Fishing

The fishing industry a hundred years ago formed a staple subject of interest. Visitations of herring to the lochs of the Clyde seem to have come in every second or third year. One such season is within memory, when steamers had frequently to slow down in threading their way among fishing boats between Ardentinny and Arrochar and when - shop stores being exhausted - semi-starvation prevailed at Cove and the coast generally for two or three days. The sailing merits of the "Jemima" of Coulport, "Jenny" and "Lark" of Cove, "Gipsy" of Kilcreggan and"Hawk", "Katie" and "Merry Meg" of Clynder made much debate by winter firesides. Their adventures and mishaps in and about the Burnt Isles, Inchmarnock and Otter Point were graphically related. The white whale of 1904 seemed but a survivor of rare fishes caught then.