Campbell’s Lease
Brian and Aida Eadie were the last people to operate Laide Fishing station taking it over in 1982 and running it until its final year of operation in 1992. The following account is of the last years of Laide fishing station as related to me by Brian and Aida. I would like to thank them for giving up time to relate their experiences and for supplying the photographs of the various activities involved in a working fishing station.
Laide Fishing Station was owned by Eilean Darach estate who would lease it for a set number of years to a person or business that would be responsible for its day to day operation.
Prior to Brian and Aida’s involvement the estate had leased Laide fishing station to Campbell, a fish merchant based in Edinburgh. Campbell hired a crew of five local people to carry out the work at Laide fishing station but did not get involved himself in the day to day activities. Campbell’s lease had been for 15 years from 1976, an unusually long time, and the last year of Campbell’s lease was 1981.
Brian Eadie, an engineer, was doing some work for Colin Forbes’ garage in Aultbea; Colin had acquired marine gearboxes for repair and asked Brian to carry out the work. Colin mentioned to Brian that the crew of the coble (fishing boat) at Laide fishing station were now without anyone who could operate and maintain the engine. Did he want the job?
Brian did and during the 1981 season he worked with the crew at Laide fishing station; Duncan Matheson, a local Laide man, was the skipper of the crew of five. During this year Brian learned the art of operating a fishing station using bag nets. This was a fortuitous time to gain this knowledge since Campbell’s lease of Laide fishing station would expire at the end of the year and Eilean Darach estate would be looking for a new operator.
Change of Hands
From 1982 Brian and Aida, partnered by Johnny Parry, took over the operation of Laide fishing station. Johnny Parry also had a fish farm operation at Little Loch Broom and when that business expanded and placed more demands on Johnny’s time, the Laide fishing station from that time onwards, 1986, was operated by Brian and Aida alone.
At the time of taking over the equipment at Laide fishing station, the coble, the bag nets, and other equipment all had to be bought from the previous leaseholder. This amounted to a significant sum of money and had to be found before the operation could start.
Unfortunately the ancient coble (fishing boat) that came with the fishing station equipment was in a bad state of repair and was no longer fit for use. It was replaced with another coble purchased on the east coast of Scotland and this was used in the first year. It was found during the first year that using a traditional coble made work more difficult than was necessary and during the second year a rib was introduced. For a while both boats were used depending on the work at hand but eventually the coble was no longer used as Brian found better ways of working with the rib.
Bag Nets
Before proceeding with the history of these last years it will be helpful to explain the function and structure of the bag nets. The diagram below shows that bag nets are very large and heavy structures over one hundred yards long and about 16 feet high. In addition the bag net portion with its three chambers would be about 50-60 feet in length.
The leaders for bag nets had to be set out each week during the salmon fishing season. This was due to the local culture which demanded that no fishing could take place on a Sunday, and latterly the law also set out statutory rules on which days fishing could take place and on which days fishing was prohibited. Thus the leader nets had to be lifted and laid on a regular basis.
The bag nets were secured to the seabed with heavy anchors. There was not just one bag net, there were five bag nets, each with their own leaders, and they were situated between Laide fishing station and Udrigle on the east shore of Gruinard Bay and another was set at Little Loch Broom. The bag nets themselves, made of plastic, were replaced every 2-3 weeks with fresh clean nets. After 2-3 weeks in the sea nets became dirty with algae and seaweed. The smell would make the fish avoid the nets so the nets had to be removed from the sea and cleaned.
The bag nets and leader were run out at right angles to the coast line and typically the salmon, entering Gruinard Bay for example, would swim diagonally towards the shore as they sought the ‘scent’ of the river they were trying to get back to. This behaviour would inevitably lead them into the path of the leader of one of the bag nets thus causing them to turn and swim away from the shore along the leader with the result that they would enter the bag net system at the end of that leader.
As you will see in the above diagram there were three bag nets, the cleek, the doubling, and the fish court. The entrance to each gets progressively smaller, the final entrance being only a 6” wide opening through which the salmon entered the ‘fish court’ from which they did not usually escape. Typically, once in the fish court, the salmon would swim round that chamber by following the path of the nets and so would miss the small 6 inch opening in the angled wings of the fish court. Although not clear in the above diagram the bag nets were also netted top and bottom so that they were completely enclosed apart from the openings which enable the fish to enter the bags.
Occasionally a fish would escape through the small 6 inch opening, and often, when the other fish saw how it was done, they would all follow suit and the catch would be gone! Brian has actually watched this happen; some fish were smarter, or luckier than others.
There were doors in the fish court through which, when opened, the fish catch could be retrieved.
Salmon Catches
Laide fishing station had the rights to place bag nets from Gruinard Bay (west shore), Little Loch Broom (up to Scorraig) and Loch Broom. In the first year of Brian and Aida’s operation, 1982, over 3000 salmon were caught. A typical salmon was around 6 pounds (ca 2.7Kg). Salmon cut into steaks etc retailed at that time for around £4/lb and £1/lb to the trade. A whole salmon would sell at £2/lb.
Over the years the salmon catches gradually declined until in 1991 only 200 salmon were caught, although in the last year of operation, 1992, there was a slight recovery and this increased to 500 salmon. That was the last year of the lease and although Brian and Aida would have continued to operate the fishing station, Eilean Darach estate decided they no longer wanted the fishing station to continue.
The Fishing Work
Work through the salmon fishing season was long and intense with little time for sleep. In addition to the fishing work to be done at the station, a shop and mail order business were other very important parts of the operation.
