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Salmon and Salmon fishing in the highland
CHAPTER VI.
Salmon-fishing - Salmon ascending Fords - Fishers-Cruives-Right of
Fishing-Anecdote-Salmon-leaps- History of the Salmon-Spearing
Salmon-River Poaching-Angling-Fly-making-Eels-Lampreys.
During the spring and summer it is an amusing sight to watch
the salmon making their way up the river. Every high tide
brings up a number of these fish, whose whole object seems
to be to ascend the stream. At the shallow fords, where the
river spreading over a wide surface has but a small depth of
water, they are frequently obliged to swim, or rather wade (if
such an expression can be used), for perhaps twenty yards
in water of two inches in depth, which leaves more than half
the fish exposed to view. On they go, however, scrambling
up the fords, and making the water fly to the right and left,
like ducks at play. When the fish are numerous, I sometimes see a dozen or more at once. They might be killed in
these places by spears, or even a stick, and indeed many a salmon
does come to his death in this way. The fishermen (when the
river is low) save a great deal of useless fatigue, and of injury to
their nets, by working in some pool immediately above a shallow
place, where they station one of their number, who watches for
the fish ascending, giving a signal to his companions whenever
he sees one. They then immediately put out their nets, and are
nearly sure to catch the salmon. In this way very few of the
fish can escape as long as the water is low, but when a slight
flood comes they can get up unperceived. It is as easy to see
them in the night time as in the day, the water glancing and
shining as they struggle up. Indeed on the darkest night the
noise they make is easily heard, and distinguished by the accustomed ear of the fishermen.
There is something wild and interesting in listening during
the night to the shout of the man stationed to watch, when he
sees fish, and the sound of the oars and boat immediately afterwards, though the object of pursuit is but a fish after all. Sometimes a silent otter suddenly shows himself on the ford, having
slipped quietly and unobserved through the deeper parts of the
stream till he is obliged to wade, not having water enough to
cover him. His appearance is the signal of a general outcry,
and if he returns to the deep water where the net is, the fishermen occasionally manage to entangle him, and dragging him to
shore, soon dispatch him. He is one of their worst enemies.
More often, however, he slips noiselessly to the side of the river,
and half ensconced behind some broken bank, remains quiet and
concealed till the danger is past, and then glides away unperceived. There is no animal more difficult to get the advantage
of than the otter, as long as he is on ground that he knows.
The fish which escape the nets, and those which go up during
floods and on Sundays, on which day they are allowed to have a
free passage, seldom stop until they get to the deep quiet pools
amongst the rocks some four or five miles up the water, where
they rest till fresh water and opportunity enable them to continue their upward progress. Neither sea-trout nor salmon ever
seem happy excepting when making their way up a stream. It
is wonderful, too, against what difficulties, in the shape of falls
and rapids, they will ascend a river. In the Findhorn, owing to
the impetuosity of the stream, the frequent and sudden floods it
is subject to, and the immense quantity of shingle and gravel,
which is always shifting its place, and changing the course of
the lower part of the water, there are no cruives made use of.
They would probably be destroyed as fast as they were built.
In the Spey, however, and many other rivers, large cruives are
built, which quite prevent the ascent of the fish, excepting on
Sundays and on floods. To describe a cruive minutely would
be tedious. It is, however, merely a kind of dam built across
the river, with openings here and there, allowing the water to
pass through in a strong stream, and through which the fish
ascend and get into a kind of wooden cage, out of which they
cannot find their way again, the entrance being made after the
fashion of a wire mousetrap, affording an easier ingress than
egress. Much do the anglers on the upper part of the Spey pray
for a furious flood, or speat, as it is called, which may break
down these barriers, and enable the salmon to ascend to the
higher pools before the fishermen can repair the damage done.
The right of fishing in many of the Scotch rivers is vested in
a very singular manner; as, for instance, in the Findhorn, where
the proprietor of many miles of land along the river banks has no
right to throw a line in the water, but is obliged to pay a rent
for fishing on his own ground. Indeed, this kind of alienation
of the right of fishing from the person who would seem to be the
natural proprietor of it is very common. I remember an anecdote told me by an old Highlander as to the cause of the fishing
in a particular river in Sutherland being out of the hands of the
proprietor of the land on its banks. The story is as follows:-
The laird of the property higher up on the water was also the
possessor of a small island in the river. He was a deep, longheaded fellow, and grudged his neighbour the profit he made out
of the fishing just below him, the water on the upper part not
being so good. He therefore commenced building a fort on the
island, and falling in with his neighbour, asked him in an off-hand
way to give him, merely, he said, for the convenience of his workmen, a right of fishing the whole river until his building was
completed, salmon in those days being used as a means of feeding
the numerous retainers and servants who lived upon and followed
every laird and chieftain. Indeed, but a few years back it was
often made a stipulation by servants on being hired by a Highland
master that they should not be fed on salmon above a certain
number of days in the week. But to continue my story. The
permission was granted ; and, to save all dispute about the matter,
even a legal written document was given over to the wily laird,
granting him exclusive right of fishing and netting the river,
" until his house was finished." The building was immediately
stopped, and the right of fishing still belongs to the proprietor
of the little islet, who will probably never finish his building, as
doing so would put an end to his valuable rights on the river.
