240 



Appendices to Twenty-ninth Annual Report 



APPENDIX N. 

 SALMON FISHERIES. 



MR. CALDERWOOD'S REPORT. 



Fishery Board for Scotland, 

 April 1911. 



I have the honour to submit my Report for the year 1910. My annual 

 inspection commenced in the Solway district, and was continued in 

 Argyllshire and Banffshire. 



White Fish Nets of the Solway. 



I made special reference to this subject in my last Annual Report, but 

 there were one or two points concerning which I desired to make more 

 careful investigation. I returned in the autumn, after the commencement 

 of the annual close time, for the purpose of seeing what netting was 

 really carried on. September 17th was a Saturday, and in the evening of 

 that day (and therefore in a period covered also by the weekly close time) 

 I visited certain nets in Fleet Bay. They were set where salmon nets are 

 placed in the open season ; they were of the same pattern as salmon nets, 

 and were set on the same stakes as are used for the erection of salmon 

 nets. I know of nothing about them which did not appertain to salmon 

 nets ; but they were called " white fish nets," and as such were supposed to 

 be exempt from the operation of the Salmon Acts. Outer nets were in 

 some cases of small size, but they were of the salmon pattern. The 

 "head" or chamber of the net was in each case the head of an ordinary 

 fly-net, and was, in fact, more ordinary in this respect than many of the 

 legal salmon nets fished in the Solway. I took careful measurements of 

 several of the nets. 



I must add that I did not find any salmon in any of the nets I visited, 

 and I visited them as the tide left them, and before the fishermen arrived. 

 On the following day I inspected other nets of the same kind, situated 

 between Ardwall Island and the eastern shore. The passage between the 

 island and the land ebbs dry ; two nets are set on the island shore, and a 

 single net on the landward shore. The former were again fly-nets, and 

 fly-nets of a large size. The single net on the landward shore was not a 

 typical fly-net, but was very similar to the pattern of salmon net used at 

 Innerwell, near Wigtown. Again I found only white fish in the nets. 



While I was examining the nets, a number of men were spending their 

 Sunday dragging a trammel net through the shallow water in the neigh- 

 bourhood, an operation which they could do by wading. I saw them land 

 two hauls, and found the catch to be plaice alone. A small beam trawl 

 net lay on the sand close at hand. The boat in which the men had come 

 from a distance was moored at the back of the island, and on finishing their 

 fishing the men carried off the beam trawl with them. I mention this 

 fishing because it appeared to be an indication of the sort of fishing locally 



