of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



95 



1 their operations is much extended, as they now work in the low- 

 1 water channel a good way to the east of Annan. The nets are 

 1 from about 300 to 800 yards long, thereby enabling each boat-fisher . 



* to all but cover the channel at low water ; * consequently, it is impos- 

 ' sible for a fish front three-quarter ebb to one-quarter flood to escape, 

 ' thus showing that if fish are not all killed in the low-water channel, 



* they are entirely impeded from entering the rivers. This system of 

 ' fishing is most destructive to the rivers, as the fish are taken that are 

 ' gathered at low water for the very purpose of entering them. 



* Sparling Nets. — This net is used in the low water channel when 



* the tide is out. It will be about 100 yards long, and from 6 to 9 

 ' feet deep. It has sinkers and floats the same as an ordinary 

 ' draught net, and is fished with the aid of a boat in the same way. 

 ' The mesh is very small — only about half-an-inch from knot to 

 ' knot. The sparlings are from 6 to 9 inches long, and the net is 

 ' capable of taking anything that size out of the low water channel. 

 ' Generally speaking, the men who use the whammel net during 

 ' the summer are the parties who use the sparling net. They 

 ' begin operations in the end of August or beginning of September, 

 1 and continue them throughout the winter, I believe that all the 

 ' sparlings killed in the Sohvay woidd not yield wages to one man 

 ' during the winter, and yet there are from twenty to thirty men with 

 ' boats ostensibly fishing for sparlings; but it is quite well known 

 ' that they take quantities of salmon on their way to the rivers to spawn! 



The other nets used in the Annan District are the haaf or halve 

 net and the paidle net. The haaf net is something like a large 

 shrimp net, held by the fisherman while he is fishing. The haaf 

 net fishermen often fish in numbers just where the Annan joins the 

 sea, one man to each net. Salmon enter the mouth of the river 

 with the flow of the tide and return with the ebb. The haaf net 

 fishers face the flow with their nets, and so either take the fish or 

 impede their run into the river. When the tide turns they face 

 the ebb, and take the fish then returning to the sea, doing so chiefly 

 at low water mark. From the number of men employed daily 

 in this way, the take must be very considerable. The Eden 

 Board of Conservators issue licenses to fish with the haaf net at 

 £2, 10s. each, and the burgh of Annan grant leave to fish with the 

 haaf net at £1, 10s. for the season. 



The Paidle net, now in use on the Solway, is simply a small 

 stake net calculated to take salmon under pretence if catching 

 flounders. It is thus described by Mr Jones : — ' It has a flood arm, 

 ' a cross-arm, and an ebb arm, and a pocket with coops the same 



* as an ordinary stake net for salmon. Sometimes some of them are 

 1 joined so that they often embrace a large portion of the fishing 

 ' ground between low water and high water mark. These nets are 

 £ set in great numbers, and under the pretence of taking white fish, 

 ' but the real object is to take salmon. The general height of the 

 ' arms is from 5 to 7 feet, and the nets are set during the winter 

 ' and very frequently in the summer season. During the winter 



* Mr Jones suggests that it would be desirable to restrict the length of these 

 nets to 300 or 400 yards, and to prohibit their use within a considerable distance of 

 the entrance to any river at low-water mark. 



