Salmon Fishing Scotland Tay, Perthshire Salmon fishing report w/e 8th April 2017.

Salmon Fishing Scotland Tay, Perthshire Salmon fishing report w/e 8th 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 8th April)
SALMON & GRILSE: Almondmouth 1, Upper Redgorton 1, Fishponds 1, Upper Scone 2, Stobhall 5, Taymount 6, Ballathie 6, Cargill 4, Islamouth 13, Meikleour and Upper Islamouth 4, Kercock 1, Delvine Burnbane 1, Glendelvine 4, Murthly 2 3, Newtyle 4, Dalmarnock 1, Lower Kinnaird 7, Upper Kinnaird 1, Findynate 3, Farleyer Upper 2, Loch Tay Fish n' Trips 4, Coupar Grange 2, Portnacraig Pitlochry 6.
Total: 82 Largest: Glendelvine 24lbs
SEA TROUT: Taymount 1.
Total: 1 Largest: Taymount 2lbs

March has seen improvements with more salmon landed in milder weather and river conditions have improved as the weeks have gone 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. Eighty 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 24 pounder coming from Glendelvine on the fly. 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, some fish have been caught below Stanley at long last. A fish was recorded on Almondmouth and Upper Redgorton and Fishponds got into the action. John lessels caught a fish from the Craigs on a Flying C on the Redgorton beat meanwhile

Paul Little caught a superb 21 pounds beauty on the fly to open Fishponds account for the season. Upper Scone had a couple in the week from the Pitlochrie and Benchil beats. Stobhall had a Finnish party of fly fishermen for the week landing 5 salmon up to 22 pounds.

The big fish fell to Jari Vaisanen after an epic fight with Bob Campbell helping with the aid of the net.

Tuomas Rytkonen also had success with an 8 pounds fish. Further upstream at Ballathie and Cargill had 10 between them.

On Ballathie at the start of the week Richard Spragg landed a 9 pounder from the boat then Kevin Kettrick caught a 14 pounds fish by the same method. Paul Clarke had success with the fly catching 3 fish in his visit up to 16 pounds.

On Cargill the fly was in favour for Victor Frost landing a 10 pounder from the Bridge Stream. Dutch visitor Cor Brockman had success on his first visit to the Tay with 13 pounds beauty. Nick Wilkinson also had success with a memorable 18 pounds beauty caught from the boat. Islamouth had another good week with 13 grassed mostly on fly. Simon Furniss enjoyed a good afternoon in the Ash Tree landing 3 fish up to 16 pounds. Jim Ferrie also had success in the Cutty.

Meikleour and Upper Islamouth had 4 for the week which included a good fish for Darren Crawford and an 11 pounds beauty on the fly for Simon Littlejohn from the Castle pool.

Trav Gough also had a good fish on the fly from the Tunnel Stream.

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 further. Kercock and Delvine Burnbane had single fish in the week.

Gerry Gilfillan was the successful rod on Kercock. Bryan Davies caught a 12 pounds fish form the boat in the Burnbane pool.

The Murthly and Glendelvine have been picking up fish on a regular basis with Ryan McShane catching a superb 24 pounds fish from the Boat pool on the fly.

Newtyle had 4 for the week Jon Amos, Neil Tong, Stuart McArthur and Mark Little catching fish on the fly up to 18 pounds. Dalmarnock had a single fish meanwhile further upstream the Kinnaird beats fared much better with 8.

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

Steve Watt and Alun Williams both had fish from Findynate on fly earlier in the week.

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 77 being the current latest count. Last week saw 6 fish landed on the Portnacraig beat below the dam and further fish landed from the Sawmill Stream at the bottom of the town. The week started off with Alistair Hamilton, Alan Greene and Oliver Falk all catching on the fly up to 18 pounds. Jim Fisher had a 14 pounds beauty also on fly the following day. Some superb fish were running with Ally Gowans and Ian Lindsay landing fish on the fly up to 16 pounds.

Further fish fell to Neil Tong and Paul Carter. 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 four fish last week which included fish caught by Allan Brown and Wullie Colquhoun. 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 with 2 grassed last week.

The current week has got off to a great start with nearly 50 fish registered up to Tuesday evening 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