River Tay Spring Salmon Fishing Report for week ending 9th April 2011.
The first week of April on the Tay was encouraging despite big water for most of the week due to heavy rain and snow melting off the hills with higher temperatures. Saturday saw a marked improvement in conditions yielding better catches throughout the river. Now the river has settled the prospects are much better for this coming week.
The river was settled at the start of the week, and then was unsettled from Tuesday with big water but by Saturday it was settling nicely and gave reasonable conditions for the end of the week. The river temperature climbed to 45 degrees Fahrenheit or 7 degrees Celsius by Saturday.
51 spring salmon were reported last week, with the best spring salmon of 20 pounds caught at Coupar Grange on the Isla on Friday.
On the lower river 19 fresh spring salmon were caught. The best salmon was an 18 pounds fish from Stobhall caught by Ian Mitchell on Tuesday off the top beat harling in the boat. The week got off to a good start on Monday for Upper Scone with 2 salmon. Gillian Dokin successfully landed a fresh 8 pounds spring salmon from Pitlochrie pool harling then Ted Edgar landed his first ever salmon spinning from the bank in the afternoon, again in the famous Pitlochrie pool. The Upper Scone party landed a further 2 salmon later in the week. Another first ever salmon was landed this week at Islamouth by Toby Ryley. He caught his fish harling a Rapala and it weighed 12 ½ pounds. Taymount continued to have success as well landing 4 salmon during the week. Walter Norton had a week to remember with 2 salmon off the top beat weighing 10 and 12 pounds spinning from the bank.
Hopefully the river will remain settled this coming week, which should make for excellent prospects.
The middle river reported 10. Meikleour, Kercock, Newtyle and Dunkeld House all featured. Others on the middle river caught but have not reported. As the water temperature warms up salmon will now run freely into this area and there have been reports of more sightings of fresh salmon especially after the big water. Newtyle had a day to remember on Wednesday with 4 salmon landed. Regular Newtyle angler Allan Rennie caught 2 salmon of 16 and 14 pounds harling in the boat and Alistair Ferguson caught 2 salmon as well including his first ever Tay spring salmon, which was a 13 pounds sea liced beauty again harling.
On the upper river 7 were reported. After water levels rising and falling all week at Pitlochry, on Saturday levels steadied and began to drop. Success for Saul Mackay with 2 fish landed and one lost, biggest was10 pounds. Davy Stewart also had one about 9 pounds. All the salmon caught at Portnacraig are caught fly fishing from the bank. Three visitors from Inverness Angling Club had mixed fortunes. Alec Elliot fishing the Pitlochry bank played a fish for about 20 minutes only to lose it at the net, which was estimated at around 20 pounds. The first fish on the Angling club’s Sawmill beat fell to Innes Smith weighing 10 pounds on Saturday as well.
Neil Dyson from Preston had a great day at Dalguise. In the morning he lost a Salmon on a floating Devon in the Otterstone Pool, but by the afternoon he had safely landed two 12 pounds Springers in The Guay Pool both on an orange flying ‘c’. These were the first two Spring salmon he had ever caught, well done.
Three other fish were lost in the afternoon; Malcolm Bennett had a hold of a Salmon on the fly in The Otterstone Pool. Brian Joseph had a hold of another Salmon on a Salmo in The Otterstone Pool. John Cross lost a Salmon in The Guay Pool on a floating Devon. This is a sure sign of salmon running hard up the river.
There has not been anything officially reported from Loch Tay but I understand there have been quite a few spring salmon landed. Hopefully some details will filter through.
The Isla reported 14 all from mostly Coupar Grange including a 20 pounds salmon and 1 was caught from Islabank. Coupar Grange had another good week with 13 salmon caught and returned with the biggest being 20 pounds caught on the fly by Andy Nealson, who had 3 for his day on Friday. On Monday 2 fish were caught by Peter Crabb fly fishing and 1 by John Muller on the fly as well. On Wednesday 2 fish were caught, 1 on the fly for Malcom Porteous and 1 on a Toby for John Smith. On Thursday 3 were caught with Malcom Porteous landing a good 12 pounds salmon on the fly. On Fridady 4 fish were landed, 3 for Andy Nealson and 1 for John Muller all on the fly. Then on Saturday 2 fish were caught, John Black took a fish on a Toby and John Muller had the other one. 11 fish on the fly and 2 on the Toby for the week, all fish were returned. Thank you Bruce Reid for this beat report.
This week also saw the launch of the Dalmore Tay Dram, which hopefully will pour new life into the waters of the river Tay. The Dalmore Tay Dram will raise funds for vital conservation projects aimed at boosting fish stocks in one of the UK's best salmon fishing rivers. For every bottle of the spirit sold, at least £4 will be donated to the Tay Foundation, an Almondbank-based charity that seeks to protect, conserve and improve all fish species. Foundation chairman William Jack said, "The Dalmore Tay Dram has the potential to channel considerable funding to the Tay Foundation and thus kick-start several projects which will open up and improve habitats for the Tay's indigenous and valuable fish stocks." The fund-raising malt was officially launched on Tuesday night at the presentation at Scone Palace of the Savills Malloch Trophy, which celebrates the largest salmon caught on the fly and released safely in Scottish waters. While the Tay was the focus of the ceremony, it is not the only river that will benefit from a nip of whisky. The Dalmore Tay Dram is one of four bespoke whiskies designed to raise funds to conserve the four leading salmon rivers in Scotland — the Dee, Spey, Tay and Tweed.
Many thanks for all the pictures everyone sent me of spring salmon and all who have sent me their individual fishing experiences this and last season on the river.
I would be most grateful if you to do the same this season by emailing me at
robert.salmonfishing@googlemail.com to be included in this report.
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