Until not
too many years ago, when Jems (Jimmy Linton) my bosom buddy from
my boyhood days retired and gave up his salmon fishing concession,
Earlsferry and Elie had quite a valuable salmon fishery. Prior to Jems, who
used a powered boat, the fishery concession was operated by men
who went to sea in a heavy wooden salmon cobble. The cobble was
about eight feet wide and maybe fifteen feet long and required
all the brawn of six men at the oars to propel it. Salmon swim
along the bays such as Largo Bay, Shell Bay, West Bay,
Earlsferry and Elie Bay then
around the headlands between these bays. They swim just outside
of the breaker line. At the ends of the bays, where the
bays meet the headlands, salmon nets are set. Long net leaders
are set to funnel the salmon into the entry way of the bag of
the net. Once in the bag, the salmon are captive until the
salmon fishermen come to unload the net. Many times I got to go
along in the cobble. It was great fun. In these days all of
the salmon fishing nets and gear were stored for the winter in
The Granary at the Elie Harbor.
I made a
blind on the island
which was
the place where I went to hear the once heard never to be
forgotten lonesome, shrill call of a curlew and
to watch the great variety of sea
birds that stopped by including the swans, geese and ducks that
flew down from Kinneuchar Loch.
When the
tide permitted me to do so, I'd walk out from Ruddons Point by
way of the sandy gravel tombolo to the rocky place that
lays off shore. As the tide starts its inflow this tiny bit of
land very rapidly becomes completely surrounded by the sea and
remains so for several hours. In all the times that I let
the sea surround me and cut me off from the mainland and I
became as one with the wild creatures that lived there, never
once did I ever see another soul.
Beyond the shore this tiny island in the sea became my special place.
