270 
THE PISHING GAZETTE 
[April 15, 1893 
The skin of the beasLie would reach round her 
and a bittie more, bub I’m sorry it is already dis¬ 
posed of. Now, Colin, you needna doubt the size 
or the weight of the otter; I assure you it was 
fairly weighed and measured, not by me, but by 
others, and in my presence and that of several 
gentlemen. . . . We had heavy rain and a 
good deal of lightning on Thursday night. The 
river rose several inches, but not enough to bring 
many fresh fish from the sea. The kelts soon 
took advantage of it; they could be seen in 
hundreds going down over the shallows from mid¬ 
day on Friday till late on Saturday night, when 
the river fell too low even for these to go down. 
A good big spate is very much needed. There 
are plenty of fish in the bay now. I noticed a 
strange phenomenon on Friday here. The rain on 
Thursday night was of a pale bluish colour, and 
the water was bitter to taste. Since then salmon 
will scarcely look at the fiy ; only one fish killed 
in two days. No doubt the air being heavily 
charged with electricity caused the lightning and 
the blue rain. I would be glad to hear if any 
other one noticed this in other districts where 
rain fell on that day. The barometer was rising 
all the time the rain was falling. The weather 
quite like summer. The temperature is 58 deg. 
Fahr. in the shade. Trout fishers are having 
capital sport.” _ 
Our Inverness-shire correspondent writes:— 
“ What a cry for rain—every river and stream in 
the district is nearly dr}^ I have always noticed 
that angling on Loch Ness and Loch Oich falls off 
during protracted drought. Loch Oich is still far 
behind previous years, and there is just an occa¬ 
sional fish got on Loch Ness. On Saturday Mrs. 
Uavis had a nine-pounder, and yesterday, Monday, 
Mr. Chisholm landed a twenty-pounder. A number 
of fish are seen daily at the mouth of the Moriston. 
Can it be that they are waiting for a flood to let 
them up the river p If so, there may be good 
sport got on it this season.” 
G. M. M., Ueeside, writes :—“No grilse yet. A 
fresh run of salmon, averaging about 91b., came 
during the weekly slap on Sunday last. Mr. 
Lamond had one and Mr. Drummond two with 
sea-lice adhering. The smallest summer double 
hooks have been the thking lures during the day. 
The minnower is fairly out of it. It is not so 
much the scarcity of fish in the pools as the pro¬ 
tracted spell of adverse angling conditions ihac 
has caused the present collapse. Unless a 
thorough charge from the hard glaring sunshine 
by day and the hard frosts over night comes soon 
the season will be a dead failure on many of the 
best sections. There has been a scarcity of fish 
oil the coast for weeks back, and this reached ihe 
climax on W’ednesday last, when salmon were 
selling at 2s. 6d. per lb. wholesale in the Aberdeen 
fish market, and at 3s. in the city. The anglers 
on the Glen Tana waters are awfully disgusted 
with the meagre sport. Naturally enough from 
the princely price asked, and given, for these 
waters, they expected to get their hearts’ content 
of hauling out fish. Twenty and thirty a day 
were confidently reckoned on. But they have had 
to be content with two and sometimes three off 
the whole section. One of Mr. Barry’s party left 
the other day with feelings better imagined than 
described. Mr. Davidson, who has the north 
lower beat of the Glen Tana section, landed two 
fish the first day out. He made a present of one 
to his gillie and took the other home. Gillies 
seldom fare so well. The Aberdeen Harbour 
Board’s returns for March for sales of salmon are 
£15 back from last year’s in the same month. Yet 
prices have ruled from fid. to Is. higher per 
pound. Fair baskets of whitling are being made 
on the Heathcot waters. With moist weather 
grand fishing may confidently be anticipated. 
8ir Algernon Borthwick and his son finished 
their Faster holiday the other day. Their total 
basket has only been half last year’s.” 
