland in the loch on 23rd March, 1907. The weight was 

 44 J Ib. Seven fish were landed the same day with an average 

 weight of 21 Ib. In 1905 2 fish of 40 Ib. were taken in the loch, 

 one in February and the other in March ; these were, I think, the 

 first fish of this weight recorded for the district. 



The loch has also the reputation of harbouring a good many pike. 

 The southern end certainly looks " pikey," but the Invergarry 

 fisherman wages constant war by means of trimmers. This end of 

 the loch is not usually trolled for salmon, and so far as the northern 

 end of the loch is concerned, I may say that in March, 1908, I 

 netted this part for the purpose of marking salmon kelts, and 

 only caught one pike ; she was, however, a beauty of 23 Ib. It was 

 marked in quite another way, and was not returned to the water. 

 In referring to this netting, I may add that the kelts we caught 

 were without exception the finest, healthiest, and handsomest I have 

 seen in Scotland, and I have seen a large variety of kelts in the last 

 ten years. A good number, certainly, had healed scars, either from 

 wounds caused by rocks in the upper waters, or the attentions of 

 seals in the Inverness Firth, but the scars were healthy, completed 

 cures, and there was no disease even in these cases. 



Loch Oich is a narrow, straight sheet of water, the long axis 

 lying in a north-east and south-west direction. Eich and varied 

 wooding clothes the western shore, more especially in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Invergarry, where the eye is naturally focused on the 

 ruined Invergarry Castle, standing up, as if to catch the light, on 

 the summit of its rocky knoll. The loch, the woods, the castle, and 



