230 THE SALMON RIVERS OF SCOTLAND 



I have the Brora net and coble record from 1864 to the present 

 time, and the falling away at and just after this bag-netting period 

 is also most marked. 



The noteworthy point in the case of the Helmsdale is the rapid 

 recovery noticeable on the cessation of all netting and the com- 

 mencement of the system of artificial floods after 1901. Two 

 hatcheries operating on the river were also erected in order to 

 improve results. Without any doubt, the spring angling has 

 in recent years been better than the angling of whole seasons 

 between 1897 and 1902, while the totals show that the Helmsdale 

 angling now is twice the value it was between the dates named. 

 From the experiences in other river districts it would appear that 

 this recovery could not have been so rapid, the angling results 

 could not have been so much increased, had the storing of the 

 head waters not been undertaken. 



With regard to the effect of removing the bag nets in the sea, I 

 should like to add that while it has been conclusively shown that 

 bag net fishing in the sea can be safely carried on without injury 

 to the stock of salmon which enters fresh water, this is necessarily 

 accompanied by the proviso that the fixed nets are not fished too 

 near the mouths of rivers where fish congregate. The distance 

 which must intervene between the river and the fixed nets depends 

 on several local circumstances, and, in the case of rivers largely 

 dependent upon the small class of spring fish, must be such that 

 the shoals of grilse which approach the shore in early summer, 

 and swim off and on and along the shore in the neighbourhood of 

 river mouths, be not captured in undue numbers. A large 

 number of those grilse are not directly on their way to fresh 

 waters, will not naturally enter any river as grilse, but will remain 

 in the sea and, if uncaptured, will enter fresh water at the com- 

 mencement of the following season as the valuable class of small 

 spring fish. 



If the fixed nets are so placed as to capture undue numbers of 

 those grilse and it is the tacksman's endeavour to capture as 

 many of them as he can the valuable spring stock of next 

 season is reduced. Even under natural causes grilse may fail, and 

 consequently small springers may fail ; under conditions in which 

 unwise netting is superadded there is risk that such failure be 

 turned into bankruptcy. 



As I have already said, the Helmsdale was always famous as a 

 spring river ; what seems now to have happened as the direct result 



