CHAPTER LXXII 



THE LUCE 



Drains seventy-three square miles and falls into Luce Bay after 

 a run of about twenty. It is formed by two streams, the Main 

 Water of Luce and the Cross Water of Luce, which unite six and a 

 half miles from the sea. The Earl of Stair owns both these upper 

 streams, keeps them in his own hands, and preserves them strictly. 

 Below the junction and down to the sea the Luce belongs on both 

 banks to Mr. J. C. Cuninghame of Dunragit, and this is the best 

 part of the angling, being alternately shallow and streamy, with 

 twenty pretty pools, of which the best are Puddle Hole, Twenty- 

 ninth Stream, the Lady's Cast, Flynn's Took, Smiddyholm, 

 Geordie's Dub, Gabsnout Took, the Long Pool of Craig, and Craig 

 Corner. The Long Pool takes about an hour to fish, and the others 

 less time. 



Wet weather suits the river, as, owing to the good drainage 

 of the sheep pastures, it runs down very quickly. The standard 

 patterns of flies are used, a sixteen-foot rod will do the work, and 

 stockings are necessary. Eight salmon and grilse is the record 

 score for one day on Dunragit water, where the salmon average 

 10 lb. and the grilse 6 lb., while the heaviest fish ever caught on it 

 weighed 36 lb. In the first three miles of the river sea trout are 

 often plentiful and heavy. Mr. Ashley Dodd, when he rented 

 Balkail, had no less than 100 in one night's angling, and it is to 

 him that I am indebted for the following account of this wonderful 

 catch, which is as follows : — 



" A friend and I began fishing in the Puddle Hole on a clear, 

 starlight evening between 15th and 25th August, over thirty years 

 ago, at which time I rented the whole of the fishing rights from the 

 then owner. As it became dark the sea trout began to rise well, 

 and we had made a good bag though nothing extraordinary, when 

 my friend, who was going to shoot next day, retired about 11 p.m. 

 I kept at it for another three-quarters of an hour, and then laid down 

 till about one o'clock in the cottage of the water bailiff close to the 

 Puddle Hole, which, by the way, was twice as big in those days as 

 it is now. Beginning again in the same place, the fun recom- 

 menced about 1.30, and the average size of the fish that were on the 

 rise was much larger than before. As it became light the rises fell 

 off, and I had the bag counted and was told it was ninety-nine. 

 By this time I despaired of another rise, but, spurred by the desire 



