154 THE SALMON RIVERS OF SCOTLAND 



could be definitely ascertained, they should be a guide to other 

 proprietors who own fishings on rivers flowdng from lochs above falls 

 that are not yet opened up. 



Until the falls are reached the river passes through rocky gorges 

 and many pretty pools, which become stocked with the first flood 

 after the middle of June ; and on this part, from that time on, when- 

 ever there is water there should be nearly a certainty of sport. 

 Some seasons past, one rod, fishing the Inveroran Hotel water, had 

 fifteen July fish in eight days ; another had five in one day of 12 lb. 

 average, while in 1882 three rods got seventy-two fish in July, of 

 which forty-nine came from the hotel water and the balance from 

 Lord Breadalbane's section. Of late years no takes of this descrip- 

 tion are reported, and I fear, unless some alterations are made in 

 the Fishery Laws, that future takes must become even smaUer than 

 they are at present. The season opens on the nth of February ; 

 nets come off the 26th of August, and rods on the 31st of October. 

 With regard to this last date, that is the only one to be arrived 

 at from a study of the Close Time List published by the Fishery 

 Board, in which no mention is made of the Orchy, and therefore 

 the close times that govern the Awe, through which all the Orchy 

 fish pass, must be accepted as applying to that river also. I believe, 

 however, I am correct in saying that Lord Breadalbane insists on 

 angling being discontinued on the loth of October, which is a very 

 wise proceeding, and as he is monarch of all he surveys in those 

 parts, he would be doing the river a further good turn if he Hkewise 

 postponed the commencement of all angling operations until the 

 15th of March. There are seldom fresh-run fish before that date, 

 but nevertheless the water is fished and many a kelt hooked — 

 perhaps to be gaffed and thrown back, perhaps to die of the fatigue 

 of the fight, or perhaps to find its way to the kettle. 



In or about 1830 pike were unfortunately placed in Loch Tulla, 

 whence they have descended the Orchy into Loch Awe, and by 

 degrees have become such a nuisance as at one time to seriously 

 threaten the very existence of salmon and trout. Then both the 

 keepers of Lord Breadalbane and those of that excellent institu- 

 tion, the Loch Awe Improvement Association, began to wage war 

 on them in every possible way ; but though the crusade made a 

 considerable reduction in their numbers, there they still are, and 

 there they \\'ill remain. As showing how numerous they became 

 and how fast they spread, I may mention that in 1857, less than 

 thirty years after being placed in Loch Tulla, I was staying at 

 Ederhne House, quite at the south end of Loch Awe, fully thirty 

 miles from Loch TuUa, and on one April day, which was too 

 boisterous for the boat on the big loch, we caught by live baiting 

 in Loch Ederline — a small loch joining Loch Awe — no less than 

 nineteen pike in a few hours, the largest 22 lb. and the smallest 6. 



Later on, in 1864, I took with a spoon bait in one October day 

 eleven others out of the bay by the side of Kilchurn Castle. This 

 lot of fish, of which the heaviest was 17 lb., all fought with far 



