THE INVER 



49 



river together and come up with tlie first flood at the end of June 

 or beginning of July, which, with August, is the best time. A grilse 

 rod of fifteen or sixteen feet will cover all the water, while fine 

 tackle and small flies are necessary, and a No. i| Limerick hook 

 would be a very large fly, only to be used in big water ; Jock Scot, 

 the Blue and Black Doctors, Childers, and Green Highlander all 

 kill, while Lord Brownlow tells me that when the water is very low, 

 he occasionally gets a fish with a sort of small red spinner with a 

 plain turkey wing. In 1857, when I first fished this river, sport was 

 very good, for from three to six fish a day was quite a common 

 matter. Since those days the fish would appear to have changed 

 their tastes, for we never took more than two sorts of flies with us. 

 One dressed as follows was the favourite : — 



Tag. Silver twist ; yellow floss silk. 



Tail. Gold pheasant topping and blue chatterer. 



Body. Dark blue floss silk, claret hackle, and gold tinsel with 

 wide spirals, jay at shoulder wing, mallard and two strands of blue 

 and yellow macaw. Our other stand-by had exactly the same 

 dressing, only the body was yellow floss instead of blue. 



In those days, with these two flies we did great execution 

 amongst the Inver fish, and we noticed one very curious thing. One 

 of us, in sending for a fresh stock of flies, forwarded as a pattern an 

 old one, which he did not notice had lost the short chatterer's feather 

 from the side of the topping in the tail, and the f'.esh ones were of 

 course sent without this adornment, which we thought could make 

 no difference ; but, strange to relate, we could kill no fish with this 

 batch of flies ! It may have been fancy, but we put it down to the 

 absence of the little blue feather in the tail. 



When the water is large, stockings or even trousers may be 

 wanted on the upper beat, but these are easily dispensed with in 

 summer time by those who are in good health, for in the hot weather 

 of July and August it is a pleasure to wade, and if not going deeper 

 than six inches above the knee it seldom does any harm. 



The fish push up to Loch Assynt as the water permits, and there 

 they are caught both with fly and minnow. The river has no 

 obstructions or pollutions, while the spawning grounds are large and 

 good ; in fact, everything is so much in favour of the fish that the 

 remarkable scarcity can only be attributed to the bag-nets on the 

 coast, which have quite ruined the angling. This set of nets has 

 for many years been rented by Mr. Speedie, of Perth. They consist 

 of seven stations, commencing at Oldshoremore to the north of 

 Kinlochbervie, and coming south to ClachtoU, not very far from 

 Inver mouth. 



Each station works a good many bag-nets. I could not find out 

 exactly how many, but not less than five each. In 1890 their take 

 was 1677 salmon, averaging 12 lb. each ; 8031 grilse of nearly 

 6 lb. each, and 531 sea trout, all of which would have come to the 

 interpreted legally to mean no more and no less than one hundred and sixty- 

 eight days. 



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