A Gueious Halibut. —A strange halibut was 
lauded at Bucky, Banffshire last week. Its light 
and dark sides were just on the reverse side 
from the rest of its species. When lying with 
the white side up, the stomach was on the left 
instead of the right side. It was a large fish 
weighing over ^cwt. It was caught forty-two 
miles off the coast. 
incites antr Queries 
Mr. William Black, Mr. John G. Morten, and 
Mr. Colin Hunter, who are fishing on the Oykel, 
are having a very rusty time of it. Here is 
Mr. Morten’s laconic report: “ No river; no 
fishing; frosty nights; cloudless, windless days.” 
And yet on his first day he killed three fish, 
9Jlb., 101b., and 161b._ 
Some Good Flies. —Miss Constance A. Watts, 
of Temple Lodge, Hermitage, near Newbury, 
sends us half a dozen sample flies of her tying. 
She makes an excellent fly, and her prices are 
Is. fid. a dozen for hackle flies on gut, and 2s. per 
dozen winged. She informs us she uses natural 
hackles, and has some very good honey duns, and 
that she dresses flies to customers’ own patterns. 
A Monster Halibut Strangely Captured.— 
On Thursday, last week, two boys at Stromness, 
Orkney, were engaged in hauling lobster creels 
about a mile and a half from the pier, when they 
observed a fish of the halibut species on the 
sands apparently partially stranded. Procuring 
a kind of harpoon to which a line was attached, 
and carefully stalking the fish, they managed to 
plant it in the back of the halibut and soon dis¬ 
patched it. It was with difficulty got into the 
boat and landed at the pier, when it was pro¬ 
nounced a fine specimen of halibut in prime 
condition. The huge fish measured fift. lOin., and 
weighed 2451b. It was carefully dispatched to 
the southern market, and has proved a valuable 
and welcome prize to the lucky captors. 
At the recent very su' cessful annual dinner of 
the Sussex Piscatorial, the hon. sec. announced 
that the society had in view the acquisition of 
some very fair trout fishing, and we hear that 
this has since been secured. We do not know any 
anglers who ought to be more satisfied with their 
lot than our friends of the Sussex Piscatorial 
Society'. Their headquarters are at that fas¬ 
cinating West-end of London-on-Sea, Brighton, 
they have excellent general fishing, both fresh 
and salt, and now “some very fair trout 
fishing” is included in their bill of fare. No 
wondu- Mr. Reason “evoked applause by declar¬ 
ing that all anglers could, by virtue of their 
being anglers, look forward to a happy old 
age.” _ 
A Riparian Owner on Anglers. — At the 
dinner of the Sussex Piscatorial Society ju.st 
referred to, the toast of “Our Riparian Owners” 
was proposed by Mr. H. Reason. In doing so, 
be acknowledged their kindness in the heartiest 
manner, and gave an assurance that their 
wa'eri would never suffer from he conces¬ 
sions that were granted to the society, for their 
rules were of the most stringent character, and 
their aim was to elevate the tone of sport, which 
they approached in a thoroughly chivalrous spirit. 
A humorous reply was made by Mr. J. H. Oatt, 
who said that the visits of the members of the 
society, who conducted their operations in a 
sportsmanlike manner, were far more welcome 
than those of the promiscuous angler who broke 
down the hedges and left their orange peel and 
bottles behind them. 
Stocking the Thames with Fish. —A most 
important and valuable addition has been made 
to the stock of fish in the Reading district by the 
local Angling Preservation Association. On 
Saturday and Monday last, Hy. Holdway (one of 
the bailiffs), with assistance, netted some private 
water under the direction of the committee (leave 
having been kindly given), and the result was that 
about 12,000 good stock fish, and many thousands 
of younger specimens, were placed in suitable por¬ 
tions of the water. Quite three thousand splendid 
stock perch, running from ^Ib. to .Jib. in weight, 
and about an equal number of roach from fiin. 
upwards, were among the take, the rest being 
mainly composed of chub and dace. Under Hold- 
way’s skilful care scarcely a fish was lost, either 
in capture or transportation to their new home. 
London anglers will see that the £5 5s. they 
recently voted to the Reading Association is being 
well spent. 
