CHAPTER XXVII 



THE DEVERON 



With a drainage area of four hundred and seventy-two square miles, 

 rises on the western boundaries of Aberdeenshire, and, flowing 

 through the Cabrach district, it has a total run of some sixty 

 miles, during which it receives many small tributaries before it 

 falls into the Xorth Sea at Banff, over a narrow bar of shaUow 

 gi-avel, which offers a perfect place for the use of the net and coble. 

 There are bag-nets on either side of the mouth as near as they 

 may la^\'f uUy come ; while some two miles up stream there used to be 

 the Duke of Fife's cruives, which from time immemorial have 

 been the subject of endless disputes and litigation, but, happily 

 to relate, on the nth of February 1898 they were pulled do^^,•n, 

 the lengthy negotiations at last ending in their purchase by the 

 upper proprietors. The removal of these cruives ought to be of 

 the greatest benefit to the river, and as they are now gone for ever, 

 it may be of interest to show what they once were hke and what 

 they now are. 



The average take to the rod of the whole river varies according 

 to the rain or drought of each season, and ranges from 200 to 500 

 fish, which latter number was reached in 1861. These figures, 

 however, refer almost entirely to autumn fish, for so close did nets 

 and cruives formerly work that it was quite a rare event for anyone 

 to take a spring fish, and angUng was not seriously prosecuted until 

 the removal of the nets and opening of the cruives on the 26th 

 of August. 



Since the destruction of these obstacles, the springs and summers 

 that have intervened have been so remarkably diy that as yet 

 there has been no fair opportunitj' of seeing what difference will 

 be made in the spring sport. The river opens on the nth of 

 February, and has the usual close times ; and unhke so many rivers 

 on the West Coast, this opening date is rightly fixed, as it is an early 

 river, and there are always clean fish at the very commencement 

 of the season. It is also a river of big fish, for each season gives 

 some of from 30 to nearly 50 lb. May and June are the best 

 months in the upper waters (always provided there is rain), and 

 September and October on the lower reaches, for during the 

 angling season the autumn run of fish does not ascend much 

 above Huntly. Wading trousers are necessary on most of the 

 beats. Fhes are rarely dressed on irons that are over two inches 