So runs the tale, which does more credit to the acuteness than
to the honesty of the inventor of the ruse. The jumping of the
salmon up a fall is a curious and beautiful sight, and the height
they leap, and the perseverance which they show in returning
again and again to the charge, after making vain efforts to surmount the fall, are quite wonderful. Often on a summer evening, when the river is full of fish, all eager to make their way
up, have I watched them for hours together, as they sprang in
rapid succession, looking like pieces of silver as they dashed up
the falls with rapid leaps. The fish appear to bend their head
to their tail, and then to fling themselves forward and upwards,
much as a bit of whalebone whose two ends are pinched together
springs forward on being released. I have often watched them
leaping, and this has always seemed the way in which they accomplish their extraordinary task. ' Both salmon and sea-trout,
soon after they enter the fresh water, from the sea, make wonderful leaps into the air, shooting perpendicularly upwards, to
the height of some feet, with a quivering motion, which is often
quite audible. This is most likely to get rid of a kind of parasitical insect which adheres to them when they first leave the sea.
The fishermen call this creature the sea-louse : it appears to
cause a great deal of irritation to the fish. It is a sure sign tha'
the salmon is in good condition, and fresh from the sea, when
these insects are found adhering to him.
Though the natural history of the salmon is daily being searched
into, and curious facts connected with it are constantly ascertained,
I fancy that there is much still to be learnt on the subject, as some
of the statements advanced seem so much at variance with my own
frequent though unscientific observations, that I cannot give in to
all that is asserted. But as I have not opportunities of proving
many points, I will leave the whole subject in the abler hands of
those who have already written on it, and whose accounts, though
they may err here and there, are probably in the main correct.
As long as the salmon are in the river water they seem to lose
condition, and become lean and dark coloured. By the time that
they have ascended to within a dozen miles or so of the source of
the river they are scarcely fit to eat. Nevertheless vast numbers
are killed by poachers and shepherds in the autumn, even after
the legal season is over. I once fell in with a band of Highlanders,
who were employed busily in the amusing but illegal pursuit of
spearing salmon by torchlight. And a most exciting and interesting proceeding it was. The night was calm and dark. The
steep and broken rocks were illuminated in the most brilliant
manner by fifteen or sixteen torches, which were carried by as
many active Highlanders, and glanced merrily on the water,
throwing the most fantastic light and shade on all around as they
moved about. Sometimes one of them would remain motionless
for a few moments, as its bearer waited in the expectation that
some fish which had been started by his companions would come
within reach of his spear, as he stood with it ready poised, and
his eager countenance lighted up by his torch as he bent over
the water. Then would come loud shouts and a confused hurrying to and fro, as some great fish darted amongst the men, and
loud and merry peals of laughter when some unlucky fellow
darting at a fish in too deep water, missed his balance, and fell
headlong into the pool. Every now and then a salmon would
be seen hoisted into the air, and quivering on an uplifted spear.
The fish, as soon as caught, was carried ashore, where it was
knocked on the head and taken charge of by some man older
than the rest, who was deputed to this office. Thirty-seven
salmon were killed that night; and I must say that I entered
into the fun, unmindful of its not being quite in accordance with
my ideas of right and wrong; and I enjoyed it probably as much
as any of the wild lads who were engaged in it. There was not
much English talked amongst the party, as they found more expressive words in Gaelic to vent their eagerness and impatience.
