106 
THE PISHING GAZETTE 
[June 3, 1893 
^coicl) 'glofcs. 
By Mac. 
Ix a number of districts of the east, north-east, 
and north coasts of Scotland, sea-trout, which 
were backward until late, have now put in appear¬ 
ance in good numbers in the inshore waters. 
With the water all right in them, upland burns 
and hill brooks should about this time he yielding 
good baskets to the trouter, but the trout in most 
of them are scarcely yet in their primest condi- 
t ion. When they are so is between the middle of 
June and the end of July as a rule, and it is then 
that nearly everywhere the sport with them is 
best. 
June is a most pleasant month as a rule, and an 
excellent one to boot, for sea-fishing by amateurs. 
There are splendid “ grounds ” all round the 
romantic and rocky north and north-western 
coasts of Scotland, where those in want of an 
invigorating holiday could combine pastime with 
the pleasures, so refreshing to the mind and 
the eye, that picturesque marine and magnificent 
mountain scenery afford. 
The full stock of spring salmon have, it is 
evident, not yet come inland this year, hence it is 
predicted by observant fishermen that there will 
lie a great rush of them once a decided change 
takes place. From having been so long “ out ” 
on thefeeding grounds, those that have yet to come 
forward to “ try ” for their native rivers will no 
doubt be very prime fish, and of larger size than 
the average summer salmon. This taken into 
account, it is expected that the salmon that are 
got in June and July this year will run a better 
average weight than what is usual for these 
months. 
By the recent copious rains, which gave an 
impetus to sea-trout to ascend, prospects of sport 
with the migratory Salmonidm on that charming 
little river, the Dumfries-shire Esk, have been 
materially improved. 
Sir Algernon Bortuwick, M.P., of the 
Mornuig Post, has been at the fishing at Inver- 
cauld, where, on the little bit of water attached to 
the house and known as the Invercauld private 
water, twenty-nine salmon were caught last week 
in two days, fourteen on Monday and fifteen on 
Tuesday. _ 
A friend tells me that great numbers of sea- 
trout have for some time past been got in the 
lower tidal water of the Aberdeenshire Dee— 
below the Victoria Bridge at Aberdeen—by 
anglers using haddock liver. Every evening 
the banks and water are closely dotted with 
eager piscators, all slashing away wdth the 
haddock liver; and they get them with it—no 
mistake about it—fine sea-tront from l',Tb. up to 
olb. My informant, being a high and dry fly 
fisher, thought the liver infra dig., and would 
not try it during the visits he made to witness 
the fun, but one evening he put on the “ Terror,” 
and made a few casts, with the result that he got 
two fine sea-trout, each over two jiounds. In the 
estuaries of other rivers where sea-trout are “in” 
at jiresent in large numbers,and cannot getaway 
“ up ” by reason of the low waters, anglers who 
wish to get takes should, it is suggested, have a 
try with the haddock liver and the “ Terror.” 
Stornoway —the (Irimersta, the Blackwater, the 
Laxay, the Creed—Dugald Cambell MacDonald 
is the “ man ” to waken up the Highland Host to 
1 ights of foresting, fishing, and freedom. Consult 
the IMacCallum More on the point all who wish to 
know the meaning. _ 
A Loch Ness-side correspondent writes: “At 
this time when, owing to the extreme drought, 
salmon reports are getting scarce, or “nae” worth 
a rap, we have been busy exterminating the fox, 
which of late has become quite a nuisance. In 
Stratherrich, the keepers on the Foyers estate 
alone had, within the last six weeks, a bag of 
three old dog foxes, four vixens, and tw'enty cubs. 
'I'hey also killed thirteen old foxes during the 
winter. On the adjoining estates, within a like 
period, the keepers have killed over a score. The 
amount of damage these sly gentlemen would 
have been capable of accomplishing is incalcu¬ 
lable, and shooting tenants and flockmasters alike, 
I have no doubt, will be glad to hear of their 
extermination.” 
