of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



137 



Court of Session respecting lawful netting within the limits of estuaries. 

 The case has become known as The Nith Fleeting Case. 



The decision establishes that in the proper conduct of net and coble 

 fishing, the shot shall be rowed " during such time only as is required 

 for the boat to row round the net." 



The practice complained against was in fact a variation of the once 

 recognised drift net fishing as practised in the Tay, a method of fishing 

 which was put down because the House of Lords decreed that drift nets 

 are fixed engines, and as such cannot be fished within the limits of 

 estuaries. The Nith Case tested the point of whether a net, used with 

 a coble, might be allowed to drift during the operation of rowing the 

 shot. The issue is embodied in the quotation given, and in future 

 any form of drifting or hanging, under the guise of net and coble 

 fishing, becomes an unlawful practice. 



In all probability the practice was more marked in the Nith, and 

 the breach of the proper conduct of a moving net as the only legal 

 engine within the limits of an estuary, more flagrant than in any other 

 Scottish river. But in certain other districts, which need not for the 

 present be named, this practice has long been common. 



Near the mouth of a river, at suitable states of the tide, it is con- 

 venient for netsmen to allow a net to hang as described in order to 

 intercept fish running in to fresh water. Similarly in a long even pool 

 of a river it is convenient to let the net drift the whole way down instead 

 of taking several short shots. 



It is possible that in some districts the decision in the Nith Fleeting 

 Case has not been noticed, but I have had occasion to observe that the 

 practice of hanging the net and allowing the coble to drift or ride at 

 the partly shot net, had not been abandoned in certain districts in 1920. 

 On several occasions I have timed operations, and have found that 

 quarter of an hour may be allowed to elapse in this way, and I have 

 noticed that several boats may be operating in this unlawful way at the 

 same time. The net may all be out, or only a part of the net may be 

 out, the coble is allowed to drift or hang in the current, or where 

 currents meet, so that a marked internal elapses before the shot is 

 finished. When only a part of the net is run out, the shooting of the 

 rest is prevented by the man in charge of the boat, in the manner 

 which was taken exception to in the Nith Case. The net is stopped or 

 "stented " 



It is 'important that District Fishery Boards should take special 

 notice of the manner in which net and coble fishing is practised in their 

 respective districts, and that in all cases netsmen be required to row out 

 the shot at once in the proper manner. 



Grilse. 



I have on several occasions called special attention to the relative 

 proportions of salmon and grilse. It unfortunately happens that with 

 the absence of statistics we are unable to make a comprehensive estimate 

 of how this important ratio is changing. There is no doubt at all that 

 as compared with some early records, the modern records compare very 

 poorly ; that all the grilse captured in a good grilse year now-a-days 

 could have been far exceeded by the catch of a single river in former 

 times. The catch of salmon was also immensely greater, but the ratio 

 between salmon and grilse is not now in favour of grilse as it used to be. 

 There are certain localities where coast nets rely chiefly upon the grilse 

 catch, and these fisheries — as, for instance, in Skye and Eaasay — have 

 very greatly declined. There are other districts in which grilse have 



