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Appendices to Fifth Annual Report 



Water into the head of the Loch of Strom, which is a brackish loch into 

 which the tide flows, like the Loch of Stenness in Orkney. As will be 

 afterwards shown, there is capital sea-trout fishing in the lower part of 

 this stream between Sand Water and the Loch of Strom. The stream in 

 Unst, which falls into the Loch of Cliff ; some streams in Yell ; the 

 stream that runs into the head of Weisdale Voe ; and several streams in 

 the parish of Norfchmaven, north of Colla Firth ; also the burn that flows 

 into the head of Dales Voe near Lerwick ; and many others too tedious to 

 enumerate ; all afford good sea-trout fishing when the waters are clearing 

 after a flood in autumn. One of the most experienced and successful 

 anglers who ever fished in Shetland states that a dozen good sea-trout, 

 from 5 lbs. downwards, have been taken by the rod from the stream 

 that runs into the head of Loch Strom in a single hour. The same 

 gentleman also states that he has landed a sea-trout of 6 lbs. in the burn 

 running into Weisdale Voe, and that he has been informed that they have 

 been taken as heavy as 14 lbs. The common trout in this burn are small 

 and worthless. 



Loth in number and size the sea-trout in the Shetland streams, lochs, 

 and voes surpass those in Orkney ; and while in Orkney, the run of sea- 

 trout is in autumn, in Shetland there is a spring run as well as an 

 autumn one. Salmon and grilse, too, though not numerous, are much 

 more common than in Orkney. Indeed, a good while ago, the salmon 

 fishing in Lerwick Bay was let for several years; and it is stated in the 

 Statistical Account of Scotland that no fewer than 21 salmon were 

 caught at one sweep of the net on the sands at Vatsetter, in the island of 

 Yell. In Dr Edmondston's View of the Zetland Islands, published in 

 1809, he writes as follows : — 



There are several bays or voes which have the word lax prefixed to them, 

 and I have already alluded to the probability that they received this name in 

 consequence of having been frequented by salmon. But although the word lax 

 be expressive of a salmon, it is also used as a general appellation by Pontoppidan 

 for the whole fish of this genus, and may, therefore, apply as well to the sea- 

 trout as to the real salmon. From the information of those, however, whom I 

 conceive to be competent judges, I am led to believe that salmon of a large size 

 have been actually taken in nets in Laxfirth Voe, in the parish of Tingwall. 



As to sea-trout, the minister of North Yell and Fetlar, in his account 

 of these parishes, in Sir John Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland, 

 writes as follows in 1794 : — 



We have no rivers here, nor is it possible in nature that there can be any 

 upon this island, nor indeed in the county ; we have some burns in the head of 

 our many bays, into which the salmon-trout enter about the 29th September in 

 their going up to our lochs, where they deposit their spawn during the winter ; 

 some of these are exceedingly large, and weigh no less than 25 lbs. a piece ; if 

 they are caught in the month of July, they are nothing inferior to the richest 

 salmon caught in the kingdom. 



There can be no doubt whatever that sea-trout in Shetland are very 

 much more numerous than in Orkney. In Basta Voe, in the island of 

 Yell, 100 of good size have been taken in a single haul of a sweep-net ; 

 and in Hamna Voe, in the same island, 200 were captured, about thirty 

 years ago, in the same way; and I think it quite possible that they might 

 come to be of considerable commercial value, if only the spawning fish 

 were preserved from the poacher, and the provisions of the Salmon Fishery 

 Acts against unfair and improvident modes of fishing, were strictly enforced. 

 No District Board has been formed for Shetland ; but there is an Angling 

 Association in Lerwick, which has several lochs in the neighbourhood 

 taken, and which has done a good deal to protect the fisheries in the 



