A ONE-MILE stretch of the River Dee near Kincardine O'Neil is on the market for #1.5m.
But the new owner of the north bank beat, which contains five salmon pools, and his guests or tenant anglers will be expected to return most of their salmon catches to the river in a bid to conserve the fish.
In recent years the spring runs of salmon on the river have dropped dramatically and the Dee District Salmon Fishery Board is promoting voluntary measures, such as asking that only one fish a week per rod is kept.
Most River Dee proprietors have put back the opening of the season by a month to March 1, and there is a gentleman's agreement that the river is fished by fly only.
The beat is part of the small Dess Estate, which lies between Banchory and Ballater.
The 934-acre estate, which contains a six-bedroom Victorian mansion, Dess House, also has a pheasant shoot and roe-deer stalking.
Also included in the asking price by sales agents Strutt and Parker, of Banchory, are 10 estate houses, a large home farm, and almost 500 acres of mature woodland.
The Dee is regarded as one of the four major salmon rivers of Scotland. It rises in the Cairngorms and enters the North Sea at Aberdeen.
The voluntary code of conduct was adopted in time for the 1995 River Dee salmon season and has continued unchanged this season.
Yesterday, Mr George Alpine, clerk to the River Dee Salmon Fishery Board, said that it would soon be formulating its conservation provisions for the 1997 season on the Dee.
He said: ``The Dee has traditionally had the biggest and best spring salmon run of any Scottish river, and that is still the case.
``But of all the stocks of North Atlantic salmon, the `springers' are most difficult to conserve, and that is why board is advocating catch-and-release.
``It is still too early to say how successful the voluntary restrictions have been.''
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