170 
THE EISHING GAZETTE 
[March 11, 1893 
THE SPRING SALMON RIVERS 
SCOTLAND. 
AS THEY ARE. 
{Continued from'page 151.) 
OF 
By W. Murdoch. 
The first salmon river north of the Ness is the 
Beauly, the proprietor of which is Lord Lovat. 
Though itself of no great length, it has several 
large affluents, and, with these having added their 
waters, it assumes, ere it enters the Beauly Firth, 
the proportions of a considerable river—the 
second largest north of the Spey. It does not 
possess any great reputation for spring fish, and 
indeed never did, nevertheless it cannot he said 
that it is not a spring salmon river. It is, how¬ 
ever, most noteworthy as a summer angling water, 
principally for grilse. There can he no question 
that its head of early fish has diminished. The 
noble proprietor has all along been generous in 
his treatment of the fishery, but, unfortunately, 
his desire to nurse it has been rendered nugatory 
by very severe netting, belonging to another pro¬ 
prietor, which has told its tale in a marked 
degree. Constantly the netting has taken toll of 
the fish passing upthe 
firth, feeling their way 
towards the mouth of 
the river; and the in¬ 
jury thus done to the 
sporting interest has 
occasioned several ac¬ 
tions at law by Lord 
Lovat, in which, how¬ 
ever, it is to be regret¬ 
ted, his lordship was 
worsted. 
The Conon and its 
tributary, the Black- 
water, were for a long 
time sadly racked by 
cruives and netting. 
At last, however, 
thanks to the enter- 
prize of the proprie¬ 
tors, both cruives and 
nets have been bought 
up. This step was 
taken a few years ago, 
since which time sporD 
has improved. The 
netting in the river 
Conon used to he very 
effective, the nets at , 
the various places 
having such fine level 
sweeps, void almost 
of a single “ raker,” 
and commanding the 
whole width of the 
river, that scarcely 
a fish managed to 
escape, except during , 
heavy floods. In those 
days the fish that did 
escape the nets were 
tioned, the run of fish in good strength will 
gradually become earlier. Sport, hitherto, has 
not been of much account earlier than the month 
of April. 
Quite an array of salmon rivers, every one of 
which has a run of early fish, pour their waters 
into the Kyle of Sutherland, which, some distance 
below Bonar bridge, expands into the Dornock 
Firth. The Carron, of Easter Ross, is the first of 
these to be reached in proceeding northward. 
This is not a particularly early salmon river, few 
fish entering it before the end of March. April 
and May are the best angling months, sport 
usually proving of most account during April. 
The severe netting in the narrow channel of the 
Kyle, at Bonar, damages greatly the angling on the 
whole of the river inland therefrom, and the worst 
of it is that it has been found impossible to get it 
restricted. It is further a real injustice, if not a 
legal one, that it should be done by, and belong 
to, a proprietor who has but a moderate interest 
in the inland or angling waters. Balnagown, who 
is responsible for this netting, farms the whole of 
the Kyle of Sutherland fisheries—lays rivers in 
which he has no interest whatever under tribute 
to bis nets, and, by a fierceness of netting on the 
part of his lessees, for which the other proprietors 
think there is no justification, puts, from too few 
almost to a fraction 
trapped by the cruives higher up, hence no wonder 
that the angling was poor, and that this sapping 
of the reproductive resources of the river led to a 
serious diminution of the stock. The proprietors 
cannot be too much praised for the steps they 
have taken which have led to the removal of all 
netting and other artificial obstruction to the 
progress of fish from the tidew'ay upward ; and 
not for this alone do they deserve praise, for 
they have erected and are maintaining a salmon 
hatchery, which, although established only a 
very few years ago, it is believed has already 
done a lot of good. Anyway, since the time when 
the netting was stopped and the hatchery be¬ 
came an accomplished fact, the angling on 
the Conon itself and on its better angling tribu¬ 
tary, the Blackwater, has improved; while to the 
coast nets, and the nets of the district generally, 
the value received for salmon caught has proved 
greater annually than it w’as before for all the 
netting of the district—sea and river—which was 
much more extensive. This is another proof of a 
generous and foreseeing policy being for the 
benefit of all concerned. No doubt in a few years i 
there wdll be still more improved angling, and > 
very possibly, owing to the improvements men¬ 
LOCH BRORA, SUTHERLANDSHIRE. 