All was good humour, however; and though they at first looked
on me with some slight suspicion, yet when they saw that I
enjoyed their torchlight fishing, and entered fully into the spirit
of it, they soon treated me with all consideration and as one of
themselves. I happened to know one or two of the men; and
after it was over, and we were drying our drenched clothes in a
neighbouring bothy, it occurred to me to think of the river
bailiffs and watchers, several of whom I knew were employed on
that part of the stream, and I asked where they were, that they
did not interfere with the somewhat irregular proceeding in
which we had all been engaged. " 'Deed ay, sir, there are no
less than twelve baillies and offishers on the water here, but they
are mostly douce-like lads, and don't interfere much with us, as
we only come once or twice in the season. Besides which, they
ken well that if they did they might get a wild ducking amongst
us all, and they would na ken us again, as we all come from
bey on t the braes yonder. Not that we would wish to hurt the
puir chiels," continued my informer, as he took off a glass of
whisky, " as they would be but doing their duty. They would
as lave, however, I am thinking, be taking a quiet dram at Sandy
Roy's down yonder as getting a ducking in the river ; and they
are wise enough not to run the risk of it." Not bad reasoning
either, thought I; nor can I wonder that the poor water-bailiffs
would prefer a quiet bowl of toddy to a row with a party of wild
Badenoch poachers, who, though good-natured enough on the
whole, were determined to have their night's fun out in spite of
all opposition. There are worse poachers, too, than these said
Highlanders, who only come down now and then more for the
amusement than the profit of the thing; and whom it is generally
better policy to keep friends with than to make enemies of.
The ponderous lexicographer, who describes a fishing-rod as a
stick with a fool at one end, and a worm at the other, displays in
this saying more wit than wisdom. Not that I quite go the
whole length of my quaint and amiable old friend, Isaac Walton,
who implies in every page of his paragon of a book, that the art
of angling is the summum bonum of happiness, and that an
angler must needs be the best of men. I do believe, however,
that no determined angler can be naturally a bad or vicious man.
No man who enters into the silent communings with Nature,
whose beauties he must be constantly surrounded by, and familiar
with during his ramblings as an angler, can fail to be improved
in mind and disposition during his solitary wanderings amongst
the most lovely and romantic works of the creation, in the wild
Highland glens and mountains through which the best streams
take their course. I do not include in my term angler, the pond
or punt fisher, however well versed he may be in the arts of
spitting worms and impaling frogs, so learnedly discussed by
Isaac-notwithstanding the kindliness and simplicity of heart so
conspicuous in every line he writes. Angling in my sense of
the word implies, wandering with rod and creel in the wild solitudes, and tempting (or endeavouring to do so) the fish from
their clear water, with artificial fly or minnow. Nothing can
be more unlike the " worm " described as forming one end of
the thing called a fishing-rod, than the gay and gaudy collection
of feathers and tinsel which form the attraction of a Findhorn
fly. Let us look at the salmon-fly, which I have just finished,
and which now lies on the table before me, ready for trial in
some clear pool of the river. To begin : I tie with well-waxed
silk a portion of silkworms' intestines on a highly-tempered and
finished Limerick-made hook. Here are three different substances brought into play already. I next begin at the tail of
the fly : first come two turns of gold thread, then a tenth part of
an inch of red floss-silk ; next comes the tail, consisting of a
bright gold feather from the crest of the golden pheasant. The
body is now to be made of, alternately, a stripe of green, a stripe
of blue, and the remainder of orange-coloured floss-silk, with a
double binding of gold thread and silver tinsel; the legs are
made of a black barn-door cock's hackle, taken from him, in
winter, when the bird is in full plumage ; next to the wing comes
a turn of grouse's feather, and two or three turns of the purple-black feather which is pendant on the breast of an old cock heron.
Now for the wing, which is composed of a mixture of feathers from
the mallard killed in this country ; from the teal drake, also a
native ; from the turkey-cock ; the bustard, from India ; a stripe
or two of green parrot; a little of the tippet of the gold pheasant;
a thread or two from the peacock's tail; a bit from the Argus
pheasant, and from the tail of a common hen pheasant: all these
mixed and blended together form an irresistible wing. Round the
shoulder of the wing a turn of the blue and black feather off' a
jay's wing. For the head, a small portion of that substance called
pig's wool, so mysterious to the uninitiated, pigs not being the
usual animals from which wool is supposed to be derived ; then
finished off with a few turns of black ostrich feather ; not forgetting that finish to the whole, two horns of red and blue macaw's
feather. Now, all this makes a fly, either of the dragon or some
other species, which no salmon who is in a taking mood (one
can hardly suppose he swallows it out of hunger) can resist.
