CHAPTER XXV. 



THE STREAMS OF THE OUTER ISLES AND OF SKYE, 

 INCLUDING GRIMERSTA, BLACKWATER, LAXAY, ETC. 



LEWIS ANGLING SEASON : llth February to Slat October. 

 NETTING SEASON : llth February to 26th August. 

 HARRIS AND UIST ANGLING SEASON : 25th February to 31st October. 

 NETTING SEASON : 25th February to 9th September. 



AMIDST the almost innumerable lochs and streams of the Outer Isles 

 there are some which are of considerable importance for salmon 

 fishing, others of importance as sea-trout waters. I do not propose 

 to refer to the labyrinth of lochs and tidal streams which form such 

 ideal sea-trout fisheries in North and South Uist, although these are 

 dear to many an angler. Reference to sea- trout is only made in 

 connection with waters where salmon are chiefly looked for. 



Away in those Outer Hebrides are one or two waters which for 

 years very few knew about as fishing places. A few enterprising 

 sportsmen had found them, and had quietly settled down to a period 

 of enjoyment ; but it is only within comparatively recent times that 

 it became generally known that certain fishings in those parts were 

 worth considerable effort to secure. For many years a small and 

 close company of anglers made great scores in the Grimersta, but 

 they did not tell the public much about it, and their little fishing- 

 lodge contained only enough bedrooms to accommodate themselves. 

 There are to this day 6 bedrooms and 2 sitting-rooms in Grimersta 

 Lodge, and to the stream and lochs fished from this base I must 

 first refer. 



Before doing so, however, it is well to state that the system of 

 impounding or holding up the waters of the lochs, from which 

 various streams come, was first adopted in the Long Island by that 

 splendid old sportsman Mr. Hutchinson, who, writing under the nom 

 de plume of " Sixty-One," gives such charming accounts of his life in 