Mr. T. J. Hodson writing from Derby on ; 
April 8, 1893, say's, “ Have you had any sport this I 
Easter ? Derbyshire is no use j'et. Rivers all | 
dead low. I tried the Wye on Wednesday, but ' 
did no good. Those devils at Bakewell were just 
caught in the nick of time; they don’t appear to 
have done much harm, thank goodness. The 
magistrates gave them a month apiece on Friday. 
Ought to have had three. We are going to turn • 
about 50 or fiO brace of our four-year-olds into our | 
Cromford length on Saturday next. I looked 
them over a few days since; they are a nice lot, 
many of them over a pound each. I think it 
rather a good idea to turn in a few brace of good 
takeable fish in places where they are easy to , 
catch, and which, under ordinary conditions get 
fished out. Everybody fishes easy places, and ^ 
two-year-olds get hooked and turned back until 
they get tired of it and bolt off. We had one 
place last year which swarmed with two-year- 
olds ; everybody who saw them rising went for 
them, and, although I believe they honestly' 
returned them, by the end of the season they had 
migrated from those parts—the constant hooking 
became monotonous.” There is no doubt, as 'j 
Mr. Hodson says, this constant hooking and 
returning of fish makes them dreadfully shy, and 
we believe some give over rising at all. ■ ^ 
The Tm’eed Stocked myth its own Salmon Fry. { 
—What the outcome of this experiment will 
be is hard to say, but it is to be hoped that ‘ 
much good will in the long run be attendant on 
the practical and satisfactory work of salmon 
cultivation so lately carried out. In the month 
of January last, during three successive days, the 
waters at the junction of the Tweed and Teviot ^ 
at Kelso were, by the consent of the River Tweed 
Commissioners, netted for the purpose of obtain- 
ing salmon for South Africa and New Zealand. ' 
The operations, which were carried out by Mr. 
Donaldson, Melrose, superintendent of the 'Tweed 
Commissioners’water bailiffs, as-iisted by his staff 
and several local fishermen and others interested, 
were of a highly successful character, and the 
results of a most satisfactory nature. 
The amount of ova got during the three 
days’ operations was computed at 550,000, all in ' 
capital condition. The produce so obtained was’ * 
despatched daily to the Solway and Howietoun 
hatcheries, there to be prepared and packed for 
export, the bulk of it being intended for South 
Africa, to the order of the Natal Government, 
and for New Zealand. The operations at these ) 
places were so successful that, after satisfying all i 
the export orders, a considerable quantity of the j 
ova remained on hand, and this it was decided to 
estore to the 'Tweed, whence they had been } 
obtained. The surplus, which had been retained 
at Howietoun until they reached the “ eyed” state, 
were despatched to Kelso on Tuesday, the 5th ! 
inst., and arrived in due course the same day. 
Previous to its arrival a suitable “ redd ” had 
been made to receive it, and on this bed Superin- 
tendent Donaldson and his assistants had the ova 
sown. Altogether there would be atiout 100,000 
eggs, and of this large number not one appeared 
to be dead or unfertile. The operation of unpack¬ 
ing was accomplished most sucessfully, scarcely 
an egg being destroyed in so doing. It was 
calculated that the hatch-out would begin tbe next 
day, the 6th, and on the “ redd ” (which had been 
made in one of the streamlets running through 
the Anna at the juncture of the Tweed and < 
Teviot) being examined, it was found that the 
hatching out process was in full progress, • 
thousands of the tiny creatures being visible, 
wriggling and swimming about amongst the 
gravel and small stones, while not a dead egg 
was to be seen. Since then nearly the whole of 
the ova has fertilised, and alevins, having now 
become fry, are rapidiy finding their way into the 
main river. Some of the more enthusiastic fish 
culturists in Kelso obtained a small quantity of R 
the“ eyed”ovafor scientific purposes, andhatched 
them out in private, the operations being also 
successful; the fry in the possession of these < 
individuals being kept in constantly running ^ 
water. It is intended by these individuals to ' 
mark the progress of the young fish from time to 
time, and then test the cultivation of salmon in 
captivity. ^ 
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