THE PISHING GAZETTE 
457 
June 17 , 1893 ] 
§cotc^ ^o(cs. 
By Mac. 
In these days of sublime depression in angling, 
■when on no account will the larger fish cultivate 
piscator’s acquaintance, some queer things would 
seem to be happening, if accounts can be credited. 
For instance, on the South Esk a miller’s duck 
bolted the bait, and went away with the whole 
equipment, rod and all, of a night-fisher. On the 
North Esk a cat in the darkness, whilst the 
angler was loading his pipe, bolted the baited 
pirr of the unsuspecting piscator, and like 
lightning went off through the alders and over 
the fences with the tackle and sixty yards of 
line. In Annandale several night anglers were 
fiercely set upon by a batch of owls, and had to 
beat an ignominious retreat. And, to cap all, 
in broad daylight an eagle recently made an 
attack, swooping several times down on an 
angler of one of the Border counties. Hitherto I 
have strongly favoured the preservation of 
eagles, but if they are now to attempt the man¬ 
slaughter of Her Majesty’s lieges, it is high time, 
I think, that the fiat should go forth lor their 
extermination! 
Never, within recollection, has salmon angling 
at this time of the year been so poor all over 
Scotland. In many rivers there are still 
abundance of spring-run fish, but they are now 
nearly all as red as “ Tod Lowry.” They posi¬ 
tively refuse the fly, and only by the merest 
fluke can one be got with it. To get them at all 
it is absolutely necessary to stalk them in the 
foaming white water and deep, strong runs, and 
even then the angler must use the finest of tackle, 
and keep a long distance off—which means “ oot o’ 
sicht,” as Scotty would put it. Three weeks to a 
month ago early morning and late evening 
fishing did best, but latterly betw'een nine and 
one o’clock of the day, the scores, such as they 
were, have chiefly been made. Any takes got in 
slack water have been almost entirely with small 
prawn and minnow, but in the rough places and 
strong deep runs, prawn of a good size and 
parr from two and a half to three and a half 
inches in length have answered best. Only for a 
few days on end has any one particular bait 
answered, the fish seeming to tire of it thus 
quickly. It has, therefore, been found necessary 
to alternate the baits in order to make the sport 
keep up. After a spate the taste of the fish no 
doubt would change, and then for several days 
the angler would most likely do best with the fly. 
Our Sutherland correspondent writes: “There 
is a very good appearance of sea-trout in the Kyle 
of Tongue. On Wednesday, Mr. Williams killed 
six fish which weighed 181b., heaviest turned the 
scale at 4jlb. Lovely weather at Lairg—very 
warm, dry, and bright. On Sunday the shaded 
maximum thermometer registered 76° of heat. 
The lochs and streams are exceptionally low, and 
sport in consequence not so good.” 
Johnnie Sutherland, of Durness, writes: 
“Here we have most lovely weather, but the last 
few days we fished the Kyle it was rather calm, 
and much too bright. Also, we were bothered a 
lot with tangle and weed. Never in all my ex¬ 
perience have I seen sea-trout so numerous as 
now ; they seem to be literally everywhere, and, 
what is better, they are a splendid average 
weight, with more big ones amongst them than I 
recollect of ever having seen so early. The spring 
tides we have at present will, I trust, clear away 
the weeds, for they are a perfect plague for foul¬ 
ing the line and baits Fish are coming in in 
large numbers with every tide, and we get them 
just at the entrance as they appear, and when, 
therefore, they are prettiest and in the highest 
perfection of condition. Last week, Mr. Davis, 
London, had as good sport as ever I have known 
the Kyle to yielu in the first week of .Tune. For 
the different days it was : June o, 27 sea-trout, 
flojlb., heaviest fl^lb.; June 6, 31 sea-trout, 
fifiMb., heaviest 4lb.; June 7, 19 sea-trout, 37^1b., 
heaviest 5|lb.; June 8,21 sea-trout, 351b., heaviest 
4'ilb. ;'June 9,'22 ‘sea-trout, 301b,, heaviest 81b.; 
June 10,13 sea-trout, 211b., heaviest Jiilb. Total, 
for the six days, 133 sea-trout weighing •2l4-JlbV’- 
A PARSON friend, whose renown as a salmon- 
slayer it would be little discredit to anyone to 
envy, says he has heard it stated that “anglers go 
out in the morning with hope and return in the 
evening smelling of whiskey, and the truth is not 
in them.” 
