368 



Appendices to Fifth Annual Report 



Besides sea-trout and yellow trout, the lower loch is said to contain 

 flounders, cod, herrings, skate, whitings, eels, lythe, saithe, and grey 

 mullet. There are no salmon now to be found in the Loch of Stenness. 

 But in a book, entitled Present State of the Orkney Islands, published in 

 1775 and reprinted in 1884, we are told that— 



In this loch are abundance of trout, and in all probability there would be a 

 good salmon fishing here, were it not that the mouth of the loch is so much 

 choked up with sea-weed, that the fish cannot get into it. What confirms this 

 opinion is, that in some charters belonging to the gentlemen in the neighbour- 

 hood, the salmon fishing in the loch is expressly reserved to the king as his 

 exclusive right. 



The yellow trout in Stenness and Harray are equal in quality to any in 

 Scotland. But they are not nearly so plentiful as they ought to be ; nor, 

 as a rule, do they rise freely. They have been taken as heavy as 6 lbs. 

 But such a size is very rare, though individuals of 2 and 3 lbs. are not 

 uncommon. I have known one gentleman catch 12 trout in Harray in a 

 few hours, weighing 13 lbs.; and Mr A. Irvine Fortescue of Swanbister, 

 in answer to my printed queries about the trout fishing in the Loch of 

 Harray, writes: — 



Myself and friend once caught 12^ dozen, weighing 40 lbs., with fly, in 4 hours. 



Mr Fortescue states that, at times, the trout assemble in dense shoals 

 in some of the small bays of the Loch of Harray, and are, on such occa- 

 sions, swept out in vast quantities by the net, and he is therefore of 

 opinion that the use of the sweep-net should be prohibited in the Loch 

 of Harray, as he considers it even deadlier than set lines and set nets. 

 Mr Fortescue mentions that, on the occasion when he and his friend 

 caught the 12 J dozen, as above stated, they had come upon one of these 

 shoals of trout, and he says that, with a net 



The entire shoal might have been taken at one sweep, the result possibly a 

 cart-load. 



Sea-trout ascend to the Loch of Stenness and the other Orcadian lochs 

 communicating with the sea, beginning in July and continuing throughout 

 the autumn. The best place for sea-trout fishing in connection with the 

 Loch of Stenness is called ' The Bush,' the term applied to the lower part 

 of the stream on the seaward side of the Bridge of Waithe. I have 

 known upwards of fifty sea-trout hooked there in a day by one rod, 

 though, for want of a landing-net, only 20 of them were basketed. 

 ' The Bush ' is a favourite resting-place for sea-trout before running up 

 into the loch, and the most favourable time for fishing it is from half -ebb 

 round to half-flood. A westerly wind is said to suit it best. 



Before 1881 and 1882, when the Orkneys were constituted a Fishery 

 District, and the usual bye-laws passed fixing estuaries, a close season, the 

 meshes of nets to be used for the capture of fish of the salmon kind, and 

 prohibiting certain methods of fishing, all kinds of destructive and impro- 

 vident modes of fishing were commonly practised on the Loch of Stenness, 

 and more particularly on the upper part of it, the Loch of Harray. Set lines, 

 set-nets, sweep-nets, and the otter, were in constant operation ; and although 

 the use of the otter and fixed nets is now illegal, the ' Harray lairds,' 

 as the small proprietors on the banks of the Loch of Harray are called, 

 cannot be prevented, as the law at present stands, from using the sweep- 

 net or set lines, as they are udallers, and many of their properties have 

 a frontage to the loch. No District Board has been formed for the 

 Orkneys, nor is there any Angling Association for the protection and 

 improvement of the fishings ; and from what I saw and heard when in 



