The conditions last week were again superb on the Tay in Perthshire, Scotland with cold weather and low water all week producing excellent catches which filled everyone with more optimism for the coming weeks. The weather is to get slightly milder this week which may give us more water but hopefully this will continue to give us great prospects, which will maintain early spring sport on this marvelous river especially on the lower and middle river.
The Spring Salmon fishing is never easy but when settled conditions prevail the sport can be magical as proved this past week despite arctic temperatures with some outstanding catches and nearly 160 spring salmon registered in the Tay system. This was a continual improvement on the previous week giving us the best week of the season and superb for the river. March produced 350 mostly due to the cold conditions but April has got off to a flyer. Spring salmon were caught all week up to 22 pounds in weight and throughout the river with the exception of a 35 pounds beauty from Dalguise, which was tremendous news. The Tay is fishing currently very well and is certainly a good destination to catch your first spring salmon of the season. The river offers a variety of possibilities for all standards of anglers with ghillies only too keen to teach the novices and this mighty river can produce a memorable salmon for the keen fly fisher. Levels have dropped and the pools can be easily covered from bank and boat with modern technology. Why not have a go and sample this magical river. The fishing is supreme and the scenery is not bad either.
Beat catches reported
(week ending 6th April)
SALMON & GRILSE: Almondmouth 6, Waulkmill 4, Lower Redgorton 6, Luncarty Spring Only 14, Upper Redgorton 5, Fishponds 8, Benchil and Catholes 3, Upper Scone 16, Pitlochrie and Catholes 12, Burnmouth 7, Stobhall 3, Taymount 7, Ballathie 8, Cargill 5, Islamouth 7, Lower and Upper Islamouth 3, Upper Islamouth and Meikleour House 1, Meikleour House 3, Kercock 6, Glendelvine 3, Newtyle 2, Dunkeld House 3, Dalguise 1, Upper Kinnaird 1, Keithick Mains 2, Coupar Grange 19, Portnacraig Pitlochry 2.
Total: 157 Largest: Dalguise 35lbs
SEA TROUT: Lower Redgorton 1, Coupar Grange 2.
Total: 3 Largest: Coupar Grange 3lbs
Spring salmon have been caught throughout the system this past week encouraging everyone and there has also been the emergence of some larger multi sea winter spring salmon up to 22 pounds, which is superb news. The Upper reaches have encountered fresh salmon again but in limited numbers due to the cold weather, this will change shortly as warmer conditions are not far away. The Upper river registered 3 spring salmon with Portnacraig registering two fish and the other coming from Upper Kinnaird. On the Tummel Robert Fairclough had a nice fish estimated at 8 pounds on a Yellow Ally Shrimp. In the evening local angler Jim Fisher reported a 12 pounds fresh fish on Pitlochry bank on a Tummel Monkey. On Newtyle at Dunkeld Ness side ghillie. On Dunkled House 3 springers were caught on Thursday with Mike Gippson landing all 3 up to 9 pounds on a yellow belly devon.
On the Middle river 19 spring salmon were caught this last week. When the water starts to warm up the middle river will fair even better. Dalguise caused the most emotion on the river catching a superb 35 pounds spring salmon.
Regular Dalguise angler Angus Carruthers from Largs on his first fishing trip of season hooked and successfully landed a magnificent 35 pounds Cock Spring Salmon. This monster was caught on a 2.5 inch Yellow Belly Devon hooked in the Tail of Bridge pool. Simply great news for the river.
On Newtyle at Dunkeld Ness side ghillie Ryan Rutherford caught a superb 14 pounds springer fly fishing from the neck of the Trap. Calum McRoberts caught a magnificent 17 pounds springer from the Steps on a flying C.
Kercock had a better week with six fish caught with Richard Lloyd landing a 14 pounds beauty fly fishing a Junction shrimp, Gordon Stewart also had a 15 pounds salmon with Darren Kaye landing one at 7 pounds.
The Lower River dominated the catches understandably with colder conditions and a dropping water with 114 spring salmon for the week. Islamouth had good catches this week with regulars capitalising at the end of the week. Amongst the successful anglers was John Furniss catching a superb 9 pounds beauty from Donnits on the fly. Ballathie and Cargill had good success during the week. Stobhall and Taymount also had reasonable weeks. On Wednesday 3 springers were landed on Taymount with Graham Brooks landing a lovely 11 pounds beauty on the Fly. Burnmouth had another successful week landing several salmon. The Catholes continued its great season with spring salmon landed on most days up to 20 pounds and mostly fly fishing. Alan McCaig and Stuart Waddell were successful on Monday. Richard Kingston from Londan caught 2 on Tuesday morning casting form the boat them John Shaw caught a superb 20 pounds beauty on Thursday in the Black Stones. The Pitlochrie is also fishing very well with several salmon caught this past week. Pitlochrie pool is normally a high water pool but not this past week with several salmon landed up to 19 pounds. The Upper Scone did particularly well from the pool landing 7 from their three days with Alex Palmer having never caught a salmon until Monday. He didn't land one salmon but three on his first morning under the guidance of Davie Seaton on Upper Scone. Later in the week Les Gunn caught a superb 19 pounds beauty as well from the same pool on a flying c and Thomas McKenzie had a 15 pounds cracker on the fly. Kenny Thom had a week to remember catching his first spring salmon from the boat and then capped it on Saturday catching an 8 pounds fish casting the fly from the bank on the Pitlochrie beat. Benchil saw some action as well with John Lessels catching a superb 16 pounds spring salmon on Monday in the Long Shot. Down at Upper Redgorton young Charlie Robbins was showing everyone how to do it catching 3 beauties in as many days.
Fishponds also did well with Mr Christie and Adam Joseph landing good fish. Luncarty defied the odds having a tremendous week landing 14 spring salmon and numerous Kelts.
John Lessels, Bob Hunter, Gary Waugh, Mark Paris and John Weir all catching mostly sea liced salmon.
The cold low water has certainly benefited the lower beats this year and turned the clock back to the early nineties to find any comparisons.
Almondmouth, Waulkmill and Lower Redgorton had several salmon this past week as well with the Glasspools and Fred Ratky doing well with Stuart Lean in the Hatton and Girnal.
Graham Fyfe caught the first salmon off the Stormont club water.
The Isla registered 21 salmon from mostly Coupar Grange and 2 from Keithick Mains. The water started to warm up and fish moved up river giving Coupar Grange a week of 19 salmon and 2 sea trout. Monday saw 3 fish taken all on the fly up to 14 pounds. Jamie Cathro aged 12 had a nice 10 pounds beauty out of the Gate pool. David Balford managed to land 3 for his day on Thursday and Andrew Ritchie managed to land 6 on the fly on Friday, which is a tremendous day at this time of year. The beat caught 14 salmon on the fly and 5 on the flying c for the week. Superb sport.
It was certainly another superb spring week to remember with some great stories, very cold weather and springers caught with good conditions but now as we enter April with more settled warmer weather (hopefully!) and river levels the spring catches should improve further over the coming weeks assuming the run continues and spread throughout the entire system.
If you have any news or pictures of catches or experiences on the Tay and you would like to share them please email me on robert.salmonfishing@googlemail.com to be included in the reports.
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