THE EARN 257 



which the current rushes with such force that fish cannot face 

 it during the weekly close time. Thus, as soon as the nets come off, 

 they gather together below the dyke waiting for a flood. When 

 that does come, the weir offers no hindrance whatever. 



I remember reaching Aberdalgie, to fish the Dupplin Reserved 

 water, on the nth of October 1891, only to find the Earn in a 

 flood, which lasted for six days, and during the whole of that time 

 fish ran up Dupplin weir incessantly. I spent most of these days 

 at this weir, and no hour passed but what fifty or sixty attempts 

 could be counted, one-third of which were successful. Morning and 

 afternoon did this go on, and the keeper told me it was continued 

 each night ; and never before or since have I seen fish run so con- 

 tinuously for so long a period. 



Above Dupplin and six miles below Crieff there is a nearly 

 similar d3'ke at Strathallan, also fishing a single box cruive. Still 

 farther up there is the Dornoch Dam, in which Lord Willoughby 

 used to have a cruive, but which he has ceased to work, at the same 

 time placing a fish pass on the dyke. All cruives confer, more or 

 less, a monopoly, and more or less injure the fishings of the pro- 

 prietors above them, but the cruive rights are held by such special 

 and ancient titles, which have so often been sanctioned and recog- 

 nised by the law, that they cannot be done away with without 

 making compensation to their owners. Given the right of cruive 

 fishing, then no one can interfere with it as long as it is carried on 

 in conformity with the provisions of the by-law. 



However, it is neither the Dupplin nor the Strathallan cruives 

 that prevent the Earn from yielding spring fish to the rod. The 

 nets plying from the Bridge of Earn to the mouth are the culprits. 

 Above this bridge there is no serious netting, though at times a 

 haul of the net is made below Dupplin Weir, where as many as fifty 

 fish have been taken out at one shot, but the nets here are not 

 worked daily. There must be something to render the netting of 

 the last eight miles of the Earn peculiarly deadly and easy, for there 

 are sure to be spring floods, which in other rivers seriously interfere 

 with, even if they do not wholly stop, netting operations. While 

 as at such times it has been clearly shown that Dupplin Weir ceases 

 to be any hindrance, the dearth of fish above it can only be caused 

 by the severity of the netting below. 



Sir Patrick Keith Murray, who owns the Ochtertyre angling, 

 writes me : " There is no record of any clean fish in the spring 

 or summer ; there is only sport after the nets are off and a heavy 

 flood has occurred." The tenant of the Gask water also writes : 

 " No spring fish has been caught for the last ten years." 



A few notes on some of the best known of the Earn anglings 

 will serve as a guide to the whole. Firstly, though, it must be 

 clearly set forth that, as matters are now managed, salmon fishing 

 on the Earn is to be had solely in September and October, while it 

 is only in about every other season that fish arrive in the upper 

 reaches before angling closes. Therefore, it is of no use for anyone 



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