CHAPTERX XXVII 



THE NELL 



A SHORT but pretty little salmon river in miniature ilowing out of 

 Loch NeU, some four miles to the south of Oban, which, after a 

 run of about half that distance, falls into salt water at the very 

 head of Loch Feochan. When it is in good order there are a 

 succession of streams and pools which, if on a ten times larger 

 scale, would make a perfect salmon river. 



Loch Nell is a pretty oblong sheet of water more than a mile 

 in length, and about a half broad. At its head it receives the 

 waters of the Loanan, up which, in autumn, salmon, grilse, and sea 

 trout aU make their way to spawn. The beds are excellent, and 

 twenty years ago I have often seen fish on those lying a short 

 distance above the loch. 



The brown trout of loch and river are neither large nor plentiful, 

 but five-and-twenty years ago there were always a certain number 

 of salmon and sea trout in the loch. At that period I often fished 

 both loch and river Nell, and could generally get, in the former, 

 from ten to thirty sea trout, and at times a grilse. Twenty-seven 

 sea trout was my best day — a salmon I never hooked ; but three 

 grilse of about 6 lb. each were captivated by the attractions of the 

 old-fashioned " green and teal." If the river was in order, a 

 grilse or two, or perhaps a salmon, was nearly a certainty, and I 

 saw the cobbler who lived close to the old stone single-arch bridge 

 fetch a 20 lb. fish out of the Bridge Pool with a little fiery brown 

 sea trout fly. 



Nowadays these sort of takes would be regarded as wonderful, 

 and those who fish the loch or the river seldom do it twice, for the 

 sport is poor in the extreme. The pretty little fishery is abused 

 and called " dour," but it is the nets and cobles close to Nell mouth, 

 and the nets farther down Loch Feochan, and the Oban scringers, 

 that should be blamed for its fishless state. From the time the 

 legitimate nets come off, the last-mentioned pests poach these parts 

 very hard. Close time makes no difference to the Oban fishmongers, 

 who expose salmonidcB for sale for two months after the local nets 

 have ceased to work ; and were it not for the opportunity and induce- 

 ment thus offered to the poachers by these pious tradesmen, who 

 all go to kirk twice every Sabbath, the scringing fraternity would 

 not be nearly so active or so flourishing. 



Shortly before the Nell falls into the sea it is joined by the 



