ANNUAL REPORT 



OF 



THE INSPECTOR OF SALMON FISHERIES 

 FOR SCOTLAND. 



MR CALDERWOOD'S REPORT. 



Fishery Board for Scotland, 

 April 1910. 



. I have the honour to submit my Report for the year 1909. My 

 annual inspection commenced by an examination of the Solway 

 districts from Dumfries westwards. I was especially anxious to 

 notice more closely than I had previously had an opportunity of 

 • doing, the so-called white-fish nets, which are commonly fished in the 

 Solway estuaries in close proximity to the mouths of rivers. I was 

 aware that those nets had frequently been the cause of complaint by 

 salmon fishers, and while I fully appreciated the fact that any 

 interference with the public right of white-fish fishing should be 

 most carefully guarded against, I had been led to suspect that a very 

 considerable amount of salmon fishing was being carried on under the 

 guise of white-fish fishing. My inspection fully bore this out; indeed 

 it appears that, at the time of my visit, there were more stake-nets 

 ostensibly fishing for white-fish than for salmon. My contention is 

 that it is quite unnecessary to fish for white-fish with expensive nets 

 of a pattern exactly similar to recognised salmon nets, and that these 

 so-called white-fish nets are not infrequently placed where white-fish 

 cannot well be expected. There is no doubt that these nets do catch 

 salmon. I have had proof of this personalty, and the Courts have from 

 time to time convicted the owners of such nets of taking salmon. 

 I consider that an abuse of white-fish fishing obtains, and I have 

 ventured, in the detailed paper on this subject which I have placed as 

 Appendix III. to this Report, to describe the stake-nets which are 

 used on the Lancashire shores for the capture of white-fish — engines 

 which are not roofed, and have no " heads " or traps of any kind, and 



