Salmon Fishing Scotland Tay, Perthshire Salmon fishing report w/e 12th May 2017.

Salmon Fishing Scotland Tay, Perthshire Salmon fishing report w/e 12th May 2017.

Spring salmon fishing on the Tay in Perthshire has now seen out April with improving conditions for fishing in milder weather and settling lower 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 13th May)
SALMON & GRILSE: Lower Redgorton 1, Benchil 1, Stobhall 7, Taymount 5, Ballathie 10, Cargill 3, Islamouth 25, Delvine Burnbane 1, Murthly 1 2, Glendelvine 2, Murthly 2 11, Newtyle 8, Dunkeld House 8, Dalmarnock 2, Dalguise 1, Lower Kinnaird 7, Farleyer Upper 5, Loch Tay Fish n' Trips 1, East Haugh 1 7, Portnacraig Pitlochry 2.
Total: 109 Largest: Murthly 1 21lbs
SEA TROUT: Taymount 1.
Total: 1 Largest: Taymount 3lbs

April saw 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. The lack of rain has dropped the river to summer levels however salmon are still running due to the Tay’s sheer size as you fish another river within it. Rain is forecast at long last which can only help and spice things up. Over 100 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 21 pounder coming from Murthly. 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.

It has been another reasonably productive week on the river with a spring run continuing to develop and progress up the river with most beats getting into the action. On the Lower river, it has been a quiet week below Stanley mainly due to the warmer river temperatures. Lower Redgorton had a fish from the Bleaching’s caught by Alun Williams on a Toby.

A party of doctors visiting Scotland for the weekend enjoyed success on Benchil with Ken Anson landing a lovely 10 pounds fish from the Little Shot on the fly on Saturday. Stobhall had a reasonable week with 7 fish and Cargill had 3 in a quieter week which included Brian Taylor landing a lovely fish on the fly from the Bridge Stream.

Ballathie fared much better with 10 in the week. Saturday saw 4 fish landed on the fly with John Fyfe and Philip Black catching a brace each. Islamouth continue to have great success with 25 last week all on the fly with Nick Mariners party doing well in the latter part of the week with a day of 8.

Earlier Paul Ness's party did well.

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 and sea liced fish are being seen in the observation chamber at Pitlochry dam. The lower water levels and bright days have not been helping sport with Kercock, Delvine Burnbane, Glendelvine and the Murthly beats just landing odd fish. Murthly 2 however did much better with 11 in the week. The Perth and District Angling club have been having a fare bit of success at Delvine and other areas of the river with 13 fish reported landing fish up to 20 pounds. The successful anglers included Peter Backhouse, Alun Williams, Ian Shaw, Jim Dougall and Tom Wallace. Newtyle had a good week with 8 fish with the fly doing the damage.

Successful rods included Simon Gawesworth with a couple and others caught by Jon Amos and Tony Sheeham. Dunkeld House also had 8 in the week and again the fly was the way.

Richard Chambers caught a couple in the Lady Pool up to 10 pounds. Other successful rods included John Kenyon and Graham Willington.

Sandra Robbins had a good fish from the Cathedral Stream on the fly weighing 9 pounds. Towards the end of the week Graham Brennan caught in the Rock pool. The beats above had fish as well which included 7 from Lower Kinnaird.

The upper river has been seeing a bit of action with 5 reported from Farleyer last week despite the lower water levels.

The Tummel saw some action as well with fish coming off the lower beats but not being reported. East Haugh reported 7. At the Dam in Pitlochry fish are ascending the ladder in good numbers with over 1300 being the current latest count and fish are now being caught in Loch Faskally. Last week saw only 2 fish landed on the Portnacraig beat below the dam and further fish landed from the Sawmill Stream at the bottom of the town which was disappointing but probably due to very low water levels. Martin Wilson and Saul MacKay were the successful rods in the week.

Loch Tay continues to fish reasonably well with fish running through the system with Fish n’ Trips recording a fish last week. 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 however nothing was reported last week.

The current week has got off to a steady start with a good spread of fish being registered on Monday throughout the whole river up to 20 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