Salmon Fishing Scotland Tay, Perthshire Salmon Fishing Report for W/E 10th October 2015.

Salmon Fishing Scotland Tay, Perthshire Salmon Fishing Report for W/E 10th October 2015.

The autumn salmon fishing on the Tay in Perthshire is nearing the end of the season and it has been improving steadily after an excellent spring period with varying conditions for fishing, settled water levels recently due to better weather and a bit of water over the last couple of weeks has given us by and large settled river conditions and catches have been consistently good. The heavy rain and small spate last week saw an improvement in catches and a bit more water in the river, which should now take us through the last 4 days. We have had an excellent late spring period with the river equaling last years catches so far and improving on the 5 year average. The current trend continued in June but slowed up for a few weeks but now there has been reasonable catches week on week as we see the autumn fishing end on Thursday in settled conditions. Recent rains have given the river a bit of fresh water and this has triggered off an improvement in the run combined with settled conditions. The spring period ended some time ago but steady conditions have spread fish throughout the system in the last few months, this may be the catalyst for even better catches which hopefully will continue over the next few weeks as we go deeper into autumn. This past month has been consistent with the river holding a good stock of fish especially in the middle areas and a lot of fish are now drifting back down to the lower river in big numbers. We now are seeing a developing autumn run of salmon and late grilse. Expectation remains high on the river for 2015 after consistent catches recently and hopefully favourable conditions over the last few days will give everyone a chance of landing a Tay “Bar of Silver”.

Summer and autumn salmon were landed last week in better numbers due to excellent conditions and some good weather after a mini spate. We recorded another reasonable catch despite difficult conditions and hopefully that will bring even more success this coming week in settled autumnal conditions. There was some outstanding autumn sunshine and it was warm making life hard going. Fish were landed daily from all over as river levels fell steadily and the quality of the salmon caught remained outstanding with fish caught in the late teens and mid twenties. Grilse are running in better numbers with more caught and in excellent condition, which is strange for the time of year, but could this be more evidence of the run changing slowly to a spring dominance in the future? On the nature front the Sand Martins, Swallows and Ospreys have gone, Kingfishers dart past, and the first Geese are arriving. It is a magical time of year with all the autumn colours as well. It is true what they say, “ a salmon is a bonus!”

Beat catches reported(week ending 10th October)
SALMON & GRILSE: Almondmouth 31, Waulkmill 12, Lower Redgorton 13, Luncarty 1, Upper Redgorton 7, Fishponds 10, Stanley Pitlochrie Benchil 7, Catholes Stanley 2, Upper Scone 6, Stobhall 38, Taymount 25, Ballathie 15, Cargill 30, Islamouth 19, Meikleour and Upper Islamouth 4, Kercock 10, Murthly 2 12, Newtyle 10, Dalguise 1, Lower Kinnaird 16, Upper Kinnaird 5, Findynate 2, Farleyer Upper 5, Farleyer Lower 2, Lower Aberuthven 6, Lochlane and Laggan 3, Ericht Fishing 6.
Total: 298 Largest: Almondmouth 25lbs
SEA TROUT: Waulkmill 3, Lower Redgorton 3, Fishponds 3, Taymount 2, Cargill 4, Lower Kinnaird 2, Lower Aberuthven 2.
Total: 19 Largest: Cargill 4lbs

Salmon have been caught throughout the system this past week in steadily improving numbers and conditions at times making it ideal as fish run and fish are continuing to spread throughout the river. Bigger and fresh water may have encouraged more to run recently. The mandatory government catch and release restrictions have ended however the river would ask everyone to observe the TDSB recommendations to preserve what we have for future years. Return rates are at an all time low from the sea and wild salmon are a precious resource to the Tay and all rivers in Scotland. Handling of fresh salmon in particular is a big issue now if we are serious about successful release to enable as many salmon as possible to survive to spawn. 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 and is bad practice. Further information on the policy and good release practice. If an area of the river starts to kill salmon to excess the mandatory policy will ultimately increase beyond the spring and maybe for the whole season that would not be a popular concept for our fragile rural economy. Thank you for all who preserve the recommendations and shame on the few who cannot, their shortsighted outlook will bring everyone down and cost jobs throughout Scotland’s river systems.

