THE THURSO 245 



long, and extends from Duncansby Head to Brims Ness. The 

 estuary of the river, i.e. the artificially delimited area in which fixed 

 nets of any description may not be set, is small, being " A portion 

 of a circle 400 yards radius to be drawn from a centre placed mid- 

 channel at the time of low water of equinoctial spring tides, and 

 continued to the shore at high-water by tangents, that on the east 

 being to a point 500 yards north-east of Thurso Castle, and that on 

 the west being in the direction of the toll-house." l 



I am unable to determine when bag nets were first set on the 

 Thurso coast, but it was almost certainly long before the period 

 during which rod fishing records are available for comparison. The 

 first stake net set in Scotland, i.e. the net from which fly nets and 

 bag nets were gradually developed, was in 1821 on the coast of 

 Forfarshire, from which point the practice of fixed net fishing 

 spread north and south. But certain old fixed nets were already in 

 use in the Solway, and appear to have arisen independently. A 

 stake net is still fished on the Forfarshire coast. 



So far as I can estimate, when the estuary of the Thurso was 

 fixed in 1868 only about a score of nets were on the coast in the 

 neighbourhood. The fact of importance in the present connection 

 is that as facilities for sending fish to market increased, and salmon 

 fisheries became more valuable, the number of nets increased till 

 about the year 1900 when there were 46, including some nets set in 

 Thurso Bay not far from the river mouth. The netting in the river 

 itself had by this time been long discontinued, but the channel of 

 the river just above the town of Thurso was very shallow, so that in 

 summer, when the grilse naturally seek to ascend, they were often 

 unable to do so and had to fall back and wait about Thurso Bay. 

 This drawback has recently been obviated. It is certain that July 

 was always the best month for the nets in the sea, and that the 

 great proportion of the catch in this month consisted of grilse. The 

 nearest nets, those at Pennyland, were within 500 yards of the river 

 mouth. The Pennyland and Scrabster nets were fished the whole 

 season, while those on the more exposed parts of the coast were 

 not commonly put in the water till May, when the grilse were 

 expected. 



A successful spring angling in the Thurso and in all other 

 northern rivers depends on a good grilse run in the previous 

 summer. This at first may seem rather enigmatical, but since the 

 small class of spring fish are chiefly relied upon, and since those 



Schedule B, Salmon Fisheries (S3ot.) Act, 1868. 



