Salmon Fishing Scotland Tay, Perthshire Salmon fishing report w/e 1st April 2017.

Salmon Fishing Scotland Tay, Perthshire Salmon fishing report w/e 1st April 2017.

Spring salmon fishing on the Tay in Perthshire is now in April 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 April to give everyone a chance of landing a spring “Bar of Silver”.
Beat catches reported
(week ending 1st April)
SALMON & GRILSE: Catholes 1, Pitlochrie 1, Stobhall 6, Taymount 9, Ballathie 5, Cargill 6, Islamouth 10, Meikleour and Upper Islamouth 1, Delvine Burnbane 1, Murthly 1 2, Glendelvine 1, Murthly 2 2, Dunkeld House 1, Dalguise 1, Lower Kinnaird 2, Upper Kinnaird 1, Farleyer Upper 3, Farleyer Lower 1, Loch Tay Fish n' Trips 1, Keithick Mains 2, Coupar Grange 2, Portnacraig Pitlochry 1.
Total: 60 Largest: Delvine Burnbane 28lbs
SEA TROUT: Upper Scone 1, Stobhall 1, Ballathie 1, Lochlane and Laggan 1, Keithick Mains 1.
Total: 5 Largest: Upper Scone & Ballathie 3lbs

March has 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 March but we are seeing an improvement with more consistent catches and settling river levels which hopefully will continue over the next few weeks. Sixty 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 28 pounder coming from Delvine and Burnbane. 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 reasonably productive week on the river with a spring run starting to develop and progress up the river with most beats getting into the action. On the Lower river Catholes saw a superb 22 pounds beauty landed by Tim Greenfield casting the fly from the anchored boat in the Woodside just under the Weir.

Tim also had a fish on the fly from the Pitlochrie beat casting from the bank in Cawn Pore and completed a double double as he achieved the same feat last year at the same time in the same spots, Déjà vu! Further upstream Stobhall enjoyed a reasonable week with 6 fish. Ballathie caught consistently each day with 5 in the week including a lovely 15 pounds fish for Barry Ward.

Simon Rutherford had a day to remember on the fly with a brace from the Maggot weighing up to 10 pounds.

On the other bank Cargill had 6 in the week including a bright start of the week with Chris Egan and William McMullan landing their first ever salmon. Later in the week Rodger Burton and William Gellan caught fish up to 12 pounds with a further 2 coming at the end of the week. Islamouth kept up their consistent season so far with another 10 fish last week. Ian Mitchell’s party enjoyed a good week with most of the party being successful but stand out rod was Danny Fulton landing 5 on the fly for three days.

Mick Miller was also on the mark with a good fish out of Donnits. Upper Islamouth and Meikleour had one in the week caught by Angus Woodhouse on the fly from the Castle pool.

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 again last week as water temperatures start to climb a little. Delvine and Burnbane proved this phenomenon by successfully landing a superb 28 pounds cracker caught by Jim McDonald from the boat on a Kynoch. The Murthly and Glendelvine beats all had fish and

Dunkeld House produced a 16 pounds cracking fish for Colin Ince on his birthday. Further upstream fish were recorded at Dalguise and the Kinnaird beats.

The upper river is also seeing a bit of action with the Farleyer beats being successful.

The Tummel saw some action as well with fish coming off the lower beats but not being reported. At the Dam in Pitlochry fish are starting to ascend the ladder with 11 being the current latest count.

Steve Dora was successful with the fly on the Green Bank on the Portnacraig beat landing a 12 pounds fish. More should certainly follow in the coming weeks.

Loch Tay continues to fish reasonably well with fish running through the system with Fish n’ Trips recording a single fish last week caught by

Ian Brown weighing an impressive 22 pounds. Other fish are being caught on the loch but not being reported.

Another example of fish running the system has been fish caught on the Isla at Coupar Grange and Keithick Mains with 4 grassed last week.

This included some very big fish for the Isla with a 31 pounds beauty landed on Coupar Grange the previous week by Thomas Martin.

The current week has got off to a good start with nearly 20 fish registered on Monday up to 24 pounds.

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