THE AWE 95 



By rock, by oak, by hawthorn tree. 

 Troop after troop are disappearing. 

 Troop after troop tlieir rods are rearing, 

 While each and all are racing for 

 First cast on any pool of roaring Awe." 



To make angling life endurable to the opposite neighbours, 

 the hotel rods should be strictly limited to two, who should be 

 charged a fair sum for the right, and no ghillie should be allowed to 

 fish. At present the Taynuilt hotel-keeper uses this fine stretch 

 of water as an inducement for people to stay at his hotel and get 

 salmon fishing for nothing — " Splendid salmon angling free to 

 visitors." The greater the number of anglers, the larger the profits 

 of the hotel-keeper. 



I cannot understand the supineness of the proprietors of the 

 opposite bank, for it is nearly certain that if they laid the matter 

 before the Duke of Argyll the evil would be remedied ; or, faihng 

 that, an eminent K.C. assures me that in his opinion the law would 

 abate the nuisance, and not allow the hotel-keeper to fill his pockets 

 at the expense of the opposite fishings belonging to Mrs. Campbell 

 and Lord Breadalbane, which suffer both in value and reputation 

 by the unsportsmanlike and greedy way in which the hotel water is 

 fished. 



In addition to the Taynuilt Hotel, there are others at Dalmally 

 (from which spring salmon fishing in the Orchy may be had). Loch 

 Awe, Port Sonachan and Taychreggan, all frequented by large 

 numbers of trout fishers, who also have the chance of an occasional 

 salmon on the loch. Thirty years ago the capture of a salmon on 

 Loch Awe was almost unheard of, but now every season the number 

 taken by trolling is on the increase, and it begins to appear that if 

 salmon in numbers were allowed to reach the loch, the anghng of 

 June, July, and August might possibly become as productive and 

 remunerative as that of Loch Tay or Loch Ness in the months of 

 January, February, and March. 



No doubt it is a tempting advertisement to read that the visitors 

 to one hotel had ten thousand trout in a season ; but the hotel- 

 keepers are apparently blind to the fact that incessant fishing must 

 result m a falling off both in the number and the quality of the trout. 



Now the burns running into the loch offer easy facilities for 

 the formation of hatcheries, but nothing has been done in that 

 direction. For some years the Loch Awe Fishery Improvement 

 Association did excellent work in watching the spawning grounds, 

 killing pike, and introducing Loch Leven ova and fry, the expenses 

 coming to less than £150. Subscriptions have, however, fallen off, 

 and there is danger that this useful Association may die out. Surely 

 it would pay the owners and renters of the hotels to make up the 

 best part of this modest sum between them. The hotels almost 

 owe their existence to the sums spent by the trout-fishers (see 

 Chapter XL, "The Halladale," for estimate of sums disbursed by 

 them). If the hotels die out, the owners suffer, so it is to the 