The Lower Tay below Stanley were seeing more fish recorded again this past week, also the beats just above the Stanley area were doing well as fish continue to race up the system and older fish drop back towards the Almond, Shochie and Ordie system. This part of the river is holding a lot of fish currently. Almondmouth are catching more fish, as it is a barometer at this time of year of fish running the river. They caught 31 including a 25 pounds beauty and fish are being caught on the Stormont Angling club water as well encouraging everyone. Lower Redgorton, Waulkmill, Upper Redgorton and Fishponds also registered fish in reasonable numbers despite hard conditions with over 40 caught between them in the week with more fish running and showing.

At Upper Redgorton Paul Coggins landed a 16 pounds salmon from the Craigs on a Vision. On Luncarty Jim Crossland caught a 5 pounds grilse then David Sutton caught his first ever salmon on Catholes in the Black Stones. Peter Butterfield also caught a fresh grilse on the Catholes. Upper Scone and Stanley had to work hard for fish in the week as the water quickly dropped away. German visitor Andreas Grass caught a lovely fresh grilse from Kirkie on the fly and

Charles Savage landed a 13 pounds fish from Horsey on a Rapala.

Barry Gris caught on fly and spinner from Benchil and Pitlochrie.

Gordon LaFortune from Switzerland caught a good fish fly fishing from the boat in the Long Shot on Benchil. Stobhall and Taymount had good weeks with over 60 fish between them. Ray Bailies party had a good week on Stobhall including a double figure day. John Coughlan, Roy Alderslade, David Dodds, Ray Bailie, Jim Ferrie and Simon Furniss all had success. On Taymount John Pendleton, Dave Parkes, Tony Riccard and Mike Roberts all caught fish. Ballathie and Cargill are doing much better now with consistent catches.

Cargill caught 31 fish in the week with Andy Yeandale, Mike Rowlands,

Neil French and Christian Lasielle all catching on fly. Islamouth had a much better week with 19. Upper Islamouth and Meikleour had a quieter week with the water dropping away again which included Barry Odger catching a grilse on the fly from the Boxwood Bush.

The Middle river is fishing reasonably well with consistent catches with a settled river improving prospects. Kercock had another reasonable week with 10 fish and no shortage of fish on the beat taking their season total to over 200. Murthly and Glendelvine had a quieter week with around 15 fish. Ian Scrutons party enjoyed success on Murthly 1.

Newtyle had a similar week with 10 fish which included Jon Jagger catching a fine 17 pounds fish from the Boil, he also landed an 8 pounds fish from the right bank of the Boil in the evening, both fish on the fly. Nolan Wall caught a 12 pounds fish from the tail of the Cotter also on the fly. Other successes came from Peter Noble and Peter Dunkerley landing grilse up to 5 pounds. Dunkeld House and Dalmarnock had quiet weeks. Dalguise had a fish and the Kinnaird beats did well at the end of the week with over 10 fish coming from both beats.

The Tummel is continuing to produce odd fish as fish make their way up to Pitlochry dam and through it with the counter is now showing over 5365.

The Upper areas are seeing fish on their beats. Nine salmon were reported from the Farleyer and Findynate beats as they run up to Loch Tay. Andreas Grass had fish on the fly from Farleyer including a beauty weighing approximately 20 pounds.

On Loch Tay fish are running and must be staring to go up the Dochart but nothing was reported last week.

The Isla is seeing salmon run and caught however no fish were registered.

The Ericht is also seeing fish run but need bigger water now with 6 reported.

The Earn were also seeing salmon and Sea Trout run with 6 fish recorded this week from Lower Aberuthven including one at 22 pounds. Sport has picked up at the bottom of the river as well with some good fresh fish landed.

The Salmon fishing season is now nearing the end and expectation remains high after great catches recently and poor overall catches last year. Late spring catches have been tremendous and June continued to encourage everyone after fish were caught in the system in continuing better numbers. Recent rain and fresh water is encouraging more salmon to run the river and catches are on the up with lots of resident fish in many beats so let us hope with improving conditions the upturn will continue. Tight lines!

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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