THE EISHING GAZETTE 
[March 18, 1893 
isi. 
^coicl) iXofes. 
By Mac. 
The weather in Scotland keeps delightfully 
fine for this time of the year. A ten days’ 
almost uninterrupted spell of fresh warm weather, 
with westerly and south-westerly winds and 
abundance of sunshine, has worked wonders since 
the severe snowstorm got a sudden scaling. In 
many quarters there is already indication that, 
bar a radical change, the spring weather with 
bud, leaf, and flower will arrive about six weeks 
earlier than last year, when, it will be remem¬ 
bered, all indications of spring were absent until 
about the middle of May. The tract of fine 
weather has kept the rivers running high—at 
least, all those that are fed largely from the 
mountains. But, having run gradually down, the 
most of them are now in fine angling ply. For 
a short while, during the strongest of the sun¬ 
shine, trout have been showing pretty well this 
week in the more seaward reaches of the well- 
sheltered early rivers, as also in the early lochs. 
Some smelts going down have also been noticed 
in different rivers, and it is further reported 
that nearly all round kelts have commenced 
to shoal and move seaward. Hitherto they 
have been going down in ones and twos, and 
such-like small driblets. 
Two of the Sutherland hotels are changing 
hands—Scourie Hotel, in the west of the county, 
and Tongue Hotel, in the north. The former 
has good and varied fishing; the latter very 
much better. Feltham leaves, or has left, Scourie 
Hotel, and Campbell demits his tenancy of 
Tongue Hotel at Whit Sunday. Tongue is a 
grand chance for an enterprising hotelier who 
would lay himself out to please anglers and 
health and pleasure-seekers. Some years ago 
the Duke’s factor wrote me that “Tongue is a 
perfect sanatorium, has a salubrious climate, and 
is entirely free from east winds.” I can quite 
endorse his words. The scenery is delightfully 
varied—marine, lake, and river, moorland, 
mountain, and woodland. There is no locality 
in the county more healthful or beautiful. The 
hotel contains drawing-room, coffee-room, sitting- 
rooms, smoking-room, fourteen bedrooms, bath, 
kitchen, &c. There are stables, coach-houses, 
garden, farm offices, sixty-six acres aranle land, 
and hill grazing for sheep. The hotel has a right 
to three boats on the Kyle (famous for its sea- 
trout fishing), two on Loch Loyal, one on Loch 
Craggie, one on Loch Hacoin, and one on Loch 
Slam, three days a week up to Aug. 1, and three 
others on such lochs to the eastward as may be 
agreed upon. This is a decidedly good chance 
for one who would urdertake to work the 
place thoroughly—make it, as it deserves to 
be, one of the most famous fishing, health, 
and pleasure resorts in the far north. Mr. 
Box, House of Tongue, Tongue, by Lairg, 
receives offers up to the 25th curt. 
Writeth Wm. McBouncer : “ Continuing my 
Gaelic proverbs on fish and fishing, I mention on 
this occasion that the originals possess a rhythm 
which I cannot reproduce. I merely give their 
literal translation in plain English. Here is a 
poser which I cannot explain : “ La Fheill ma- 
Cheasaig bidh gach easgann torrach ”—On St. 
Kessock's day eels will be pregnant. From this we 
might almost infer that the ancient Gael had 
more regard for eels than their descendants have. 
Nowadays not only are eels not eaten, but they 
are held in the greate.st abhorrence all over the 
Highlands, if not, indeed, over Scotland. Not 
knowing the habits of that fish, I cannot say 
whether the proverb is scientifically correct or 
not, but no doubt many of your English readers 
will. St. Kessock’s day happens to be March 21, 
which this year falls cn Tuesday next week. 
Fairs or markets named after this saint are still 
held annually about that date in several places in 
Scotland. Kessock Ferry, between Inverness 
and the Black Isle, is also named after him. 
Quito a number of proverbs relate to weather 
prophesies, A c.; and, if the following canborebed 
upon, anglers should carefully note the direction 
pf the wind on pec of. If the wind is from the 
west on the last night of the year, the following 
season’s fishing will be good. 
