The conditions last week were again difficult on the Tay in Perthshire, Scotland with scorching weather, high water temperatures and no rain; a falling steady low water and catches were hard to come by during the week. The weather is now much warmer but the forecast for this week will give us some rain and hopefully encourage sport on this marvelous river and spread it throughout the whole river.
Summer has well and truly arrived with settled conditions making salmon fishing difficult with higher than normal water temperatures but sport can be magical as has proved this season so far with some outstanding catches and numerous spring salmon registered in the Tay system above expectation, let us hope the sport can be maintained for the remainder of the season then it will certainly be one to remember in years to come. The Tay is currently fishing slowly with low warm water, salmon run this mighty river every day of the year due to its vast volume of water and is certainly a good destination to catch a salmon however cooler temperatures and some rain to spice up the river would certainly help and encourage more salmon to run. The salmon gods are hopefully going to bless us with that this week and hopefully trigger off a good run of grilse and summer salmon. 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 and temperatures have now risen hopefully to encourage more salmon to run the river and spread out. 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. Currently the nature along the river is tremendous with numerous wild flowers. Ospreys visit the river on a daily basis and you could see an Otter or a Kingfisher darting past while you are in mid cast! It is true what they say, “ a salmon is a bonus!”
Summer Events on the Tay.
August 5th & 6th-Ladies Days on Benchil and Newtyle. More details.
August 25th -River Tay Lunch & Auction. More details.
Beat catches reported
(week ending 20th July)
SALMON & GRILSE: Almondmouth 1, Lower Redgorton 1, Stobhall 1, Ballathie 12, Cargill 7, Islamouth 2, Lower and Upper Islamouth 8, Upper Islamouth and Meikleour House 1, Kercock 1, Murthly 1 2, Murthly 2 5, Newtyle 5, Dunkeld House 2, Dalguise 2, Lower Kinnaird 2, Upper Kinnaird 2.
Total: 54 Largest: Ballathie 21lbs
SEA TROUT: Cargill 1, Newtyle 3.
Total: 4 Largest: Cargill & Newtyle 2lbs
Salmon have been caught throughout the system this past week encouraging everyone despite extreme temperatures. Early mornings when the river is at its coolest or evenings are the best options. The Upper reaches are now struggling for salmon as warmer conditions dominate.
The Upper River registered 2 salmon last week from Upper Kinnaird.
A Russian visitor with a good fish from Upper Kinnaird.
The Tummel system registered 0 salmon. The Tummel has been fishing very well however bright weather and low water has stopped that. Salmon are still running through the Dam in numbers. Currently there is now over 4200 salmon through the ladder, which is now a good increase on last year.
On the Middle River 20 salmon were caught this past week and continues to fish reasonably well despite things falling off a bit. Conditions have become a increasingly difficult however the beats are reporting seeing several salmon in the pools but bright conditions and falling river levels are not helping. A little water should spice things up again but early mornings and evenings remain productive. On Dalguise Adam Joseph caught a 9 pounds salmon in the Bridge pool.
On Dunkeld there was a first ever salmon for Tom Clode, a fresh 4 pounds grilse on the fly from the Back of the Island stream.
On Newtyle John Laybourn caught his first Tay fish in the Boil on the fly. John also had another of similar size in the tail of the Cotter shortly after. Owen McGuiness landed a 10 pounds fish on an evening ticket, also from the tail of the Cotter. John Wood landed a fly caught 4 pounds Grilse from the Steps on Thursday and beat regular Allan Rennie landed a fly caught 3 pounds Grilse from St Mary's on Monday. Matthew Peckford and Garry McLellan both lost 4 fish between them at the beginning of the week. It was a fairly productive week for the beat considering the conditions. The Murthly beats continue to do reasonably well despite the low water. On Kercock an American visitor from Colorado, Henry Champion on his first time salmon fishing caught a 3 pounds grilse. Several other grilse were also reported running through the beat at times, which was encouraging but unfortunately not playing ball with the anglers!
The Lower River had 32 salmon for the week. Islamouth was again successful but under the normal expectation for the time of year and conditions. Ballathie and Cargill have started to do much better as the river levels drop, which is expected for the beats in the current conditions with deeper gorge like pools. Ballathie had an excellent week landing 12 salmon up to 21 pounds and loosing several others. George Lamberti caught 2 salmon from the Bridge stream on the fly one morning, John Harrison caught the cracking 21 pounds salmon and Basil Kinch had a good week. Currently any salmon that are running the lower river are going straight to Ballathie and showing little sign of stopping lower down as the catches reflect. Hopefully that will change this week with more favorable weather.
The Isla registered 0 salmon.
It was certainly a much harder week with some trying conditions but still a few fish were caught, the river must hope for some cooler weather and some rain with lower river levels to encourage salmon to run over the coming weeks and spread throughout the entire system. Please maintain the Catch and Release code for the river to protect our sport for the future.
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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