This very dry weather suits just admirably the 
anglers on the kyles and estuaries of the north of 
Scotland, whereon at present splendid sport is 
being had, for the reason that the sea-trout are 
“ in ” iu great numbers, and not able or inclined 
to push inland in consequence of the river water 
being so low, heated, and filthy. 
I LEARN that on the Tongue and Durness Kyles 
the sport that trollers with the sand-eel are having 
with sea-trout is capital in the meantime. 
Angling for the orange-fin and jellow-fin is 
now getting to be pretty good in the lower lengths 
and tideways of quite a number of Scotch rivers, 
which these gamesome little fishes, in large num¬ 
bers, frequent during the summer months. 
G. M. M., Deeside, writes: “ It is reported that 
Sir Algernon Borthwick, Bart., M P., is to have 
a renewal of the lease of Invercauld fishings and 
shootings. Recently he and his party concluded 
a fortnight’s angling on the Invercauld House 
water, during which about one hundred fish were 
grassed. Just now the Invercauld Hotel water 
and the Morven water of the Dee at Ballater are 
the only spots in the north of Scotland where 
salmon angling, such as it is, is being prosecuted 
with much success. On these two reaches of the 
Dee, Mr. Upcher and the Rev. Mr. Upcher, who 
have had many years’ experience of them, have done 
famously for ten days or so; and on the hotel water 
Mr. Murdoch has had fourteen fish for eight days’ 
angling. Only one day had he an empty creel, 
and that day was truly a day of disaster, for he 
‘ rugged ’ two and hooked and ran no less than 
seven.fish, four of which were brought almost to 
the gaff, and yet the day closed blank. He attri¬ 
butes his failure to score on this particular day 
to having used too small hooks for the large 
minnows which the fish were taking. The Aber¬ 
deen Harbour Commissioners have dropped no 
less a sum than £1500 on the year’s returns up to 
date. ‘ Don’t, for goodness sake, say water again 
till we get several days’ heavy rain,’ remarked 
to me that veteran angler and prince of good 
fellows, Mr. Edward Drummond, of the Ballogie 
fishines ; ‘there’s no Dee now—simply an almost 
inv'sible streak, padded all along with two feet of 
algiu.’ ” _ 
Our Deveron correspondent writes that: “ Mr. 
Joseph Bisset brought his season’s operations in 
the hatchery to a conclusion last week, when he 
transferred to the Deveron over 60,000 salmon fry. 
This is the fifth season that Mr. Bisset has 
brought his experiments to a successful close.” 
I HEAR from our North Esk correspondent 
that: The water is low as ever, even filthier 
than before, and not a single salmon or grilse 
coming into it. In the tideway, however, the 
netters are getting a few sea-trout of good size. 
Along the coast the salmon fishing is now doing 
much better, but for the month of June the aver¬ 
age size of the fish is small. Grilse are not 
doing so well as might now be expected, and they 
are also of mixed size. I hear of a salmon of the 
great weight of 521b. having been got last week 
at the West Hayne fishings, hear Arbroath. 
Trouting has proved fair on the whole for some 
time, not a few good baskets having been got 
with the worm from 10 to 1 o’clock of the day, 
and with the natural minnow and par-tail about 
dusk and into the night.” 
Mr. Archd. Harper -w^rites: “The anglars 
have now all left Loch More. The river tem¬ 
perature has gotuf) to 72°. Not since 1887, when 
it reached 75^' in the end of July-, have I seen it 
so high. It is now clear that the kelts which 
did not get tiraously away to the sea owing to 
the low state of the river, will all, or nearly all, 
die. The gillies and water bailiff.s,aro getting a 
few days'.salmon angling on Loch More. This 
conocssion is highly, appreciated au coming from 
jihe lessees, who ape q-Jeo giving a salmon' tp oaeb 
of about forty householders on the banks of the 
Thurso. The Scrabster netting has improved 
very much lately, and a good head of salmon and 
griise is now found to be in Thurso bay.” 
