67 Affendices to Thirty-eighth Annual Report 



Improvement in Deveron Kod Catch. 



It will be within the memory of the Board that in 1906 the proprietors 

 of the Deveron District combined to remove all the nets in the District — 

 after the cruives had been taken oS — and that, having secm-ed the pos- 

 session of all the nets, they allowed the coast nets to go back, while keeping 

 the river nets and estuary nets off. The result has been that since 1907 

 the river has not been netted. From the first I asked that a confidential 

 return be sent to me so that an indication might be secured of the im- 

 provement which I anticipated would supervene in ten years or so. As 

 the arrangement was that the reports should be confidential, I cannot 

 give particulars which would show the catch, although I beheve if the 

 various proprietors were asked, they would not object in any way to the 

 totals at least being given. I prefer, however, to give the result in the 

 form of a graph, from which it will be seen that on the eleventh year after 

 the start, the first big increase became noticeable. I may add that the 

 nature of the return received shows spring fish separately from later fish, 

 and that a substantial increase in the relative numbers of spring fish has 

 been noticeable for years. In the case of the present spring of 1920 

 reports state that the run of fish is again low. I anticipate, however, 

 that with the increase m the breeding stock which has now taken place, 

 this condition will be merely Icniporary. 



Eel Fishery Experiments, 



The object of these experiments was to ascertain whether or not it 

 might be profitable to catch eels in rivers in Scotland, by the method of 

 coghill net fishing practised in Ireland. It w^as known that eels are distri- 

 buted all over Scotland, and that they exist in apparently large numbers 

 in certain locahties. It had been ascertained also that good runs of elvers 

 occur frequently in certain rivers. Eel fishing for the market is carried on 

 in veiy few places, but from the long 'period during which eels have been 

 fished in the few places, it appeared that in all probabihty profitable 

 results might be obtained if trials were made on a larger scale in larger 

 streams. 



Experimental stations were therefore estabhshed in s( ven locahties, 

 viz., in the Thurso as an example of a river flowing north into the Pentland 

 Firth ; the Tay as the largest river on the east coast ; the Oich which 

 flows into Loch Ness ; the Ewe, in West Eoss-shire, flowing out of Loch 

 Maree ; the Morar, also on the west coast, flowing out of the 

 deepest loch in Scotland ; the Bladnoch, a southern river flowing into the 

 Solway in Wigtown Bay ; and in the Cree estuary in the same locahty, 

 where experience of palmon fishers showed that large numbers of eels were 

 at times present. 



At each station poles were erected in a line in the river at a carefully 

 chosen site, and from between these the nets were set so as to catch the 

 eels on their migration down the river to the sea. 



In the practice of fishing, very great difficulties were experienced 

 through the great fluctuations in level of our Scottish rivers. The rainfall, 

 especially over the high lands, being heavy, and the hills frequently very 

 steep, floods rise with such rapidity as to create an almost insurmountable 

 difficulty in fishing eel nets. Time after time, the nets had to be taken 

 out on account of the imminent danger to the temporary weirs, and in 

 several instances the nets were washed away when the floods rose so 

 rapidly that the nets could not be got out in time. It was clear from the 

 rather poor catches we obtained that eels did not run in any^ numbers 

 during the periods when it was possible to fish the nets, and the presumption 



