Salmon Fishing Scotland Tay, Perthshire Salmon fishing report w/e 11th March 2017.

Salmon Fishing Scotland Tay, Perthshire Salmon fishing report w/e 11th March 2017.

Spring salmon fishing on the Tay in Perthshire is now into March with improving conditions for fishing in milder weather and settling water levels plus catches are improving after a slow start to the season. Expectation is high on the river for 2017 after 4 successful springs and hopefully settled weather will continue with an improving run in March to give everyone a chance of landing a spring “Bar of Silver”.

Beat catches reported
(week ending 11th March)
SALMON & GRILSE: Upper Scone 3, Pitlochrie 2, Burnmouth 2, Stobhall 4, Taymount 3, Ballathie 2, Cargill 3, Islamouth 7, Meikleour and Upper Islamouth 1, Delvine Burnbane 1, Glendelvine 1, Murthly 2 7, Newtyle 1, Dunkeld House 1, Dalmarnock 1, Dalguise 3, Edradynate AA 1, Findynate 2, Farleyer Lower 1, Loch Tay Fish n' Trips 2, Coupar Grange 9.
Total: 57 Largest: Murthly 2 31lbs
SEA TROUT: Lower Redgorton 3, Stobhall 1.
Total: 4 Largest: Lower Redgorton & Stobhall 2lbs

The last few days in March have seen a few salmon landed in milder weather and river conditions have improved as the week went on favouring those who braved the elements in some cases. It is early yet but considering the conditions the results so far have been disappointing as we saw out February but early March has seen improvement and with increased river levels we should see that get better over the next few weeks. Fifty seven fresh spring salmon were recorded last week and the class of fish being caught was good with 20 odd pounds or so being common and even a superb 30 pounder coming from Murthly. It is early yet with only small runs coming into the river and fluctuating weather can make fishing difficult.

Some of the fish that have been caught are memorable as typical Tay specimens due to their size and depth. Hopefully there will be a lot more of them to come. There seems to be fish already running hard up the river after unseasonably mild weather.

It has been a far more productive week on the river with at last a spring run starting to progress up the river with most beats getting into the action.

On the Lower river Upper Scone had 3 in the week with Martin John and Dave Downie both catching fish from the boat in Pitlochrie pool and Dave Brown landing a fish from the boat in Horsey up to 12 pounds.

Stanley had a couple of fish from the Pitlochrie beat as well with Mark Hickson landing his first fly caught fish casting from the boat in the Wash House weighing 13 pounds. Mark had also lost a fish on the fly the previous day on the Catholes.

Danny Fulton also caught a 13 pounds fish on the fly casting from the bank in Horsey later in the week. Burnmouth had a couple on Friday with John Dewar and Ed Slaven both catching from the boat up to 15 pounds. Stobhall had 4 in the week with fish from both their beats.

Ballathie and Cargill had fish in the week with Tony Anderson landing his first ever salmon weighing 14 pounds on Ballathie. Another fish came from the beat caught by Keith Niven weighing 9 pounds caught in the Bridge Stream. Steve Curnow landed a 13 pounds fish casting a Toby on Cargill. Islamouth had another fairly productive week with 7 fish which included a 16 pounds cracker from the Greenbank. Meikleour and Upper Islamouth had one in the week weighing 14 pounds.

The middle river is producing more fish now as the run progresses up river. Larger fish are being caught on a regular basis as these bigger fish have more energy in their tank enabling them to travel further before a rest. This is certainly evident last week as water temperatures start to climb a little.Delvine and Burnbane had their first fish falling to Jimmy Lapsey weighing 17 pounds. Glendelvine had one in the week but further up stream the Murthly 2 beat had an incredible week with some outstanding early run salmon up to just over 30 pounds.

The week got off to a flying start with Ike Martin landing 2 fish on Monday up to 20 pounds from the boat. Things were going to get better as the week went with more superb fish caught.

Beat ghillie Tony Black landed a 30.5 pounds fish on Friday from the boat then on Saturday Steven Hogg landed another cracker weighing 24 pounds from the boat. Newtyle, Dunkeld House and Dalmarnock all had a fish in the week.

John Cranston caught the fish on Dunkeld weighing 19 pounds from the boat.

Mark McGillvary caught an 8 pounds fish form Dalmarnock on the fly from the Scallop pool. Dalguise had 3 in the week which included 12 pounds fish for Neil Turner, an 11 pounds fish for Calvin Punk and a 15 pounds fish for Bob Fraser.

The upper river is also seeing a bit of action with Edradynate, Findynate and Farleyer all being successful.

Loch Tay continues to fish reasonably well with fish running through the system. Fish n’ Trips had a couple of fish last week which included a 21 pounds fish caught by William Colquhoun. There have been other fish caught in the loch but not reported.

Another example of fish running the system has been fish caught on the Isla at Coupar Grange with 9 grassed last week.

The Spring Salmon fishing season has had a quiet start but has started to show signs of picking up with improving catches and some outstanding fish landed so far so let us hope the season lives up to everyone’s expectations over the coming weeks and months. Tight lines!

Salmon Fishing Scotland - By Robert White