(From a Photograph by G. W. Wilson & Co., Aberdeen.) 
fish escaping inland, all the fisheries in the unfa¬ 
vourable position of having too few breeders, and 
hence most certainly in the way of a decline in 
productiveness. The late Duke of Sutherland, in 
his own interest and also in the interest of the 
other proprietors, although unaided by them, con¬ 
tested the legality of the netting in question; 
but, despite this, Balnagown held “ his own ” in 
the law courts, and the netting has since continued 
as before in all its fierceness. Long years ago, 
before it was so effective and perfect in its sys¬ 
tem, many more fish escaped. Yet far more were 
caught by the nets, and, as can be understood, 
the anglingwas much better on all thefive streams 
inland from Bonar, to wit: Carron, Oykel, Einig, 
Cassley, and Shin. 
The Oykel is the second earliest salmon stream 
of the basin of the Kyle of Sutherland. It has 
the longest run, but its normal volume of water 
is less than that of the Shin. To sudden flooding 
and also to running too low it is subject, although 
I not to such an extent as either the Carron or the 
I Cassley. Despite such drawbacks arising from 
, its physical characteristics, it sometimes yields 
good angling for early fish. It generally is best 
for sport between the middle of March and the 
middle of May; and in summer several stretches 
of it give wonderfully good angling for grilse 
when, during the strength of the run, the water 
is in trim and a fine head gets past the Bonar 
netting shots during the weekly slap. It is rare 
indeed for the angling on the Oykel very far 
inland to be of any account earlier in the season 
than the middle of March. Balnagown, whoso 
greatest angling interest on the rivers of the 
Kyle of Sutherland basin lies in the Oykel, has 
profited largely in increased rental for his 
angling waters since the Duke of Sutherland 
gave up netting the Kyle at the mouth of the 
Shin, which netting intercepted most of the 
fish that passed his (Balnagown’s) nets at 
Bonar. This is a case, as I might put it, of his 
having “ all the butter to his own side of the 
dish.” H'.s Grace benefited Balnagown without 
receiving any tangible acknowledgment or even 
so much as thanks. Yet Balnagown has not 
budged one inch to lessen the fierceness of his 
netting in the lower-down or more seaward 
waters to benefit the Duke of Sutherland or 
any other proprietor, although by doing this he 
would likewise have benefited himself by en¬ 
hancing the value of his own rod-fishings. 
Just “ower by” from Oykel Bridge Hotel is 
the Einig, a feeder of the Oykel, which, from 
yielding but a few fish each season, does not 
need to have much 
said about it. It is, 
however, remarkable 
that the salmon and 
grilse native to it 
can readily be dis¬ 
tinguished from the 
fish of any of the 
other rivers of the 
Kyle basin; if not a 
better quality, they 
are certainly of better 
shape, and that is 
saying a great deal. 
The Cassley, from the 
other side but lower 
down, also joins the 
Oykel. It is a very 
good style of angling 
stream, but is ex¬ 
tremely liable to fall 
away in volume. It 
rarely gives over a 
few dozen fish in a 
season, and but seldom 
is any got from it 
before early in March. 
Falls contract the 
extent of its angling 
wafer. 
The Shin is the 
prettiest and the best 
style of salmon ang¬ 
ling river, as also 
the most constant in 
volume in the far 
north of Scotland. 
From many years 
past until a few years 
ago its angling fell 
owing to the nets no longer 
it would seem that a 
for it has already 
of Sutherland, by 
at Shin-mouth, has 
terribly away, but 
fishing at Shin-mouth 
new era of prosperity 
commenced. The Duke 
abandoning the netting 
benefited, in proportion to the value of their 
waters, the proprietors of the four rivers farther 
inland quite as much as he has himself in 
the case of the Shin, of the angling of which 
he is the sole proprietor. This, one naturally 
would think, might have led Balnagown, for 
the sake of the Oykel, to relent a bit, and 
not continue to make to the angling world an 
exhibition of such utter selfishness as, hitherto, 
he has manifested in respect of his netting at 
Bonar. The Shin gives fish from the very 
first of the season, but April and May are 
decidedly the best months for salmon, and 
July for grilse. It may interest anglers to 
know the improvement which has come about 
in the rod-fishing since the nets were taken 
off in 1888. In 1889, 75 fish were caught; 
in 1890, 105; in 1891, 823; in 1892, 358. The 
Shin is the first river going north which is 
the property exclusively of the Duke of Suther¬ 
land. All His Grace’s good early angling 
waters where he has the ball entirely at his own 
