THE EISHING GAZETTE 
285 
April 22, 1893] 
CONTENTS. 
If,B.—All rights reserved in articles published in this 
paper. 
Salmon Anglint?.285 
Scotch Notes .286 
Windermere and the Lake District.287 
Notes and Queries .288 
Shad .288 
The Creeper Taking.289 
Some Free and other Fishing in Ireland.289 
A New Wire Gimp, &c.290 
Waltoniana.290 
Experiments in Marking Salmon and Sea-Trout on 
West Coast of Norway.291 
Correspondence.293 
- NOTICE. 
The Fishing Gazette is published ever Saturday, 
and can be obtained at Messrs. W. H Smith and 
Son’s Bail way Bookstalls and of the principal News¬ 
agents and Fishing Tackle Dealers in London and 
the Provinces. 
Communications relating to the Literary Department, 
Fishing Tackle for Notice, Books for Review, &o., 
should be addressed to R. B. Mabston, Editor of 
the Fishing Gazette, St. Dunstan’s House, Fetter- 
lane, London. 
Correspondents are requested to write on one side of the 
paper only, and give their real names and addresses, 
not necessarily as signatures to their letters, but as 
a guarantee of good faith. Unless this rule be 
adhered to, no notice will be taken of such com¬ 
munications. 
'Tex'ms of Su.l>sox*lp4ilon. 
The Gazette can be had by sending Postal Order or 
Stamps to Messrs. Sampson Low, Marston, and Co., 
Limited, the Proprietors, St. Dunstan’s House, 
Fetter-lane, London, to whom all money payments 
should be made. 
For One Year, post free to any part of Great 
Britain and Ireland . ... 10s. 6d. 
,, Six Months ditto ditto 5s. 4d. 
„ Three Months ditto ditto 2s. 8d. 
To America and the Continent, annual sub¬ 
scription, including postage. 12s. 6d. 
Advex>tl.semexs.4:B« 
Applications respecting advertisements should be ad¬ 
dressed to the Manager of the Fishing Gazette, St. 
Dunstan’s House, Fetter-lane, London. 
Telegraphic Address.—“ KIVSAM, London.” 
TELEPHONE No. 2679. 
— — 
SATURDAY, APRIL 22nd, 1893. 
SPECIAL NOTICE. 
THE "IZAAK WALTON TEECENTENAHY.” 
OUR 1893 SUMMER NUMBER. 
Although we have published the date of Izaak 
Walton’s birth literally millions of times on the 
very forefront of the Gazette, we are reminded 
by a letter, which we recently published, that 
August 9 next will be the 300th anniversary of 
the birth of Izaak Walton, and that they pro¬ 
pose to have a special celebration of the event in 
Chicago, as described in the letter. 
Not to be behind our American cousins, we 
propose to issue our DOUBLE SUMMER 
NUMBER this year, early in August, as the 
“WALTON TERCENTENARY NUMBER,” 
with Special Illustrations, Articles, Notes, &c., 
and, we hope, a reproduction of the American 
Walton Exhibit. 
One Rid only to be used on the Thames Weir- 
Heads. —The Conservators of the River Thames 
have resolved, in reply to an application from the 
Thames Angling Preservation Society, to limit the 
permit holders to the use of one rod each on the 
weir-heads. The weir-heads are the private 
property of the conservators, and in making this 
rule do not interfere with the bye-laws of the 
fishery in angling in mid-stream. The new rule 
will come into operation at once. 
SALMON ANGLING. 
SCOTCH SPRING RIVERS. 
Retrospect and Lilcely Prospect. 
By W, Murdoch. 
To indicate briefiy how the salmon angling has 
done in Scotch waters this year, so far, is not a 
very difficult matter. If spoken of in its widest 
scope, it cannot be said to have proved of average 
quality ; yet, as is the case every year, there have 
been some notable—and to those experiencing 
them, gratifying—exceptions to the general state 
of matters. All along. Loch Tay has done 
famously, establishing not unlikely a record yield, 
while the small River Brora has for a time shown 
wonderful sport, as also have some sections of 
the Aberdeenshire Dee. The best reaches of Tay 
for a while—and before the nets went on—were 
yielding good takes, and on the now well-used 
Conon-Black water, the angling up to date is 
reported as having been superior to that obtained 
for many years past. Some very good sport for 
the Teith to yield was also had on that river 
during the first few weeks of the season, and it 
has been remarked that several of the lochs 
from which it is fed, and to which salmon have 
access, have already beat all previous seasons’ 
records for yield of fish to the rod. On the other 
hand, the Tweed, the North Esk, the Don, the 
Deveron, the Ythan, the Spey, the Findhorn, 
Loch Ness, the Oich, the Garry, the Beauly, the 
Helmsdale, the Forss, and the Halladale, have all 
yielded under the average amount of sport—a 
good many of them very much under the average. 
The Shin, the Oykel, the Naver, the Thurso, 
Loch Oich, and one or two other rivers and lochs, 
have done a sort of between the extremes, having 
given varying sport—throughout the period of 
their season already run—from a little under to 
quiie up to the average quality of late years. All 
the rivers which are subjected to an undue drain 
and senselessly severe usage from netting have 
fished very much below their usual—everyone of 
them except Teith and Tay. These two, along; 
with the Dee, had a splendid stock (for them) of 
salmon forward in their waters before the netting 
commenced, and to this fact, and it alone, is due 
the good angling that they have yielded. All 
the other rivers that are used in a manner 
utterly inimical to sport and to the chance of 
their reproductiveness becoming enhanced, have, 
without one single exception, fished poorly indeed. 