Our Spey correspondent writes: “Despite the 
thunder splashes up country the river is lower, 
and matters piscatorial worser, than ever. Only 
on the Tulchan and Ballindalloch sections, where 
there are fine deep rock pools, is anything worth 
speaking of being done. Fishing there, Mr. 
McCorquodale and friend had fourteen fish last 
week, and this success of theirs, the whole cir- 
cum.stances considered, must be regarded as note¬ 
worthy. Good trout fishing has been enjoyed 
for some weeks back between the hours of 10 p.m. 
and 1 a.m.” _ 
McBouncer writeth : “I have from time to 
time been giving examples of the blunders made 
by Highland gillies, but the blunder made by the 
head-keeper at Glen L. was perhaps the most 
ludicrous I have yet recorded. Mr., Mrs., and 
Miss H., from Yorkshire, had been guests at Glen 
L. during the shooting season, and got very inti¬ 
mate with the keeper, to whom they showed a good 
deal of kindness. Seeing a fine specimen of the 
Skye terrier in the keeper’s possession, Mr. H. 
expressed his desire to get two pups—a dog and 
a bitch—as soon as available. The keeper readily 
promised to send the two pups as a present. In 
due time they were forwarded by rail to York¬ 
shire, but, unfortunately, he had no dog pups to 
spare. After seeing them off all right, the keeper 
went to the village.post-office and wired to Mr. H. 
as follows : ‘ Have just despatched by rail a box 
containing two pups as promised. Kind regards 
to Mrs. and Miss H. Sorry to say they are both 
bitches.” It can be readily seen that a slight 
transposition of the sentences would have caused 
the telegram to read differently, and that the 
apparent insult so unwittingly wired by the 
keeper would have been avoided. It is, however, 
gratifying to know that Mr. H. understood what 
was meant, and afterwards had many a hearty 
laugh at the manner in which it was expressed. 
Although the following blunder is attributed to 
a gillie who was in the habit of sending angling 
reports to a local newspaper, I am inclined to 
believe that the printers were to blame, as they 
very often are, even with my own notes. A por¬ 
tion of the report iu question, which was written 
during the grilse season, ran as follows : ‘ On 
Thursday evening Sir H. M., Bart., caught two 
girls near the fall; one of them was a beauty and 
had sea-lice on.’ In conclusion, I may state that 
salmon or grilse angling is out of the question on 
the northern Scottish rivers. No fear, I am sorry 
to say, of catching girls or salmon either until a 
spate comes.” ____ 
Sea-trout are now up the Esk, Dumfries-shire, 
a fair distance in considerable numbers. As yet, 
however, the most of them are in the lower and 
fairly lower reaches; few, if any, having got to 
the upper waters. The water is still altogether 
too low for them to travel quickly, and then, 
because of this and of its clearness, it is only at 
night that any decent sport can be got. The 
time for bait-fishing, according to the fishery 
rules being permissible, having now come round, 
the local experts anticipate that following the 
next good spate there will be heavy baskets of 
sea-trout had with the worm. A kill of eleven 
sea-trout accomplished recently by an angler 
during one night’s outing on the Cauldron pool 
with the fly is, I think, worth mentioning. 
Locii Rannoch, I’erthshire, and the River Tum- 
mel, for both of which June is about the best 
month, are yielding very good baskets in the 
meantime, and not a few of the trout are of 
capital size. __ 
As usual, Altnacealgach is to the forefront 
among the Scottish hotels for trouting, no other 
one having taken into it at present so many trout 
nightly. ____ 
I.S it true ? If true, it is strange that within 
the past fortnight or so several fishers frequenting 
lonely .stroanivs,-in tUe upper, part'of Annandale 
1 have had the unusual experience of Being the 
subject? of attacks by qwIs whjle' in the vicinity 