“ Gaoth a deas, teas is torradh; 
Gaoth a niar, iasg is bainne j 
Gaoth a tuatb, fuachd is gaillionn ; 
Gaoth a near, meas air chrannaibh.” 
Wind from south, heat and plenty ; 
U'ind from west, fish and milk ; 
Wind from north, cold and tempest; 
Wind from east, fruit on branches. 
Several proverbs give preference to the west 
wind as the most favourable for fishing. Another 
version of the one just quoted gives drought and 
parching instead oi fruit on branches to the east 
wind. . . . The Kyle of Sutherland salmon 
fishing opened about a month ago, but until last 
week hardly a fish was netted. The total con¬ 
signments of salmon to the London markets up 
to date would hardly aggregate 1.J cwt., so that 
hitherto netting operations have been carried on 
at a loss to the lessees. The weather all over the 
north Highlands has been very boisterous of 
late—not much rain, but the wind was so high 
that casting was out of the question some days. 
Mr. Weir, M.P. for lloss-shire, has been asking 
frivolous questions in the House of Commons 
regarding foxes in the Highlands, and the depre¬ 
dations they commit on crofter’s stock. He got 
his reply. No fear of poor Reynard increasing 
and multiplying so long as keepers, farmers, 
crofters, and shepherds make common cause 
against him. Mr. Hugh Bruce, keeper, Borgie, 
Sutherland, has already this season killed at least 
six foxes, while the keeper at Glenclassley has 
killed upwards of 100 during the past four years.” 
Mr. Archibald Harper writes: “ I succeeded 
in trapping two otters last week. Both were 
females, and weighed 151b. and 141b. respectively. 
There is still one frequenting the lower heats; I 
expect to have it caught one of these nights. 
High westerly gales prevailed during the whole 
of last week and sport was poor in consequence. 
Nothing injures sport on the Thurso so much as 
high winds; for the reason that a number of 
shallow moorland lochs, with muddy bottoms, 
feed the river and Lochmore. The mud gets 
stirred up, making the river black as ink; the fish 
are sickened and won’t be lured by the most 
gaudy piece of ‘piscatorial millinery.’ Good sport 
is certain as soon as the water turns a good 
colour. The full complement of six rods are at 
Brawl Castle now. ‘ Sandy,’ says the angler to 
his gillie, first day out, ‘1 will give you ten 
shill ngs for every fish I bring to bank.’ ‘ Thank 
ye, sir,’ and Sandy thought he was in for a real 
handsome thing; that day was a blank. Next 
day the same liberal tip was offered. ‘ Thank ye 
kindly, sir,’ but—that day was also blank, and 
Sandy made a discovery. The third day the ten 
shillings a fish was again'offered. Sandy could 
hide his convictions no longer, and answered, 
‘ Weel, sir, ye may as weel double the money, for 
ise warrant ye its deid safe.’ So it was. The 
Thurso yielded forty-five fish to the rods in 
February, but the full complement of six rods 
only fished a few days near the end of the month.” 
G. M. M., Deeside, writes: “ Sir Herbert Lewis, 
Bart., had twenty-two fish for the week. The 
Glen Tana waters, which are let for the months 
of April and May, have all been arranged for. 
The rental of the upper beats are at the 
rate of £120 each per month, and the lower 
two at £110 each — an aggregate of £920. 
Tidy, isn’t it, for two months’ fishing on 
the Dee? Yet Sir William’s difficulty was the 
selection of rods from the host of applicants. 
Such is the demand for a real bit of salmon water. 
