THE DIONARD 25 



that date they arrive with the first spate, and if it lasts long enough 

 they at once go right up to Loch Dionard, where salmon, grilse, 

 and sea trout may all be taken in August. 



The Durness beat, if hard fished, will yield an average of 

 forty salmon and grilse each season ; the former averaging 10 lb. 

 and the latter 5, while one of 28 is the heaviest fish yet recorded. 

 In August 1896, Mr. Brown had two fairly good days in succession, 

 the first giving six and the other five fish. In September this lower 

 water at times holds a lot of sea trout, some having been caught 

 of 5 lb., though the average is ij lb., while from ten to twenty is 

 reckoned a good day. 



At the top of the Durness Reach the river begins to alter in 

 character, the scenery becoming wilder, the stream much more 

 rapid, and bordered by rough banks, along which there is some 

 scrambling to be done, and from the start to the finish of the 

 Gualen water angling is downright hard work. Although not 

 large, the pools are numerous, each requiring neat and precise 

 casting, the best perhaps being " Craggie " and the Stone Pool. 

 There is also a good cast on the stream between Loch Dionard and 

 the small loch above, from which as many as seven fish have been 

 had in a day, a performance which in July 1898 was exactly 

 equalled by Mr. Cecil Johnson, a friend of Mr. Austen-Leigh. In 

 the old times, however, Mr. Trevillian, the previous tenant of 

 Gualen, often had days of fourteen, twelve, ten, and eight fish ; 

 now, however, there is but a very small chance of such good sport, 

 though why that should be so is quite a puzzle, as for some years 

 the bag-nets have been removed from Balnakill Bay, so that now 

 the Dionard has no nets working nearer to its mouth than those 

 of Loch Erribol on the east, while the nearest on the west are 

 those placed a little to the north of Kinlochbervie on Loch Inchard, 

 a distance of fully forty miles. Notwithstanding this and the fact 

 of there being fine spawning grounds, and neither obstructions, 

 pollutions, nor disease, the angling is steadily deteriorating instead 

 of improving. Can poaching be the cause ? — for the steam trawlers, 

 doubtlessly, poach many fish from the Kyle. Is the damage they 

 do — to which must be added the milder depredations of certain 

 yachts and bands of natives — sufficient to account for the standstill 

 of this river at its lowest point, when all the surroundings should 

 lead to certain improvement ? 



The Gualen rods, and they work hard, average about sixty 

 salmon and grilse and eighty sea trout a season — not a very brilliant 

 return for the labour involved. Only a heavy rainfall brings the 

 upper waters into order, and as it runs down very quickly, to ensure 

 sport it must be got to at once. To reach it involves a rough and 

 wet two hours' tramp ere the rod can be put together ; then the 

 same journey has to be made at the end of the day, so it will be 

 seen that angling on these upper Dionard reaches entails consider- 

 able hard work. A feature of the Kyle of Durness is the sea trout 

 fishing in the salt water ; at the half tides the currents run strongly, 