See the gallant fish, as he rises suddenly up from the dark depths
of the pool, poises himself for a moment, as the fly hovers before
him, in the twirling eddy, then darts forward, seizes the gaudy
bait, and retreats again, apparently well satisfied with his skill
in fly-catching, till he suddenly finds himself pulled up, and held
fast by the unexpected strength of the insect. I suspect that a
salmon, after a quarter of an hour's struggle on a line, would
scarcely call the fisherman at the other end " a fool," even if he
took the fly to be some newly discovered glittering worm.
Skill in fly-fishing can only be acquired by practice, and no
directions can make a good angler. And even when fairly
hooked, a salmon is only to be held by a happy mixture of the
suaviter in modo and fortiter in re, which keeps the line at a
gentle but firm stretch, from which he cannot escape by dint
of straightforward pulling-to which the skilful fisher must
gradually yield, to prevent too much strain on his slight line.
Nor, on the other hand, ought the fish to be allowed, by the
angler slackening the line, to get a sudden jerk at it, by means
of a fresh rush, as few lines or hooks can stand this. In fishing
for sea-trout, I always kill the largest fish, and the greatest
number, by using small flies, though certainly too small hooks
are apt to lead to disappointment, by not taking sufficient hold of
this tender-skinned fish. As all rivers require different flies for
sea-trout, no general rule can be given, but I never find myself
unable to catch trout, if there are any in the water, and I use
either a small palmer, red, black, or white, and if these do not
succeed, I try a small fly with black or blue body, a turn or two
of silver twist, no hackle round the body, but a little black
hackle immediately under the wings, which latter consist of
lark's or hen blackbird's feather, or that of some other bird of a
similar pale grey colour. I have often been amused by being
told gravely by some fishing-tackle maker in a country-town,
when showing him one of these simple flies. " Why, sir, that
fly may do now and then, but it is not fit for this river, and I am
afraid, sir, you will catch nothing with it." His own stock of
flies, w'hich he wants to sell, being all of one kind probably, and
which he has managed to convince himself and others are the
only sort the fish in the neighbouring stream will rise at. I
remember one day on the Findhorn when the fish would not
rise at a fly, although they were leaping in all directions. I put
on a small white fly and filled my basket, to the astonishment of
two or three habitues of the river, who could catch nothing.
Having watched me some time, and not being able to make out
why I had such good sport, they begged to look at my fly. They
scarcely believed their own eyes when I showed them my little
white moth, which the sea-trout were rising at so greedily ; it
being so unlike the flies which from habit and prejudice they had
been always accustomed to use.
I was much interested one day in May, in watching the thousands of small eels which were making their way up the river.
It was some distance from the mouth, and where the stream,
confined by a narrow rocky channel, ran with great strength.
Nevertheless these little eels, which were about six inches long,
and as large round as a quill, persevered in swimming against
the stream. When they came to a fall, where they could not
possibly ascend, they wriggled out of the water, and gliding
along the rock close to the edge, where the stone was constantly
wet from the splashing and spray of the fall, they made their
way up till they got above the difficulty, and then again slipping
into the water, they continued their course. For several hours
there was a continued succession of these little fish going up in
the same way ; and for more than a week, the same thing was
to be seen every day. The perseverance they displayed was
very great, for frequently, although washed back several times,
an eel would always continue its efforts till it managed to ascend.
Towards winter they are said to descend the river again, in equal
numbers. Trout and many birds feed constantly on these small
eels, catching them with great ease in the shallows.
One summer day I was amused by watching the singular proceedings of two lampreys in a small ditch of clear running water
near my house. They were about six inches in length, and as
large round as a pencil. The two little creatures were most
busily and anxiously employed in making little triangular heaps
of stones, using for the purpose irregularly shaped bits of gravel
about the size of a large pea. When they wished to move a
larger stone, they helped each other in endeavouring to roll it
into the desired situation : occasionally they both left off their
labours and appeared to rest for a short time, and then to return
to the work with fresh vigour. The object of their building I
am not sufficiently learned in the natural history of the lamprey
to divine; but I conclude that their work had something to do
with the placing of their spawn. I had, however, a good opportunity of watching them, as the water was quite clear and shallow, and they were so intent upon what they were at, that they
took no notice whatever of me. I had intended to examine the
little heaps of stones which they had made, but going from home
the next day put it out of my recollection, and I lost the opportunity. It seems, however, so singular a manoeuvre on the part
of fish to build up regular little pyramids of gravel, bringing
some of the stones from the distance of two feet against the
current and rolling them to the place with evident difficulty,
that the lampreys must have some good reason which induces
them to take this trouble. It is a great pity that the habits of
fish and animals living in water are so difficult to observe with
any degree of exactness.
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