McBocncer writeth; “ Using the Gaelic idiom 
when speaking English is a frequent cause of 
blundering, even by educated people. Your 
humble servant is not entirely free of it. In 
Gaelic, as in most languages except the English, 
the adjective is placed after the noun, and in 
several other respects ‘ the cart is put before the 
horse,’ that is from the English point of view. 
A disappointed and disgusted angler was consoled 
by his gillie as follows : ‘ Ooch aye ! nae doot its 
fery unpleasant work to be fushing andnogettin 
fush, but perse you vere, sir, yes, perse you vere, 
and you lieve me, ye’ll get them, sir.’ I know 
several who habitually say ‘ be you lieve me,’ 
instead of believe you me. Sir D. K. used to 
employ two brothers, Baldie and Sandie, as 
gillies. Sandie, however, took what he thought 
an easier situation, where the principal part of 
his duties was toTconvey vegetables, &c., between 
the garden and the house, which were about a 
mile apart. The baronet asked Baldie what had 
become of Sandie. ‘ Oo,’ says Baldie, ‘ he has 
got a job with the Marquis; he’s a vegetable 
letter-carrier between the gairdans and the big 
hoose.’ It was this same gillie who, after receiv¬ 
ing a suit of ‘ hodden gray ’ from his master, 
remarked that the ‘ sleeves of his troosars were 
not so ticht as he expected, but the bonnet was 
just raither/ew for his head.’ This reminds me 
of a still more ridiculous ‘ way of putting it.’ A 
Eoss-shircman, whose head showed unmistakeable 
signs of approaching baldness, said that the hair 
on the top of his head was now getting very 
seldom! One of the gillies on Loch T., a strapping 
fellow, standing over six feet, got discontented 
with bis lot. His ambition was to migrate south¬ 
ward, to Edinburgh or Glasgow, where, as he said 
himself, he “ micbt get on to be a pollisman or a 
lichtlamper.” An Argyllshire gillie was out 
boating with his master lately, when the conver¬ 
sation turned to family affairs. The gillie got 
quite communicative and told all about the 
various members of his family, including the 
interesting fact that his eldest son Eory is learn¬ 
ing to be a bindbooher in the Trongate of 
Glasgow.” _ j 
I HAVE to point out that trouting is as free as 
ever to anglers wherever Lady Seafield retains 
the rights, in Strathspey, about Grantown and 
Abernothy, at which places there are hotels 
where tourist anglers can put up most comfort¬ 
ably. Grantown is fast becoming a formidable 
rival to Braemar as a health and pleasure resort, 
and about it there is greater variety of, and more 
freedom for, angling. There is pike fishing, and 
lochs and streams for trouters, both within reach, 
besides the Spey, which runs past and on which 
trout fishing is free. Then guests at the Grant 
Arms can arrange with Mr. McDonald for salmon 
and grilse angling on a stretch of the Castle Grant 
water which be has had the enterprise to rent. 
On it this past spring the fishing, as everywhere 
else on Spey was poor, in conseciuence of the 
dreadfully low state of the water, but it will no 
doubt prove good for grilse in July (as it is a tip¬ 
top reach) should a good few spates take place in 
Spey before that time. Grilse push very quickly 
forward to the higher waters, and in summer, 
from their running so fast, a greater proportion 
of them swim the Duke’s miles of water, past the 
nettei’S, during the w'eekly slap than of the salmon 
in the earlier months when, from the water being 
very cold, the swimming is very slow. 
Our Spey correspondent writes: “ Lady Sea- 
field does everything in her power to make the 
visits of tourists and those in search of health as 
enjoyable as possible. Fou can, for instance, 
roam the woods—those magnificent birch and 
pine woods—unmolested for miles around Gran¬ 
town and Abernethy; and there ibouts the trout¬ 
ing, so far as her ladyship has the power, is free. 