The season ran from May to August, the time during which the salmon returned to the rivers of their birth to spawn. Although traditionally a crew of 5 had worked the fishing station Brian and Aida were able to run this business with only one other person employed part time by them during the season. Later Brian was able to do most of the fishing work himself. As mentioned before for the first season Brian and Aida used the replacement coble for fishing as shown in the picture below.
The Replacement Salmon Fishing Coble
At the start of the week the bag net leaders had to be set out as shown below –
Getting Ready
Feeding the bag net leader into the sea
Holding the 'set line' while feeding the leader.
The ship's dog unimpressed at the crews work
Letting go of the main pole at the head of the net
The above sequence of photos was taken from the coble that was solely used in 1982. For the 1983 season onwards a rib was used and in the photograph below the rib is seen being lowered into the water for the first time at Laide jetty.
The remaining photographs in this history were taken from the new rib boat.
Once the leaders were set out the bag nets had to be checked, usually twice each day (weather permitting!) at half high tide and any fish caught were recovered from them. This process is best described by the following sequence of photos.
1. Going hand over hand down the leader towards the bag net.
2. Looking into the fish court to see if it needs to be fished.
3. Bringing the bottom of the net to the surface.
4. Holding both top and bottom of the net, pulling across roof of net to reach the opening on the other side.
5. One method of taking live fish out of the net.
6. Holding the salmon in order to knock it on the head which kills it instantly; this prevents the salmon flapping around in the boat and thereby bruising themselves or damaging their scales. The salmon was knocked on the head with a ‘priest’ to kill it, a priest being the name given to what was just a round piece of wood used as a blunt weapon. The name ‘priest’ comes from the idea of administering the ‘last rites’ to the fish.
Note that gloves are not used in this work the reason being that gloves could easily be caught in the net; because the boat is constantly moving a person could be dragged overboard and be unable to free themselves from the net.
One disadvantage of not wearing gloves is that you come into contact with red jelly fish that get entangled in the net. Working for any length of time in contact with the red jelly fish had an effect on the human nervous system which affected the whole body and made you feel quite ill. However there was no alternative, it was just a case of putting up with it and getting on with the work.
Apart from the fishing work it was necessary to clean the nets and repair any damage to the nets on a regular basis as shown below –
This is pleasant work, on a good day! The above pictures were taken beside the fishing station building and show the poles from which the nets were suspended while the repair work was carried out.
The Shop Work
In 1984 Aida opened a shop at her home in Dundonnell to sell the salmon to the public and later this part of the business was expanded to include mail order for salmon products. The work there of preparing the fish and looking after the shop meant that the fishing station work had to be carried out by Brian while Aida was working at the shop.
The first issue to be addressed in opening the shop was to let people know that it existed! Brian and Aida’s home is set back from the road, a road devoid of all other buildings as it wends through the wilderness between Dundonnell and Braemore, so a sign at the roadside was absolutely essential to let passing traffic know that here was a shop selling wild salmon. However, Brian and Aida’s home was on land owned by the Dundonnell Estate and the estate was not keen on having signage on their land at the roadside.
They did gave permission for a sign, reluctantly, but it was only to contain one word and in the circumstances the only word that would do was ‘Salmon’. So a sign was duly erected in the hope that this would do the trick and bring custom to a shop that couldn’t be seen from the road. Unfortunately this minimalist sign did not have the desired effect. People would occasionally stop, get out of their car and walk down the path that leads to Aida’s home, however, before getting to the shop they would stop and stare at the river to the right of the path.
Aida seeing this behaviour went out to ask them if she could help them to which the reply was “No thanks, we are just waiting here to see the salmon leaping up the river”. They had not stopped to buy salmon. Well this would not do at all and come hell or high water the sign would need to be changed!
Interestingly, although the land on which the shop existed was owned by Dundonnell Estate, the land on the other side of the road was owned by Eilean Darach Estate, the owners of Laide Fishing Station! Naturally Eilean Darach estate would have no objection to a sign placed on their land on the other side of the road since it was in their interest that Laide Fishing Station did well. Dundonnell Estate, appraised of these facts by Aida, and that the one word sign was misleading the public, had a change of heart and agreed that a more meaningful sign was necessary which said ‘Salmon Shop’.
Now the shop business could get under way and various salmon products were offered to the public. Salmon was also sent to Strathaird Salmon to be smoked enabling both fresh and smoked salmon to be on sale at the shop. A mail order service was also added to the growing business. Some salmon inevitably got damaged by getting caught in the leader nets resulting in a lower trade price; to avoid such losses the damaged salmon were cut and sold as steaks and some were also made into salmon sandwiches.
Over time this successful business grew and the shop became very busy. As the shop turnover grew, each year that passed the salmon catches were declining and this necessitated the purchase of salmon from other sources to maintain the shop products.
Shown below are some pictures taken within the shop, in one Brian is shown holding an extremely large salmon, and in another Aida is not looking too impressed with Brian’s catch...
The End
Brian and Aida’s lease on Laide fishing station came to an end in 1992 and by then Eilean Darach estate decided that it no longer wanted the fishing station to continue. They made this decision to protect salmon fishing in the area’s rivers, and this brought to a final stop over 200 years of work at Laide fishing station.
All the equipment and other gear that Brian and Aida had purchased from Campbell, the previous leaseholder, now had little value since there was no one to sell the equipment on to. When Laide fishing station closed it is understood that the only other fishing station still operating on Scotland’s North-west coast was the one at Red Point in Wester Ross. However the Red Point fishing station stopped a few years later, the decline in salmon catches meant it was no longer a profitable business.
At the time of writing this, 2009, the building at the fishing station is now a private residence and all the various outbuildings within which the fishing station gear had been stored are now demolished.
All photographs to illustrate this article are the copyright of Brian and Aida Eadie and must not be copied or reproduced without permission.
Last Updated: February 20, 2009