LOCH TAY 279 



Wading stockings are useful, a sixteen-foot rod will cover the 

 water, while the fly is the only lure permitted, the standard patterns 

 being used, from No. i to the smallest size. A little above Killin 

 the river passes over a series of small falls, none of which are high 

 enough to prevent fish from running up. 



The LocHAY has a course of fifteen miles and is a considerable 

 stream, draining fifty-four square miles of hill country ere it flows 

 mto the head of Loch Tay, a little to the north of the Dochart. 

 Two miles above the mouth there is a fall of some seventy feet, 

 which absolutely bars the ascent of fish ; and though the waters 

 above are a perfect type of a small salmon river, with good spawning 

 grounds, it is very doubtful whether the outlay necessary for 

 making these falls passable would ever repay itself. It has" been 

 estimated that it could be done for £1000, but I think the 

 attempt would eventually involve the expenditure of a much larger 

 sum. 



The angling between the falls and the loch goes with the Morenish 

 shootings, but there is no real salmon fishing on it, for they have 

 never been known to take a fly. In the late spring and summer 

 a few red fish come up as far as the falls, when now and again one 

 or two fall victims to the worm. 



Loch Tay, which belongs to Lord Breadalbane, is about sixteen 

 miles in length by one in breadth, and is the only large loch in 

 Scotland, with the exception of Loch Ness, in which salmon are 

 killed in numbers by the rod. From old records kept at Taymouth 

 Castle, it would appear that up till the year 1630 the Castle larder 

 was supplied by the net. The first mention of rod-fishing on Loch 

 Tay is in 1632, when Duncan Campbell, in Creitgarrow, is cautioned 

 that he " shall not bume a blaze, or shoot a wasp (leister), or put 

 a wande on the water of Tay." The fly is useless, all fish being 

 taken by minnow trolling, of which every sort and size are used. 



The loch opens on the 15th of January, and is fished by twenty- 

 one boats, distributed as follows : From Killin eastwards the first 

 mile of the loch is reserved by Lord Breadalbane, and is fished by 

 one boat ; the Killin Hotel has six others, the Bridge of Lochay 

 Hotel has three, the whole nine having the run of about seven 

 miles of the west end of the loch. The Kenmore Hotel at the 

 east end has six boats, the Ardeonaig Inn on the south side, and 

 that of Ben Lawers on the north, each have two boats, the whole 

 ten fishing from where the Killin march ends to within a mile of 

 Kenmore, which is also about seven miles ; and then again Lord 

 Breadalbane reserves the mile nearest to the outflow and to Tay- 

 mouth Castle. Sometimes these reserved portions are let, and at 

 others the Marquis keeps them in his own hands, while in good years 

 each of these beats has shown some wonderful sport for those who 

 like this sort of angling. I remember arriving one February day 

 in 1873 at Killm and meeting a friend coming off the reserve water 

 there with a bag of eleven splendid fish, the smallest 19 lb. and the 

 largest 41 lb. But I believe there have been even better days than 