To anyone in quest of a quiet angling resort, 
and wishing to breathe the pure mountain air, no 
more desirable spot than Abernethy could be 
found, "i'ou have it in your power to enjoy such 
jirivilege of fishing and freedom here; and there 
is a fine hotel to put up at, situated amid beauti¬ 
ful scenery, at tbe foot of the Grampian range of 
mountains. Here is the starting-point of the 
now renowned Ben Macdhui and Cairngorm 
mountaineering clubs. Should little be doing in 
the fishing line, then one can roam the woods— 
with the “ freedom of the first-made man ” or 
the “ irreclaimable old savage ”—sail on Loch 
Garten, climb the Ben or Cairn, bathe in the 
limpid pool of the burn, or post from the hotel 
to the many beautiful resorts and historical 
sights of the neighbourhood.” 
Our North Esk correspondent writes: “North 
Esk lower than ever; in my time I have never 
seen it so low. There is positively nothing 
duaen. Salmon nor grilse won’t come in from 
the sea for want of water. Trout fishing has 
gone all to ‘pigs and whistles.’ Fly is no use at 
all. Only natural minnow and par-tail during 
the night, and worm during the day, fished in 
the streams bring sport—and its no great shakes 
of sport I tell you. Grilse are increasing in 
numbers on the coast, and at the several stations 
are being got two or three a day ; but a flood is 
sadly needed, and were it to come now it would 
bring the fisb in about in great shoals. Salmon 
‘ are looking better,’ but as yet few of them are 
of heavy weight. About all the smolts have dis¬ 
appeared from both rivers; and but very little 
disease is to be seen among the kelts, of which 
there are lots still not away down.” 
Mr. Archibald Harfer writes :—“Thurso now 
at its lowest level; salmon angling abandoned; 
all anglers left for the south. But they will 
return after the next big spate. Salmon are 
swarming at the river mouth eager to getup. Once 
river and loch are again well stocked with fresh 
fish a little netting will be done to kill the surplus 
at or near the river mouth. This may be safely 
done, since no netting has been carried on at the 
mouth for the past three years. All the salmon 
fry have been turned down into the small burns, 
except about 12,000, which are been kept and fed 
in large tanks in the hatchery. These will be 
transferred to the rearing pond presently, which 
will be three weeks earlier than last year. I hear 
that salmon fry are being introduced into the 
Orkney burns. I wish them luck; but from the 
want of sufficient volume of water, and insuffi¬ 
cient spawning beds, the adult fish I fear will not 
take kindly to the Orkney waters. Owing to the 
low clearj state of the streams and lochs, trout 
fishing is scarcely worth trying at present, 
except from 9 p.m. till quite dark.” 
“G. M. M.,” Deeside, writes: “Now is the 
summer of our discontent ” (to take liberties with 
Shakespeare’s arrangement of the seasons) 
“ made glorious winter by this sun of suns.” 
The river’s bank, usually so crowded at this 
season, is actually clean deserted. All, but in 
the deeper pools about Ballater and Braemar, 
is blank, as if in the depth of the close season. 
Nor is there any sign of a change for the better, 
in spite of the diurnal thunderstorms, and inter¬ 
mittent but effervescent showers. The river 
still shrinks, and famous bottom boulders, 
only seen once in a generation, are daily expos¬ 
ing more of their bald heads. ‘ Bannochie,’ the 
imperial register for Kincardine O’Niel, is 
several inches out of the water, and the lowest 
level ever known, only an inch or two below the 
surface. ‘ Crockleback,’ on the Culter water, so 
called because in bygone netting days the net 
was ‘ crockled ’ back when it came to this stone, 
and the fish escaped, has not been seen since 
1870, at which time these figures were cut in it. 
These silent monuments tell a sad tale, and the 
mere mention of their appearance indicates the 
state of matters all round, which have seldom 
or never been so bad, at least to the present 
generation of anglers.” 
Mr. J. a. Harme-Brown, of Dunipace, Larbert, 
the naturalist and author, of whom 1 have always 
spoken in the most laudatory terms, writes me: 
“ My attention has been drawn to a statement 
by you that I personally killed 1091b. of trout on 
Loch Errochd in a day. This is absurd—so are 
the statements about other baskets. The 1091b. 
of trout were killed by three rods, and only about 
20lb. of that basket was killed on Loch Errochd. 
The basket was the result of two rods’ fishing for 
