THE SPEY 



159 



pairs of fish ; heavy spates and severe frosts, followed by thaws, 

 bringing down masses of ice, account for these discrepancies, but the 

 average stock, if the counting is nearly right, is clearly a good one. 

 In the matter of breeding, the Spey trijjutaries play an all-important 

 part, for in their waters is most of the spawning done. 



On the right bank are the Truim, Tromie, Feshie, Nethy, Avon 

 (with a fifty-mile course and two large tributaries), the Livet and 

 the Conglas, the Aberlour Burn and the Fiddich ; while on the 

 left bank are the Dulnan — once the happy hunting-ground of the 

 Speyside poacher — and the Burn of Tulchan. Late in the season 

 fish may be caught in all these pretty little miniature rivers, and I 

 remember a Feshie spate which yielded one September day six or 

 seven fish to a guest of the late Sir Charles Mordaunt. 



On the Tromie, fish appeared with the first June flood, and 

 in September I have frequently seen them close up to Gaick Forest ; 

 but they were not fishecl for, as they were getting black, and there 

 was so much work for rifles and guns to see to that the fish escaped 

 all attention. With the first August flood the big trout quit Loch 

 Insh and make for the Truim, Tromie, and Feshie in search of 

 spawning ground, and at such times these big, fat feUows, which 

 have been quite uncatchable in the loch, fall easy victims to a small 

 Blue Phantom. 



On the 1st and 2nd of October 1890 — two of the wettest days 

 I ever saw — the late Colonel Hargreaves and I took, fishing only 

 an hour or two each day, eleven of these Loch Insh fish which 

 weighed 44 lb. ; 6f lb. and 6J- lb. the weights of the two heaviest. 



The Superintendent of the Spey district in his 1891 Report 

 makes mention of a matter in which I venture to differ with him. 

 Says he; "The little blackbird with a white breast, locally known 

 in this district as ' Water Jock,' should be shot down at all seasons, 

 as he is looked upon with good cause as an ova eater." There is no 

 doubt the water ouzel does eat some useless ova as it is carried down 

 stream, but not much, and certainly it does not live entirely on 

 salmon roe by harrying the bed of the fish. Its chief food is the 

 water shrimp, and the extermination of these pretty, confiding, and 

 nearly harmless anglers' companions is certainly not to be desired 

 or encouraged. 



In the Spey, as is usual, the nets have beaten the rods in the 

 matter of big fish, though not so pronouncedly as in other rivers. 



1892 the nets had one of 50 lb., the rod 50 lb. 



1893 ,, ,, ,, 50 lb. ,, 42 lb. 



1894 ,, ,, ,, 60 lb. ,, 44 lb. 



1895 „ „ ,, 50 lb. „ 36 lb. 



1896 „ ,, „ 44 lb. ., 37 lb. 



1897 ,, „ ,, 47 lb- ,. 53 lb. 



From Castle Grant downwards the whole of the Spey should be 

 good angling, for it abounds in fine pools and streams, which if weU 

 stocked would make this river the best in aU Scotland. 



The Castle Grant water goes down on the left bank for fully 



