Salmon Fishing Scotland River Tay Spring Salmon Fishing Report for week ending 16th April 2011.

Salmon Fishing Scotland River Tay Spring Salmon Fishing Report for week ending 16th April 2011.

River Tay Spring Salmon Fishing Report for week ending 16th April 2011.
The second week of April on the Tay was more encouraging with settled water and ideal conditions for spring fishing. After a marked improvement in conditions the river is now yielding better catches and some top quality salmon throughout the river. Also the settled river will give us good prospects for this coming week.

The river remained settled for the entire week, and the river temperature remained around 46 degrees Fahrenheit or 7 degrees Celsius.

70 spring salmon were reported last week, with the best spring salmon of 30 pounds being caught at Ballathie by a young lady on Wednesday. There is also a report of an estimated 32 pounds spring salmon caught fly fishing at lower Murthly in the famous boat pool. This is all superb news for the Tay with more confirmation of multi-sea winter salmon running the river.

On the lower river 30 fresh spring salmon were caught. The river temperature is coming up now encouraging the salmon to run hard. The lower part of the Tay is certainly witnessing that with limited catches however above Stanley catches are improving.

Ballathie had a superb spring salmon of 30 pounds on Wednesday caught by 14 years old Louise Brown from the lower Ballathie beat. This was Louise's first ever salmon and what a way to start! Under the experienced eye of legendary Tay ghillie George McInnes, they caught this beauty harling in the boat towards the tail of the famous Ballathie beat, which over the years has seen several big salmon. Another keen young fisherman, Peter Gifford had a lovely 7 pounds salmon from the Catholes on Friday. Young anglers should be given every encouragement to continue in our sport especially on a large river such as the Tay.

Catholes also figured earlier in the week with John Lessels catching a 10 pounds salmon on Monday and then John Cook caught 2 lovely fish from the same beat on Wednesday in the space of half an hour on a Toby Salmo. All the fish were lande from the bank in the Erics pool. Neil Gordon had a fresh 10 pounds salmon from Neils Head on Benchil under Upper Scone on Monday. Stobhall and Taymount continue to have a good spring. John Morris landed a 17 pounds salmon on Stobhall at Upper Eels Briggs on a Copper Tay Lure harling, Bill Samuel had an 18 pounds spring salmon on Upper Stobhall in the Killmou harling, and Betty Jarvis caught a lovely 9 pounds springer harling in the Red Rocks on the Taymount beat.

At the end of the week Islamouth accounted for half a dozen salmon with Patrick Gordon landing a lovely 9 pounds fish fly fishing and John Garnett catching a 12 pounds springer on his first cast in the morning again on the fly.
Hopefully the river will remain settled this coming week, which should make for excellent prospects.

The middle river reported 13. This is a conservative total as the Murthly and Glendelvine beats are not reporting. After the temperature has come up the spring salmon are now running freely into the middle Tay with encouraging numbers being seen on a daily basis. Peter Philips caught an estimated 32 pounds salmon fly fishing in the Boat pool on lower Murthly this week which should be a contender for the Malloch Trophy.
All of the Tay middle beats are having success and this should continue over the next few weeks. More information from this area would be welcome to expand on this report in the future.

On the upper river 21 were reported, which is a marked improvement due to the high water levels, last week and increasing temperatures. Findynate, Farleyer and Edradynate all caught this past week but Portnacraig was the place to be with 14 salmon being landed at the Dam on the Pitlochry Angling club stretch. The club also had the Lower Tummel this past week and a few were landed there as well. Robert Parry and Donald Noble both landed salmon from the Rock pool.

Pitlochry angler Davy Stewart had a memorable week landing a 16 pounds salmon at Portnacraig on Wednesday and a 20 pounds fish on Friday evening. Steven Watt from Perth also had success with 3 fly caught salmon on Friday. Bigger salmon were also reported from the Sawmill stream with estimated 28 pounds and 25 pounds spring salmon caught by Ally Gowans and Jim Kennedy respectfully.
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 6 all from Coupar Grange.


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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