THE PISHING GAZETTE 
249 
Apr.il 8 , 1893 ] 
CONTENTS. 
N.B.—All rights reserved in articles published in this 
paper. 
Salmon, Whitling, Brown Trout .249 
Scotch Notes .249 
George Cole Bainbridge’s Dressings of Artificial 
Flies.251 
Notes and Queries .252 
Zig-Zag Routes to Chicago for Anglers.253 
Waltoniana.254 
The London County Council and the Thames Bye- 
Laws .254 
Correspondence.255 
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SATURDAY, APRIL 8th, 1893. 
SALMON, WHITLING, BROWN 
TROUT. 
EARLY SEASON RIVER AND TIDEWAY 
ANGLING IN SCOTLAND FOR TOURIST 
ANGLERS. 
In Scotland the principal fishing about this time 
of the year available to the tourist angler is, 
apart from that got in lochs, the yellow trout 
fishing on the few really early rivers and streams, 
together with estuary or lower non-tidal lengths 
fi.shing for finnock, and the salmon angling 
attached to hotels which is not let by the mouth 
or rod for fixed periods. 
Between the present date and the end of May 
the most famous yellow trout streams in Scotland, 
which nowadays are the Deveron, Don, Dean, 
and Pindhorn, give the very best of their trouting, 
fishing fine with small fly for their largest trout. 
On all these streams there are places where sport 
may be obtained either free or at a nominal cost. 
I or several weeks past most of the Scotch 
rivers and streams, by reason of continual 
drought—scarcely a drop of rain having fallen— 
have been running down lower and lower, till 
now they are, for the time of the year, in a state 
of ebb which has not been equalled for years. 
Fishing in them therefore for the migratory 
salmonidaj has become wretchedly poor. Lower 
non-tidal lengths are almost destitute of finnock 
instead of being plentifully supplied as, with 
normal conditions, they should be. Rain in 
plenty and for a good few days on end must 
consequently come before they can fish well. It 
is years since, either in such lengths or in the 
tideways, the finnock fishing has been so continu¬ 
ously poor during the last fortnight of March 
and the first week of April. This state of matters 
has proved extremely tantalising to many, nor is 
there yet much sign of a mending. The weather 
indications still point to a continuance of drought. 
But there must yet come sport, and good sport 
too, before the end this year of the time usual for 
finnock or whitling fishing proving best in the 
lower waters. A month ago it, about all round, 
was the best it has yet been this year, but at that 
time it is not usual for it to be nearly so good as 
in most waters it is during April and the first 
■week of May, unless a good deal above the 
tideway. 
Famous streams debouching round the Scottish 
eastern shores for early season tideway-frequenting 
and ascending finnock or whitling—discounting 
the descending ones—are South Esk, Dee, Don, 
Ythan, Ugie, Spey, Pindhorn, and Nairn, and in 
all these rivers, with special permits, or in virtue 
of hotel residence, tourist anglers can avail them¬ 
selves of finnock or whitling (which are grilse 
sea-trout) angling. 
Like whitling fishing, salmon angling is mean¬ 
time pretty much at a standstill, and for identically 
the same reason—scarcity of water. The hotels 
which have it for their guests, free or nominally 
free, and whose waters as a rule fish best between 
now and the end of May for the early season, are 
the Grant Arms Hotel, Grantown (for a reach of 
the Spey); the Balnagown Arms, Ardgay (for a 
reach of the Carron, Easter Ross;; Porsinardand 
Melvich Hotels, Sutherland (each foi a reach of 
the Halladale); Dalmally Hotel, Argyllshire (for 
a reach of the Orchy); Taynuilt Hotel, Argyll¬ 
shire (for a reach of the Awe); the Fife Arms, 
Braemar (for a reach of the Dee); Craigellachie 
Hotel, Speyside (prospectively for a reach of the 
Spey); the Spa Hotel, and the Ben Wyvis Hotel, 
Strathpeffer (each for a reach of the Conon and 
Blackwater). 
Establishments whose river fisheries may yield 
an odd salmon or two about this season are the 
Imperial Hotel, Aberdeen ; the Heathcot Hydro¬ 
pathic, Deeside; the Panmure Arms, Edzell; the 
Bredalbane Arms Hotel, Aberfeldy; the Birnam 
Hotel, Dunkeld ; the Bredalbane Arm?, Kenmore; 
the Haughton Arms and the Forbes Arms Hotel, 
Alford. 
Then for finnock or whitling fishing, the estab¬ 
lishments whose fisheries, if the water should 
prove all right, ought 1 1 yield very good whitling 
rishing for some time to come, are the Imperial 
Hotel, Aberdeen, in connection with which excel¬ 
lent yellow trout, fishing may possibly be had, 
for Dee and Don; Dee.side Hydropathic, Heathcot, 
Aberdeen, for Dee; Udny Arms, Newburgh, for 
Ythan; Cluny Hill Hydropathic, for Pindhorn. 
Connected with or obtainable from the hotels at 
Kintore, Huntly, Alford, Edzell, Preeburn, really 
excellent yellow trout river fishing may be enjoyed 
some time or other between the present date and 
the end of May. 
