Salmon Fishing Scotland Prospects for the Tay, Perthshire, Scotland week commencing 27th April 2015.

Salmon Fishing Scotland Prospects for the Tay, Perthshire, Scotland week commencing 27th April 2015.

The Spring Salmon fishing season is now nearly into May on the mighty Tay in Perthshire, Scotland and we have had a settled week with good conditions for the pursuit of that magical spring salmon with glorious spring sunshine. The weather is to change over the coming week with low pressure dominating, which hopefully will not deter the chances of producing good sport and some early "Bars of Silver" if you are prepared to brave the elements. Catches have been consistently good and the quality of the salmon caught remains outstanding but as we go into the last few days in April hopefully conditions will remain favourable and there will be a further improvement in the run to give more success.

Currently the river settling back nicely with excellent conditions (about 2’5 and falling on the Ballathie gauge) to hopefully encourage more spring salmon to run.

The weather is to be far more unsettled over the next week with rain and much colder weather which maybe the last bite of winter. Spring salmon are now running hard up the river and spreading rapidly. The milder weather forecast at times and recent big spate triggered off salmon to run the river in improving numbers. Expectation remains very high. The unsettled weather forecast may raise river levels but hopefully not to unsettle the current excellent conditions and make ideal spring fishing conditions. The water temperature is slowly creeping up to around 54 degrees Fahrenheit or 12 degrees Celsius but may drop with a colder forecast. These are typical temperatures for this time of year. The colder weather has benefited the lower beats so far but that is changing rapidly as the fish are spreading so there might be a chance of a fresh fish anywhere in the river after milder conditions prevailed last week.

As to methods, in settled conditions fishing by any method should enable you to catch the elusive Tay Springer. The water temperature has warmed up slowly enabling floating lines to come out with the addition of a sink tip being a favoured tactic and using normal dressed flies. It is still worth a go with sinking lines as well depending on water heights and stripping a Sun Ray Shadow is always worth a go. When spinning, Tay favourites include Toby Salmos, weighted and floating devons, flying C’s and Visons or Rapalas. Harling is also a favoured method at this time of year on many beats.

Finally you are reminded that the Tay's policy for April and May is that all spring salmon should be released, i.e. the Tay has adopted a policy of 100% catch and release for spring salmon. Spring salmon are a scarce and precious resource. Please help preserve both them and the long term future of your sport by following the recommendations. It is vital the river system follows these guide lines to ensure the draconian new Scottish Government Statutory Conservation Regulation rules do not get extended in seasons to come.

The Tay Ghillies Association are continuing their popular FISH OF THE MONTH AWARD to encourage good catch and release practice on the Tay. Each month the winner will receive 2 personalised crystal Whisky glasses engraved with details of the catch and they will automatically be entered into the fish of the year competition for a Stylish Crystal Engraved Decanter. Full details of this initiative.

When releasing salmon please try to keep the fish in the water as much as possible to give them every chance to recover prior to release. Releasing fish from boats in the river is not recommended. Further information on the policy and good release practice.

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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