386 THE SALMON RIVERS OF SCOTLAND 



position. Bag nets cannot be said to be crowded at the mouth of 

 the Stinchar, but one is fished on each side of the estuary and others 

 at intervals along the coast. 



From what has been said as to the nature of the river mouth in 

 summer it will readily be understood that fish are only able to 

 enter when the water-flow is sufficient. As a matter of fact the 

 Stinchar is almost invariably pretty late in being stocked with fish, 

 but when the grilse and sea-trout are able to run the fishing begins. 

 It has happened that a spring fish has been caught early in the 

 season when kelt-fishing for the purpose of marking was going on, 

 and it may well be that when water is high and the season 

 unusually mild, a few of those fish may enter indeed it is reported 

 that clean spring fish are sometimes seen but the capture of the 

 fish in question was a complete surprise. The best fish come into 

 the river quite late, after the netting has ceased, but I believe the 

 greatest number of fish are generally caught in August if there is 

 sufficient water. 



The weights are often surprisingly heavy. The heaviest during 

 the last eight years are: 1900, 25 Ib. ; 1901, 29 Ib. ; 1902, 31J Ib. ; 

 1903, 35 Ib.; 1904, 28 J Ib. ; 1905, 20 Ib. ; 1906, 28 Ib. ; 1907, 39 Ib. ; 

 1908, 29 Ib. The record rod-caught fish is, I believe, 42 Ib. In one 

 day it has happened that a single rod has taken 3 fish weighing 

 33 Ib., 30 Ib., and 28 Ib. In 1897 a sea-net took a fish of 62 Ib., so 

 large fellows are in the district. The rod catch for the season has 

 sometimes been put down at as low as 40 or 50 fish, but in 1908, 

 which was a distinctly bad year, the total, so far as I have been 

 able to ascertain, was quite 140. The six fishings between the 

 mouth and Colmonell or Bardrochat are reported to have yielded 15, 

 45, 12, 50, 10, and 8 = 140. 



A net is used in the river near Pinwherry, which naturally tells 

 against the stock of fish above that point. 



The Stinchar has two tributaries, the Tig and the Duisk, both of 

 which enter from the south. The Tig is little more than a burn, 

 but since it joins the main river only about 2J miles from the 

 mouth, it offers at times a good entrance for sea-trout, which, as a 

 rule, prefer not to run far from the salt water. It has a course of 

 about eight miles from its source at the Wee Fell, runs north and 

 then west. Over the hills to the west of its source rises the Water 

 of App, a remarkably straight little stream, which flows south-west 

 right into the mouth of Loch Eyan. It is rather striking that 

 although no stream other than a burn enters at the head of Loch 