This by no means exhausts all the good places 
which the tourist angler might drop on for any 
of the sorts of fishing mentioned, early in the 
season, but it indicates briefly where the bulk of 
the good fishings, which he may possibly avail 
himself of, are to be found on rivers, streams, 
and tidewiys—not including lochs—during a 
spring season holiday in the Highlands and other 
parts of Scotland north of the Forth and Clyde. 
Sea-trout fishing—that is, fishing for adult sea- 
trout—is not on yet in any of these northern 
parts, and will not be for some time, as sea-trout 
nave not yet come in from the sea in appreciable 
numbers anywhere, hence this branch of sport, as 
delectable as any, does not for the present claim 
any attention. 
A Sal.mon Ply Brooch. —A pretty present 
from an angler to a lady friend would be one of 
the salmon fly brooches, made in silver as regards 
the hook, and with the usual feathers, &c., of the 
standard patterns, by Mr. Wm. Brown, 64, George- 
street, Aberdeen. 
Mr. Wheeley landed a pretty little 31b. trout 
at Shepperton Weir on April I; he returned 
the fish to the water apparently uninjured. As it 
was hooked at 6.10 a.m., on the second cast of the 
bait, it is perhaps the first Thames trout taken in 
1893. 
llofcs. 
By Mac. 
Last week our North Esk correspondent wrote; 
“ Rivers North and South Esk are now very low; 
not many fish comparatively coming in from the 
sea. In the sea nets, however, some good large 
ones are being got. Sea-trout have already made 
their appearance, and up the South Esk some 
have been got as far as the Bridge of Dun. 
Jamie Johnston’s netters are pla-ying havoc with 
every fish that comes into the North Water ,]ust 
now, but with a heavier volume in the river, the 
fast runners might now get forward beyond the 
netters during the weekly slap. This I infer from 
the fact that some have jumped the dykes lately, 
only, however, I suppose, to be caught by the 
netters farther in'and. A gentleman told me the 
other day that he had seen over three thousand 
fish netted on the opening day in the pool below 
the Morphie dyke obstruction before twelve 
o’clock by Johnston’s netters; and this Johnston 
is Mr. James Johnston, the member of the Scotch 
Fishery Board, who has hectored the board for 
years about reform in fishing matters. Truly 
the consistency of the netter has ever been of the 
strictest. Latterly in both the North and the 
South Esk the finnock fishing has dropped off 
very greatly from the water having become much 
too low.” 
Our Tay correspondent writes:—“We have 
had almost a fortnight of an uninterrupted spell 
of excellent weather, and for this advanced time 
of the early season the angling in consequence has 
been very good. Stobhallthis past week yielded 
some fine angling, redeeming in a measure its 
record for the season so far. The upper waters 
of the river as well as the loch continue even yet 
to fish well. The Tummel for the present is 
doing not bad. This is the best time for it, how¬ 
ever. The other day I saw a beauty that had 
been got on it weighing between 301b. and 401b., 
killed by a keeper. The Earn keeps in good 
fishing order, but I hear of little being got in it 
beyond a few whitling in the lower reaches. All 
the rivers hereabouts are getting just rather low 
by reason of the continued drought with a little 
frost prevailing overnight. A “wee drap ” of 
rain would do lots of good. The killing flies on 
the Tay are the usual patterns, although with 
this low clear water an Olive is used as a success¬ 
ful substitute for some of the more fancy ones. 
On the Tummel the killing pattern is the yellow, 
red, and blue body; blue hackle; Guinea fowl 
shoulder; mixed wing, mostly composed of brown 
turkey—called by some the Tummel fly, by others 
the Wood, from being named after an angler of 
past renown on the river. In my reports I do 
not throw the hammer as some do, but I know 
some lads here that throw it a fell bit. Several 
yellow trout are being got daily, and fairish takes 
of whitlinff obtained on the open water and tide¬ 
way near Perth.” _ 
Sport with salmon has now been had on both 
Awe and Orchy in Ai’gyllshire. Quite a fort¬ 
night ago the Orchy yielded its first fish of the 
season to an angler from Dalmally Hotel, and it 
is now more than a week since the Awe yielded 
its first salmon for 1893 to the rod of an angler 
out from Taynuilt Hotel. 
Colin Gunn, of Brora, writes:—“ What an awful 
otter that was—that one of 331b. weight—that 
our friend Archie Harper got on the Thurso 
recently. Do you imagine that he might have 
eaten what Archie’s famous trout left of the old 
hay-cutting machine ? My wife, who is about 
4ft. lliu. round the waist, is most anxious that I 
should try and buy the skin of the heastie, as she 
thinks it would fit her pretty nicely for a jacket. 
I note your writings anent the rivers—very good ; 
but you are just somewhat too hard on the Duke, 
who I am convinced is anxious to do the best he 
can for his rivers.” _ 
A CORRESPONHENT Writes :—“ Can you tell me 
anything about the difference of food and feeding 
habits of the yellow or brown trout and the sea- 
trout ? Sea-trout seem to feed in cold weather, 
because often they are in the beat of condition 