It will be remembered that for a good while 
before the season opened, and during the first 
three weeks of the season, most of the rivers 
off and on were completely icebound, or else 
running out water so intensely cold as to 
deter the fish from making the ascent. Con¬ 
sequently, very few sought to push inland 
until after the netting bad got a commence¬ 
ment. and when they had then no chance of 
making headway to the angling reaches. The 
extremely early run of fish in great numbers 
native to the Dee and the Tay, and the good run 
of very early fish belonging to the Teith, which got 
forward into these rivers before the netting com¬ 
menced, owing to the higher temperature of the 
water, was purely what saved the angling from 
being exactly I'ke that on the bulk of the other 
spring rivers. But in the case of Loch Oich, the 
Garry, the N aver, the Thurso, and the H el msdale, in 
connection with all of which there is no netting 
to interfere with, or, at least, materially lessen 
the first run of fish, it is difficult to explain fully 
why the angling has not, up to now, been a good 
deal superior to what it has proved. This, how¬ 
ever, at least may be said; The weather for a 
long time was extremely dry, keeping, in conse¬ 
quence, both the water and the sport at an 
unusually low ebb, and it would appear from 
reports received that even with the iacilities, in 
the way of abundance of water, which now and 
again they had. the fish did not in such large 
numbers as usual come in from the sea, nor have 
they even yet. Everywhere latterly—and for 
well-nigh a month now—angling has suffered to 
a tremendous extent by reason of the low and 
bottom-foul state of the rivers, brought about by 
almost continual drought, with severe frost over¬ 
night accompanying it. Moreover, during all 
that time there has, in most localities, been 
glaring sunshine for the greater part of the day ; 
and sea-fogs in the morning, late in the afternoon, 
and in the evening, have also prevailed in many 
districts, to the making (like the bright glare) of 
the odds being greatly in favour of the fish and 
against the angler. 
Usually when it is dry on the east coast and 
the rivers running low, it is wet on the west coast 
and the rivers running high, and vice versa. 
Similarly, also, it not unfrequently happens that 
the northern and southern parts of the country 
have very different weather from each other at 
one and the same time. But, until about a week 
ago, every part of Scotland, with scarcely an 
exception, had, for over a month, been without so 
much rain as even to slightly move the rivers. 
It is, therefore, no wonder that sport for the 
spring season has proved so poor this year, since 
the month or five weeks during which the angling 
on the majority of waters usually is best, proved 
so utterly unpropitious to the angler. It rather 
is more a wonder that, under the circumstances, 
so much has been done on different waters. It 
would be too sanguine to hope, at this late period, 
that the season can now be redeemed from being 
a ptrtial failure on the surface-fed rivers of the 
far north, or on the Tweed, or on the Spey, or on 
any of the badly used, severely netted, and 
obstructed rivers, such as the North and South 
Esks, the Don, the Deveron, the Findhorn, the 
Beauly, &c., where, before fish were forward, or 
the water was of a temperature and in volume 
calculated to encourage ascent, the netting had 
commenced in all its severity. 
Nearly a fortnight ago it was hoped that the 
spell of exceedingly dry and frosty weather had 
at last come to an end. Thunderstorms broke 
out over various districts, and accompanying 
them there was a good deal of rain, but as yet 
there has not been a heavy fall all over the 
country. When it does come, there will no doubt 
be a considerable impetus given to angling, but 
however soon it may come it cannot now do much 
to improve sport on the lower and middle waters 
of any of the best early rivers. With the water 
all right—freshened by a good scour out of the 
bottom by a heavy flood—there ought yet how¬ 
ever to be some very fine angling obtained on the 
Dee, the Garry, the Blackwater, the Brora, the 
rivers of the Kyle of Sutherland basin, the 
Helmsdale, the Naver, and the Thurso. In the 
majority of those rivers most of the early run 
fish are meantime what is called “ potted,” and 
until they are made, by a move of the water, to 
shift to other pools or pots, they will not take at 
all readily. 
Having been so scarce on the coast for a long 
time back, the fish of the spring run of the very 
early rivers have, it is reasonable to conclude, yet 
to come forward in very large numbers (before 
the run is exhausted), with tue object of pushing 
inland, and no doubt with rougher, darker weather 
and heavy waters they will straightway appear 
on the coast, and, in some numbers at least, 
succeed in getting inland to afford, along with 
their earlier ascended brethren, a renewed spurt 
to sport as a finish off to anglers for the spring 
season. Except with fresh run fish there cannot 
now however be much sport looked for, even as 
low down as the middle reaches in such rivers as 
the Naver, Thurso, Helmsdale, Oykel, Brora, 
Conon, Spey, and Dee. On the higher-up, good 
angling waters of the two latter rivers, April and 
May prove as a rule the two best months of the 
early season, and I should be much surprised if 
on these waters the time between the present 
date and the end of May does not this year prove 
much the most productive of the whole season to 
the rod. The long com inued drought has had its 
effect upon the angling of the Carron, Wester 
Ross, the Lochy and Spean, and the Awe and 
the Orchy, in so far as that it has caused the 
commencement of the season on these — the 
earliest and best large salmon rivers of the west 
coast—to commence later and in a poorer fashion 
than usual. Before this time the angling—with 
the water in ply —should prove good on the 
Carron and the Orchy especially, but as yet it 
has been very flat. The Lochy and Spean and 
the Awe are only now beginning to have fish in 
fair numbers seeking their waters, and as the 
time when the angling usually commences on 
them is not yet gone by, it cannot be said that 
the anglers who tis-h them and rent fishings oit 
them have lost much of the sport which they 
could have reason to count upon early in the 
season, from the experience of previous years. 
