Salmon Fishing Scotland River Tay Salmon Fishing Review May 2012.

Salmon Fishing Scotland River Tay Salmon Fishing Review May 2012.

May was a good month on the river in 2012 with nearly 500 salmon registered on Fishtay and the appearance of some large multi sea winter salmon. Weather wise the month started off fine with the river falling away then in the middle of the month the river rose dramatically after torrential rain encouraging salmon to run the river. The river then dropped steadily towards the end of the month giving settled conditions and good catches. Isalmouth dominated the returns catching 95 salmon during the month.

Islamouth on the Tay.

On the Lower River the first week produced 29 fish and a superb 32 pounds caught on the Ballathie beat by 12 years old James Meakin. Islamouth started the month off landing 16 salmon all caught fly fishing. Perth angler Neil Tong landed 4 in a day up to 17 pounds from bank and boat. Ian Mitchell caught a 21 pounds salmon from the tail of the Long Head. Week 2 saw 39 salmon landed. On Benchil local angler George McKinlay caught a lovely sea liced 15 pounds salmon on a Toby. Taymount and Stobhall caught salmon with Mark Scruton landing a cracking 25 pounds salmon fly fishing from the boat on Stobhall at Tams Corner and Sandra Robbins was successful on Ladies day at Taymount catching a 15 pounds fish again on the fly and at Tams corner.

32 pounds cracker from Ballathie earlier in the month.
Islamouth continued to be very productive landing 22 salmon for the week, which included 7 in a day. Week 3 was a poor week for the lower river with 19 due to the continued unsettled water levels. Local angler George McKinlay caught a couple of salmon on Benchil including a 17 pounds beauty. Cargill and Ballathie continue to work away quietly and produce large salmon. Ballathie landed a superb 24 pounds fish on Friday. Islamouth again caught throughout the week. Good weather arrived for the last week and catches improved with 43 registered and over half the total came from Islamouth. The beat had a great end to the month with 11 in one day for John McElroys party on the 31st.

The Middle River had 21 in week one with Kercock having a good week with several salmon landed on fly and spinner. Successful anglers included David Crosbie and Norman Wood landing 2 salmon in 2 days up to 12 pounds on the fly and Dougie McLean and Dennis Robb catching fresh salmon. Jim McEwan also had a 7 pounds fish on a Salmo. At Newtyle the Bowmans were successful and the Dunkeld House beat had a better week with Simon Furniss catching 3 himself. Week 2 was better with 34 fish. On Kercock Jim Lamb and Jim McEwan landed salmon up to 16 pounds. The Murthly 2 beat fishing Stenton and the Upper beat had its best week of the season with 13 salmon caught mostly fly fishing. At Newtyle there was a first Tay spring salmon for Norrie McLeod fly fishing in the Trap. Not content with that he promptly caught another from the same place on a deadly Golden Willie Gunn. Dave Cargill was also successful landing a 16 pounds beauty on a Salmo. Dunkeld House had a reasonable week with Bill Robbins landing a 17 pounds beauty on the fly and American visitor Mark Guidry landing a colourful fish on a Salmo.

Further upstream at Dalmarnock it was a red letter day for Dr Sandip Datta and his new wife Sam on Friday. Sam was fishing the Clacken Taggart pool in the morning. She landed a beautiful 26 pounds spring Salmon that was expertly netted by ghillie Colin Mcfadden. It was her biggest salmon to date, a fish of a lifetime. The fish was carefully released to continue its journey. Sandip then caught a 7 pounds springer, and Sam had great satisfaction in telling him it was a tiddler! 16 came from the third week with Chris Metzner from Australia catching his first ever salmon fly fishing in the Cathederal Stream and Brian Joseph catching an 11 pounds salmon on a Toby Salmo in the Ferry Pool on Dunkeld House. On Newtyle John Gunn was successful harling landing a 15 pounds salmon in the Ferry pool. Regular Allan Rennie, caught a cracking sea liced 9 pounds fish fly fishing the Deans Burn and later in the week the Flying C was the favoured bait of David Bryce landing a 15 pounds beauty from the Trap. Only 10 came from the middle beats on week 4 due to clear skies. At Kercock Kenny Milne caught an 11 pounds fresh fish and David Hudson caught his first Tay spring salmon weighing 15 pounds. At Newtyle John Coupland landed 2 spring salmon in under half an hour up to 10 pounds. Further upstream Jim Ferrie and Peter Sproston were successful at Dunkeld House Hotel. Peter landed 2 throughout the week; an 8 pounds fish from the Lady’s pool and a cracking 8 pounds fish from the Cathedral stream fly fishing from the boat.

The Upper River started a good month with 28. Despite low water fish were caught in reasonable numbers and there was over 300 salmon through the fish ladder at Pitlochry. On Loch Faskally Shaun Camburn landed a 24 pounds salmon trolling a pink Kynoch, which brought their tally up to 8 for the season. Below the Dam the Portnacraig beat landed salmon up to 20 pounds on fly and spinner. Successful anglers included Gordon Hanslip, Davie Stewart, Stephane Bovy and visiting father and son Tony and Anthony Churchill. Dalguise, Kinnaird, Farleyer and Findynate also caught with a notable 25 pounds fish coming from Lower Kinnaird. The second week was again productive with 24. Dalguise had a salmon of 23 pounds with 2 others caught in the same day. Kinnaird were again successful and Raymond Doonan caught a cracking 10 pounds spring salmon fly fishing on the Upper Farleyer beat earlier in the week. 500 fish were now through the ladder. At Portnacaig Dean McGowan landed 2 salmon up to 13 pounds and other successful anglers included Neil MacLellan, Gordon Nichol and Patrick Hammond. The Pitlochry Club had the lower Tummel as well and Alistair Stephen landed a 10 pounds fish on the Greenbank fly fishing. The third week was superb producing 42 due to increasing water levels after rain. Dalguise had an excellent week with a high point when John Cameron caught 4 salmon to his own rod on the fly up to 19 pounds from the Otterstone Pool. Further upstream Eddie Higgins caught his first spring salmon on Upper Farleyer with John McCallum. On the Tummel the extra water made it a week to remember at Portnacraig for the Pitlochry Angling Club. 11 salmon were landed in one day up to 16 pounds on fly and spinner. The successful rods included Matthew Currie, Mark Currie, Rory MacNab, Steve Watt and Gordon Nichol. Catch of the club season so far fell to Blackpool fisherman Gary Westhead landing 6 salmon to his own rod fly fishing from both banks up to 17 pounds. He will remember that day for a time. There was 26 salmon landed for the club for the week with the vast majority fresh run salmon. Week 4 saw 23 from this area. Upper Farleyer continued to have success. At Lower Kinnaird

Mark Sabin had a lovely 8 pounds sea liced fish fly fishing the Junction pool. The beat finished with 5 salmon for the week up to 20 pounds in weight. It was a quieter week at Pitlochry as salmon stream through the dam with the counter at over 1000 with the warmer conditions. Marc Wriggleworth landed 2 salmon on the fly and Gordon Hanslip, Anthony Rusher, Davy Stewart and Steven Watt reported other successes. Jimmy Ross also opened his account with a 10 pounds salmon on the fly.


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