On the little water of Dess forty-seven fish were 
killed for the first month of the season. On the 
adjoining section Mr. Lamond landed thirty-eight 
—not bad for a mile-and-a-half, taking both waters 
together, on one bank of the Dee, under such 
condi ions as prevailed. Some good scores were 
made on Saturday. Sir Herbert Lewis had seven 
fish to his own rod on Glen Tana. J’eebles had 
five on the Carlogie water with the Blue Phantom, 
while Sir Arthur Farquhar landed five on the 
Lower Dess to the “ Gordon.” Threes and fours 
were common all over. “ j\Iarch dust ” is indica¬ 
tive of a good spring. There has been a fair 
show of it during the past week. We are now 
looking fop I lie " HarcU Browpi^ ” wlucb ineyitftbly 
follow. Mr. Watson, Henfold, Dorset, who has 
been off the water for a whole year, through an 
accident he met with while angling last spring, 
returned to the Woodend water this week. With 
the exception of the month of April the Woodend 
water is in Mr. Watson’s hands for the next two 
years. Mr. Quintin Dick has passed it over to 
Mr. Wormold for the month of April. A river 
watcher {sic) some time ago picked up a salmon 
spear which had been recently in action. Instead 
of waiting in ambush for the owner, he proclaimed 
his precious find to the world, saying that he 
was so annoyed at the discovery of his beat being 
poached that he threw the spear as far as he 
could into the water! ” 
Our Spey correspondent writes:—“ As I antici¬ 
pated in this column last week, it has been 
decided to carry the Spey fishing case to the 
Inner House of the Court of Sessions, and 
this was done on the 10th inst., when a reclaiming 
note by Mr. Henry, against Lord Kyllachy’s 
judgment was sent to the roll for discussion. 
If the decision of the Lord Ordinary be sustained 
the case may go to the House of Lords, and in 
view of this the Spey Trout Fishers’ Association 
have decided to make an appeal to the country 
throughout for support. That the case has not 
been allowed to rest with the recent decision is 
regarded with the utmost satisfaction, for it will 
now be known, by a judgment of the Supreme 
Court of Scotland, whether the public have a 
risjht to fish for trout in a public river. Both can¬ 
didates for the vacancy in Banffshire have now been 
“ heckled” on this question. Sir W. Wedderburn, 
the Gladstonian candidate, is in favour of Parish 
Councils having the machinery to carefully 
administrate the granting of licences so as to be 
a benefit to all concerned. He is also not only in 
favour of trout fishing being open to the whole 
community, but also for salmon where no proper 
titles exist. Last week the Lord Advocate, 
replying to a question by Mr. Seymour-Keay, 
said he was not aware of any authority for holding 
that a public right of trout fishing could bo 
acquired by prescriptive possession in a Scotch 
river where it is not tidal, the public having no 
title to which the possession can be referred. 
The Carron Lodge water, leased by Mr. Jervaise- 
Smith, has been leased for the spring fishing by 
Sir William Gordon-Cumming, Bart., of Altyre. 
The Easter Elchies portion of the water, leased 
by Mr. Teacher, Glasgow, from Lord Elgin, is 
meantime being fished by his Lordship’s fisher¬ 
men owing to Mr. Teacher being seriously indis¬ 
posed. Colonel Edis, London, is too busy with 
his business engagements, and Mr. Stewart- 
Menzies, of Culdares, is to fish his beat. It is 
not generally known that there has not been for 
some years now any cruive or dyke on the Duke 
of Richmond’s fishings either at the mouth of the 
river or elsewhere. This being so the thousands 
of fish that fall to the Duke’s river nets is suffi¬ 
cient proof of the vigour with which the netting 
is pursued without the aid of any fixed barrier.” 
Recently a very heavy lift of finnock and 
other fresh-water fishes, which must have been a 
big night’s work for poachers on the Ytban, was 
detected, and on a warrant from the sheriff was 
seized at a railway station on the Buchan line of 
the Great North of Scotland Railway. Poaching 
for the salmonidce of all sorts, dead and alive—as 
mauchs, kelts, and clean fish—is getting more 
rife every year on the rivers of the north-east of 
Scotland. _ 
Consequent on no end of fish coming forward, 
the lessee of the salmon fishings on the river 
North Esk is making an unusually fat job of it 
this season. As indicating how effectually the 
dyke obstructions serve this netter, whose nets 
constantly sweep the pools below, one solitary 
fish has to be recorded as the whole take, as yet, 
to the rods on the many miles of beautiful 
character of angling water above. On the Don 
up to date the position of mattersisexactlysimilar. 
Is this as it should bo on two such salmon 
waters, possessing almost unsurpassed possi¬ 
bilities for early season angling ? 
Mr. John McKenzie, of the Royal Hotel, 
Oban (some years ago manager of the Trossachs 
Hotel), whi; is a fir^t-elaas tportsmau, and 
