THE AWE 87 



During these ten days I could not, however, grumble at my bad 

 luck, for I had a hard-working friend with me, and the Taynuilt 

 Hotel water swarmed with fishers, and their united take was one 

 fish only. 



In June sport becomes much better ; but July (when the grilse 

 are also running) is the best month of all. Then in August the fish 

 become dour and hard to tempt, while from the loth of October on- 

 ward they are really not fit to catch, and angling ends on the 15th. 



The Awe is another instance of many aheady mentioned of 

 badly fixed dates both for the opening and the closing of the river. 

 It opens on the nth of February — in the name of common sense, 

 why ? for the nets are not worked before the middle of March, a 

 clear proof that there are no fish coming into the river before then. 

 The nets continue to fish till the 26th of August, and the rods till 

 the 31st of October, and whoever fixed these almost universal dates 

 was the worst foe, or the most cruel friend, that river owners and 

 tacksmen ever had. If the nets ceased on the 15th of August and 

 the rods on the 15th of October, or even on the 30th of September, it 

 would be far better for the ultimate interests of all concerned, for 

 the amount of babies in the shape of grilse that are massacred in 

 the eleven days between the 15th and 26th of August is enormous. 



The Awe is one of the few rivers in which nets and cobles are 

 ceaselessly plied at a distance of several hundred yards above the 

 mouth, so that hardly a fish can escape them when the water is in 

 good order ! But baby slaughter is not exactly the best way to 

 increase a population, and if the nets came off on the 15th of August 

 and the rods on the 30th of September, the increased breeding stock 

 thereby left would speedily tell on the future numbers of the splendid 

 fish of this magnificent river. The proprietors and the tenants of 

 the various shootings and hotels on Loch Awe are continually calling 

 out for a lengthened weekly close time, and the same is strongly 

 advised by the District Board ; but nothing is done. The " man 

 at the mouth " pockets the money, the man at the source can 

 " grin and bear it." 



The hotels on Loch Awe should, however, have some limit placed 

 on the number of boats they put on the water, for they have pretty 

 well fished out the trout. When I first fished the loch from Ederline 

 in 1857, it was an everyday occurrence for two rods to get from three 

 to eight dozen fine trout of herring size, while now an angler will 

 think himself lucky if he gets three or four dozen in the week. 



The whole river can easily be fished without waders, for, although 

 there are just one or two places where stockings would be of use, there 

 is yet such a scope of water fishable dry-shod that it is hardly worth 

 while troubling about missing a few short casts. 



Grilse run from 5 to 8 lb., and salmon from 10 lb. upwards, and 

 during July and August either a fish or a grilse per day should be 

 averaged, which is just about what Colonel Murray's water has 

 yielded of late years in the two months commencing from about the 

 loth of June. This is not so good as it used to be, but though the 



