Salmon Fishing Scotland Tay, Perthshire Salmon fishing report w/e 25th March 2017.

Salmon Fishing Scotland Tay, Perthshire Salmon fishing report w/e 25th March 2017.

Spring salmon fishing on the Tay in Perthshire is now about to see March out 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”.

A superb action photo of Islamouth taken by Mark Paterson of LTS fly fishing.
Beat catches reported
(week ending 25th March)
SALMON & GRILSE: Catholes 3, Upper Scone 4, Pitlochrie 2, Burnmouth 1, Stobhall 5, Taymount 9, Ballathie 2, Cargill 6, Islamouth 12, Meikleour and Upper Islamouth 4, Kercock 2, Delvine Burnbane 2, Glendelvine 2, Murthly 2 2, Newtyle 2, Dunkeld House 2, Dalmarnock 1, Dalguise 2, Lower Kinnaird 1, Upper Kinnaird 1, Findynate 1, Keithick Mains 2, Coupar Grange 8.
Total: 76 Largest: Coupar Grange 31lbs
SEA TROUT: Lower Redgorton 1, Taymount 1, Keithick Mains 1.
Total: 3 Largest: Taymount 7lbs

The first 3 weeks in March have seen improvements with more 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 March has seen an improvement with increased river levels and we should see that continue over the next few weeks. Seventy six fresh spring salmon were recorded last week and the class of fish being caught continues to be outstanding with 20 odd pounds or so being common and even a superb 31 pounder coming from Coupar Grange. 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 as the spring run develops further. There seems to be fish already running hard up the river after unseasonably mild weather.

It has been another more productive week on the river with at last a spring run starting to develop and progress up the river with most beats getting into the action. on the Lower river Upper Scone had fish from Benchil and the Pitlochrie beats caught on the fly by the Stephen Patterson party.

Andrew Stephens caught a cracking 9 pounds fish from Aitken Head, Dave Cameron landed a 17 pounds beauty in horsey and Stuart Yeats also had a nice fish from the same pool. On Stanley on the Pitlochrie beat Horsey was again the spot with Sandy Forgan and Chris Blanford both having success on the fly.

Further upstream Roger Worth celebrated his honeymoon catching a superb 18 pounds beauty on the fly from the famous Slap pool under the Catholes Weir ably supported by his wife, Sarah.

Further success in the week saw Danny Fulton and Billy Graham catch in the same pool and on the fly as well. Burnmouth had one or two in the week mostly from the boat.

Stobhall had 5 in the week which continues to fish steadily week in week out. Ballathie had a couple with Tim Hanbury and Darren Hunt being successful.

Cargill had another reasonable week with 6 fish which included a superb 21 pounds beauty for Scott Murray. Other fish were landed by David Sands, Malcom Fearnon, Brian Taylor and Valerie Johnson caught a lovely 14 pounder. Islamouth continues to be the stand out beat with 12 last week.

This included fish for Richard Muir and Louis Miller later in the week.

Earlier in the week Mark Paterson, Gary Weir, Rory Campbell and James Holder all had fish up to 19 pounds mostly on fly.

Meikleour and Upper Islamouth caught 4 in the week which included 3 on one day with Nick Doyle, Adam Briggs and Adam Hughes catching mostly on fly up to 16 pounds then Alan Milne caught on the fly as well from the Castle pool later in the week weighing an impressive 17 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.

Kercock had a couple in the week including a super 26 pounds monster for David Turpin.

Delvine and Burnbane also caught a couple with Willie Cumming landing a 12 pounds fish on a Vision.

Glendelvine had fish with John Dewar being successful on Friday. Murthly 2 had 2 in the week as did Newtyle and Dunkeld House. Successful rods on Newtyle included Robert Clyde and Len Merchant. At Dunkeld Julie Coleman landed her first ever salmon weighing 10 pounds.

Dalmarnock had a fish weighing 20 pounds falling to Phil Baker.

Dalguise had 2 including a memorable 21 pounds fish for Nathan Shephard. The Kinnaird beats had a fish a piece.

The upper river is also seeing a bit of action with Findynate being successful.

The Tummel saw some action as well with fish coming off the lower beat as Malcolm Anderson and Andrew Khakoo landed some superb fish on the fly up to 20 odd pounds testing his new range of flies for the Caledonia Fly Company.

Loch Tay continues to fish reasonably well with fish running through the system however no fish were reported last week.

Another example of fish running the system has been fish caught on the Isla at Coupar Grange and Keithick Mains with 10 grassed last week. This included some very big fish for the Isla with a 31 pounds beauty landed on Coupar Grange.

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