CHAPTER L I I I 



THE GARRY, THE UPPER GARRY, THE OICH, AXD LOCH OICH 



These lochs and rivers drain about one hundred and fifty square 

 miles of highland country. The fish-famed Garry is divided into 

 upper and lower parts by Loch Garry. The upper one, rising in 

 the Forest of Knoydart, after a rapid run of seven and a half miles, 

 during which it is kno^\■n as the Ouoich, flows into Loch Ouoich, 

 a beautiful sheet of water eight miles long and three-quarters 

 wide, on the north shore of which is the picturesque forest lodge 

 rented for so many j-ears by Lord Burton. On quitting Loch 

 Ouoich the Garry has a further run of ten miles, in which there is 

 a severe fall, recently made passable for salmon, so that now fish 

 can enter Loch Ouoich and pass through it into its head streams. 



Numbers of salmon do so, but nevertheless there are very few 

 caught. At the end of this ten miles the river passes into Loch 

 Garry, another large sheet of water about five mUes long bv a 

 half broad ; here ■visitors at the hotels of Invergarry and Tomdoun 

 (the Brown Knoll's can fish ; but though numbers of salmon pass 

 through the loch on their way to the spa^\^ling grounds above 

 Loch Ouoich, the capture of one is quite a rare event. As the 

 river quits the loch the celebrated Lower Garry commences. It 

 has but a run of four miles ere it flows into Loch Oich, but in this 

 distance there are many fine pools, and perhaps the best early 

 spring fishing in all Scotland. 



Loch Oich, which is unfortunately full of pike, is one of the 

 Caledonian Canal lochs, which discharges its overflow through the 

 river Oich, four miles in length, into Loch Ness. L"p till the ist 

 of }.Iav the angling of Loch Oich, also four miles in length, is strictly 

 preserved, and goes with the Lower Garry ; after the end of April 

 visitors at Invergarr\' Hotel can fish, but it is then nearly useless. 

 Although the Garn,' is one of the earhest of the Scotch rivers, it 

 is not opened until the nth of February, and continues so up to 

 the 31st of October ; it would be for the benefit of the river and 

 aU concerned if these respective dates were altered to the ist of 

 February and the 15th of October. 



The run of fish into the Garry — via the Xess, Loch Xess, and the 

 Oich — is a truly remarkable one, for althousrh fish are often got 

 by trolling in the western half of Loch Xess, it is a very rare event 

 for a February clean fish to be caught in the X'ess itself. The case 

 of the Awe and the Orchy is somewhat similar, for thous:h all fish 



