34 
Appendices to Eighth Annual Report 
Loch Maddy. 
Mason's Arms 
Hotel, Strom- 
uess, Orkney, 
and Lochs of 
Stenness aiul 
llarray. 
From the remote Loch Maddy, in North Uist, there is a good account of 
the fishings which, however, it is said would be capable of great develop- 
ment by judicious expenditure. The whole of the Island of North Uist 
is honeycombed by lochs — many of them communicating with each other — 
from the wide expanse of Loch Scadowa, said to have an Island for every 
day in the year, to the mere tarn in the midst of the moorland. 
Last year, there were caught from Loch Maddy Hotel 20 salmon, 300 
sea-trout, and 5000 brown trout. The heaviest salmon was 11 lbs. 
There is no illegal fishing, and the only complaint made is that ' there 
is no satisfactory arrangement made for flooding lochs to meet spring tides. 
Consequently, run of salmon and trout depends altogether upon rainfall.' 
This hotel is one of the points from which anglers resort to the great 
inland lochs of Stenness and Harray, magnificent and connected sheets of 
water, whose united expanse is 4224 acres, or nearly 7 square miles. The 
report given is most disheartening ; for though the fisheries in the Orkney 
Islands have for many years been brought under the operation of the 
Salmon Fishery Acts, and formed into a fishery district, there is no District 
Board, and there are no prosecutions. The consequence is that all sorts of 
poaching practices prevail, and the sea-trout and yellow trout fishings are 
steadily and inevitably decreasing. 
It is stated in the answers to the printed queries that the take of fish 
has diminished owing to illegal netting and ottering. From the Mason's 
Arms Hotel 450 trout were caught by rod. A sea- trout of 16 lbs. was 
captured in Stromness Harbour by net and coble. But the great capture 
of the year was a yellow trout of 29 lbs. caught by a set line in the Loch 
of Stenness, probably the largest yellow trout ever taken in the United 
Kingdom. I have seen a coloured cast of this trout, made from the life by 
Mr Malloch, the well-known fishing-tackle maker, Perth, and it represents 
the handsomest yellow trout, both in shape and markings, that I ever 
saw. In a letter to the Field, dated 23rd March 1889, Mr Malloch writes 
as follows about this remarkable trout : — 
Seeing several letters lately in the Field about Loch Stenness trout, I 
thought it might interest your readers to know that to day I received a Loch 
Stenness trout, a male, weighing 29 lbs. It measured 3 feet 3J inches in length, 
2 feet in girth. It was caught on a set line with worm. It is a real fresh-water 
trout, and is the most perfect specimen I have ever seen ; with its small head, 
beautiful shape and colour, it is a perfect treat to look at. The following 
description of its colour may give you an idea of what it is like : — The belly is 
silvery white, merging into golden lemon up to the lateral line ; just below the 
line it is covered with faint red spots; above the line, silvery, covered with brown 
spots, each spot having a creamy-white ring round it ; above this, pale olive, 
merging into dark green on the back, all profusely covered with spots. The 
head is almost the same colour as the body only of a paler shade, and is covered 
with spots down to the nose, the gill-cover proper being light purple ; the dorsal 
fin olive, covered with light brown spots ; the dead fin, very pale olive, covered 
with orange and red spots, the outer edge of the fins tipped with orange ; the 
tail slightly rounded. When cut up, the flesh is orange, and, when cooked, tastes 
almost like salmon. Although it was caught on Thursday last, I weighed it to- 
day, and it weighed 28j lbs., so that when it came out of the water it must have 
weighed over 29 lbs. I have taken a cast of it, and I am stuffing the skin as well. 
With regard to the protection of the lochs from which this splendid trout 
was taken, and of the other waters in the Mainland of Orkney, Mr Mackay, 
the landlord of the Mason's Arms Hotel, writes : — 
There is no protection of any kind. Illegal fishing is prevalent, and there 
are no prosecutions. There is no District Board. I would like to direct the 
Board's attention to the obstruction of small-meshed nets in the sea in the 
channel leading to the loch (Stenness) ; and after the close time also, sweeping* 
with small-meshed nets in the fresh water loch. 
The following extract from my fifth Report to the Fishery Board, 
describing the Fisheries in Orkney and Shetland which I inspected in 
