of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



385 



vicinity. Still, however, as I was informed by two experienced and 

 influential residents in Lerwick, both members of the angling club, it has 

 hitherto been found impossible to enforce the provisions of the Salmon 

 Fishery Acts. Sufficient money has not been collected to maintain a 

 staff of watchers. The sea-trout are still netted in the spawning season 

 while ascending the burns ; and so extensive and winding is the coast 

 line, and so deep and numerous are the voes, that anything like thorough 

 watching is almost impossible. But sea-trout, they state, are still numerous 

 in many of the voes, streams, and lochs, though by no means so numerous 

 as they were thirty years ago. 



The following notes, taken from the fishing diary of an enthusiastic and 

 successful Shetland angler, may be found interesting : — In 1871-72 he 

 killed, with the rod, 113 sea-trout and 1 grilse in spring, and 43 sea-trout 

 in autumn; and in the spring of 1881, 155 sea-trout, weighing 170 lbs. 

 Altogether, he appears to have killed with the rod, in the sixteen years, 

 from 1867 to 1882, both inclusive, 1097 sea-trout and 3 grilse. The 

 heaviest sea-trout weighed 8 lbs., and the next heaviest 6 lbs. 



In the little Loch of Strand, which communicates with the head of 

 Laxfirth Voe, about 6 miles from Lerwick, a single rod has captured a 

 hundredweight and a half of sea-trout, largest 9J lbs., in 10 days' fishing; 

 and in one day's fishing a single rod took from' the same loch 50 lbs. 

 weight of sea-trout. 



A gentleman in Kirkwall, whose father has a large property on the 

 Mainland of Shetland, said to me that he believes that many of the best 

 lochs in Shetland yet remain to be discovered, and that some of the most 

 productive were found out by mere accident ; and he instanced Loch 

 Gossa Water, which no one had thought of fishing, and whose excellence 

 was found out by himself and his brother when boys. Soon afterwards 

 2 sea-trout of 8 lbs. weight each were taken out of it, and he himself 

 has captured them 6 lbs. weight. 



It is easy to account for the scarcity of salmon and grilse in the Orkney 

 and Shetland Islands. The streams are all small, and the area of spawning 

 ground limited ; while, on the opposite side of the Pentland Firth, there 

 is a long succession of excellent salmon rivers, nine in number, beginning 

 with the Thurso on the east and ending with the Grudie on the west, and 

 to their ample waters salmon naturally resort in preference to the short 

 and shallow streams of the Orkney and Shetland Islands. But it is by 

 no means so easy to understand why there should be a run of sea-trout in 

 Orkney in autumn only; while in Shetland there is a run in early spring 

 and a second run in autumn. It adds another to the ' Salmon Problems,' 

 so pleasantly discussed in Mr Willis Bund's interesting little volume.* 



The Mainland. — After finishing my inspection of the fisheries in the 

 Orkney Islands, I started for Lerwick, the capital of the Shetland group, 

 which I reached on the 14th of July. About 3 miles from Lerwick there 

 is a fine voe called Dale's Voe, a capital place for sea-trout. A stream, 

 which has a course of 5 or 6 miles, falls into the head of it. This stream 

 has many nice pools, and after a flood often affords good sea-trout fishing 

 in autumn. In the middle of July last year, after a heavy flood, a sea- 

 trout of 5 lbs. weight was taken out of it by the rod — one of the earliest 

 ever captured in Shetland. The extensive property about Dale's Voe 

 belongs to Mr Hay of Hay field, whose charter gives him, in the fullest 

 and most specific terms, rights of salmon fishing, also rights to oyster 

 scalps, mussel beds, &c. 



Near Fitful Head, and about 24 miles from Lerwick, there is a very 



* Salmon Problems, by J. W. Willis Bund, Chairman, Severn Fishery Board. 

 London, 1885. 



