Seventy years ago I remember my father, and others, making lobster creels, or pots as they are called today. At that time material for creel-making was hard to come by. The bottoms or base, which measured 2' x 1'6" was made of driftwood that had been washed up by wind and tide. To obtain hazel rods for the bows they used to sail over to Mull and collect a few bundles there, as I did myself in later years. Whether this was legal or not I don't know - but no complaint ever came from that island!

The plain white twin-net covers were knitted in the houses during the long winter evenings and put on the creels in the Spring, and the ends knitted in. The photograph shows my late father doing this in front of our thatched cottage at Elleraig. Today one can buy creels ready-made in every shape and form, but I maintain no creel fished better than the home-made ones.

I was one of the first to try out the new welded pots. I bought ten of them from Major Jackson who owned Cornaig estate at that time and who, I believed, had a share in the factory where they were manufactured. However on testing them beside my own for weeks, I came to the conclusion that they weren't fishing and, in disgust, I dumped the lot in a very deep trench north-west of Inch Kenneth island. And there, I'm sure, they lie until this day!