THE SPEY i5t 



one man was formed by the late Mr. H. Grant of Wester Elchies ; 

 they were tied by hhnself, Mr. Charles Grant, and Cruickshanksj 

 and many hundreds were kept in a large box made from the timber 

 of the Old Gean Tree of Elchies, the trunk of which had a diameter 

 of four feet. 



At the end of Carron the Aberlour House water, belonging to 

 Mr. J. R. Findlay, runs for about two and a half miles opposite 

 Wester Elchies until it joins the half-mile of Free water at Aberlour. 



It is on record that in 1838 one Charlie Grant, an ex-school- 

 master at Aberlour, took a lease of the rod fishing from Aberlour 

 Burn to Carron Burn — which comprises four miles of as good water 

 as any on the Spey — for the large sum of two guineas ! Below this 

 Mr. Findlay's water goes down nearly to Craigellachie, where it is 

 joined by the Inverfiddich water, a short reach of about two hundred 

 yards. Wester Elchies comes to an end a little below the Broom 

 Isle Pool, where Easter Elchies, the property of Lady Seafield, 

 follows on the left bank, and goes down for three and a half miles 

 until it joins that part of Arndilly lying on this bank, which reaches 

 to the Long Pool, where the Countess again comes in and owns 

 the Rothes section for a further three miles. Opposite, on the 

 right bank, is the three miles of Arndilly, and the two of Aikenway 

 (also Lady Seafield's). The Arndilly water belongs to Mr. Steuart 

 Menzies, and on the right bank begins at Fiddich Mouth Pool and 

 goes to the Long Pool, where Aikenway joins it ; it has fifteen good 

 casts, the best being the Ladies' Haugh and the Pile Pool. Salmon 

 average 16 lb. and grilse 5 lb., and before the last three bad years 

 this water used to give from fifty to nearly a hundred fish up to 

 the 1st of August, and about as many more up to the end of the 

 season. There are, at times, quantities of sea trout and finnock 

 hereabouts, and 25 to 30 lb. a day have often been taken. 



The Aikenway reach goes, on the right bank, from the end of 

 Arndilly and the Long Pool down to just above Hollen Bush Pool ; 

 on the left bank it begins at the Green Burn Pool at the end of 

 Rothes, and goes down to the Island. There are ten good casts 

 on this water, Sandy Hills, Gean Trees, and Sourdan being specially 

 fine ones. Like Arndilly, this reach has not fished up to its former 

 reputation for the last three years, but till the bad times began it 

 used to yield about fifty fish up to the ist of August, and from 

 fifty to eighty more to the end of the season. Prior to 1895, days 

 of ten fish to a rod, or eighteen to two rods, were not rare events 

 in autumn, while one spring day Mr. W. S. Menzies had nineteen 

 kelts and eight clean fish after twelve o'clock. 



As Rothes ends on the left bank and Aikenway on the right. 

 Lady Seafield again comes into possession of both banks of the 

 Delfur water, which runs down for two miles ; it is let to Colonel 

 Ralph Vivian, and contains some very fine pools, notably the Hollen 

 or Holly Bush, perhaps the finest pool to look at on the whole 

 river, and certainly one of the best. The nature of this pool well 

 shows the necessity for the Spcy cast, for there are plenty of others 

 II 



