2?2 THE SALMON RIVERS OF SCOTLAND 



Ailsa fishings, while the autumn ones are very dour and hard to 

 tempt. 



The Fishery Board Report of 1887 values the angling of the 

 whole river at £300, and puts the rental of the nets at £150 ; but 

 the Report does not state how these values were arrived at. The 

 nets come off on the 26th of August, the rod ceasing on the 31st of 

 October. It has been often suggested that the river might with 

 advantage be opened to the rod only on the ist of February, instead 

 of the nth, and closed for angling on the 15th of October instead of 

 the 31st. 



Wading stockings are wanted in some of the pools, a sixteen- 

 foot rod will cover the water, and the ordinary salmon flies will kill. 

 The Girvan drains ninety-six square miles of country, and 

 rises on Lord Ailsa's property in the small loch of Girvan's Eye, 

 in the parish of Straiton, some eight miles above the village of that 

 name, and after a course of thirty miles falls into the sea opposite 

 to the well-known Ailsa Craig. The name is said to be derived 

 from a Gaelic word signifying " rough," a term which is certainly 

 descriptive of the river. A few miles below Straiton village the 

 Girvan falls over the Linn of Blairquhan, which fish cannot pass 

 except when the water is big, and even then not in any numbers. 

 The seacoasts at the mouth of the river — especially the four miles 

 to the north of it — are netted with extreme severity, there being 

 some fifty bag-nets in that distance, commencing at only three 

 hundred yards from the mouth, while nets and cobles are used in 

 the river itself ; so small wonder that the Girvan is hardly worthy 

 of mention as a salmon angling stream. 



Some years ago the lessee of the nets agre d with the upper 

 proprietors to se them back to six hundred yards on either side 

 of the mouth, and to discontinue the netting in the river ; this 

 resulted in many more fish being netted on the coasts and caught 

 by the rods in the pools. Unfortunately this agreement came to 

 an end, but it unmistakably showed what was wanted for the good 

 of all concerned ; and with this and numerous other similar ex- 

 periences to guide them, it is quite extraordinary that the Govern- 

 ment do not make laws for the better control of these greedy coast 

 nets. Since the termination of this arrangement, the nets have 

 again been placed only three hundred yards from the Guvan 

 mouth while the cobles have resumed work m the river. There 

 are also numerous mill dams, which by degrees are bemg provided 

 with good fish passes, while the miU wheels and lades are also 

 receiving protection. • , r 



The watching of the Girvan is but moderate, for it is left to the 

 keepers of the estates on the banks, and as in the autumn they are 

 busiest with their shooting duties, just when there are most fish 

 to protect the work cannot be weU done, and consequently poachmg 

 is common, and many are the stories told by the natives about 



^"'^The'chfef proprietors are the Marquis of AUsa, Captain Hunter 



