The shiel of loch shiel 231 



waters are given off gradually, and it remains in good fishing order 

 tor a week or more after a flood, and at such a time, never being 

 much discoloured, it quickly becomes clear and bright again. 



Being a summer river, one has had to consider the best way 

 of packmg fish so as to ensure their arrival in good order. I always 

 have the flags in which they are to be packed cut a few days before- 

 hand and opened out to dry. Then take care to have the fish wiped 

 down with a cloth and under the fins, so as to leave no dampness 

 whatever about it. Packed dry in dry flags, and sent away on the 

 day they are killed, I have found that fish stand a two days' carriage 

 m hot weather by rail or parcel post and arrive in perfect order ; 

 also fish that have been taken from the water by a landing net will 

 always travel better than those that have been gaffed. 



The best catch for a day to one rod I have heard of was made 

 some years ago by the late Rev. Charles MacDonald, the priest of 

 Moidart. Nine, I believe, was the number he got, and he also 

 holds the record for having hooked, played, and lost the heaviest 

 fish on the Shiel. 



Father Charles, as he was called by evervone, a capital fisher- 

 man and charming friend, to whom I am indebted for many Shiel 

 " wrinkles," dehghted to relate how he hooked his fish in the Bridge 

 Pool— a heavy chap— after twenty minutes' play the cast broke, 

 he was gone, and he weighed ^^ lb. 



Then after waiting to be asked, " WeU, but how did you know 

 his weight ? " the answer came that in those days the river was 

 scringed, and the nets being worked in this pool on the following 

 day, " my fish was taken with my fly in its mouth." 



During the ten years that I have fished the north bank of 

 the river, six in a day is the best that has been done on it, by Mr. 

 D. E. Glynn. 



I have often had days of four and five, and my best catches 

 in a week have been eighteen in 1898 and seventeen in 1899. I have 

 usually fished it from the middle of June to the end of July. My 

 take to my own rod was forty-nine in seven weeks' fishing in 1898, 

 weights from 24 lb. to 6 lb. ; and in 1900 in the same time it was 

 fifty-seven, ranging from 22 lb. to 5 lb. 



The Shiel salmon are beautifully shaped, small heads, deep in 

 the girth, and heavy for their length, like the Awe fish, and the 

 grilse are exceptionally good, running from 9 lb. to 6 lb. Four and 

 five pounders are comparatively few. 



The Moidart empties into the same salt-water loch — Loch 

 Moidart — as the Shiel. The fish which ascend the former river, 

 which has a much steeper and rockier course than the Shiel, are 

 easily to be distinguished from those of the latter, being not such 

 deep fish, and it is only occasionally that a Shiel salmon is taken 

 in the Moidart and a Moidart fish in the Shiel. 



The heaviest fish of late years was one of 27 lb., caught 

 by Mr. C. D. Rudd in 1898. During my time of fishing the river 

 my best is 26 lb. 



