The conditions last week were again superb on the Tay in Perthshire, Scotland apart from the start of the week with snow melt and dirty water on the lower river but very cold weather and improved catches at the end of the week filled everyone with more optimism for the coming weeks. The good news for this week is that we have colder settled conditions giving us great prospects with an even colder weather forecast for the latter part of the week, which will maintain early spring sport on this marvelous river especially on the lower and middle river.
The Spring Salmon fishing is never easy but when settled conditions prevail the sport can be magical as proved this past week despite arctic temperatures with some outstanding catches with 60 plus spring salmon registered in the Tay system. This was a continual improvement on the previous week despite dirty water at the start of the week and superb for the river. Spring salmon were caught predominately at the latter part of the week up to 20 pounds in weight and throughout the river. The Tay is fishing currently very well and is certainly a good destination to catch your first spring salmon of the season. The river offers a variety of possibilities for all standards of anglers with ghillies only too keen to teach the novices and this mighty river can produce a memorable salmon for the keen fly fisher. Levels have dropped and the pools can be easily covered from bank and boat with modern technology. Why not have a go and sample this magical river. The fishing is supreme and the scenery is not bad either.
Beat catches reported
(week ending 23rd March)
SALMON & GRILSE: Lower Redgorton 2, Upper Redgorton 3, Fishponds 1, Upper Scone 2, Pitlochrie and Catholes 3, Burnmouth 7, Taymount 8, Ballathie 4, Cargill 2, Islamouth 5, Lower and Upper Islamouth 4, Upper Islamouth and Meikleour House 1, Glendelvine 2, Murthly 2 4, Newtyle 6, Dunkeld House 2, Dalguise 2, Lower Kinnaird 2, Coupar Grange 1, Portnacraig Pitlochry 2.
Total: 63 Largest: Upper Redgorton & Murthly 2 20lbs
Spring salmon have been caught throughout the system this past week encouraging everyone and there has also been the emergence of some larger multi sea winter spring salmon up to 20 pounds, which is superb news. The Upper reaches have encountered fresh salmon again, as fish have been keen to run with good water levels earlier in the month despite cold temperatures. The Upper river registered 2 spring salmon with Portnacraig registering both fish. Bruar boys Gordon Nichol and Calum McRoberts had success in Sawmill stream with fish of 12 pounds fly fishing and 10 pounds spinning respectively.
Neil MacLellan caught on the fly at the Dam beat on Wednesday. Warmer weather will help the upper areas in the next few weeks as temperatures inevitably will rise and catches will swing to this part of the Tay.
On the Middle river 19 spring salmon were caught this last week. When the water starts to warm up the middle river will fair even better.
Lower Kinnaid picked up 2 spring salmon with Mark McGillivray landing a beauty in the Ash Tree pool. Peter Haggerty, a guest of Peter Shuttleworth, on his first ever visit to Dalguise landed a lovely 12 pounds cock fish in the Tail of the Bridge pool on an 18g Silver Toby. Well done Peter, just rewards for braving the blizzards and east winds, rod rings freezing up just to make it even harder! Dunkeld House had a couple of fish in the week. Newtyle did well with 6 spring salmon for the week.
Ben Birdsall who has recently written a book on whisky and is based in Switzerland caught a fine 9 pounds Tay Springer on Friday from the Steps Pool on a Vision 110. His fishing partner Ray Hind also caught a stunning fish of 12 pounds, again on the Vision from the Steps. The Murthly beats continue to do well with Murthly 2 fairing best under the stewardship on Tony Black. Glendelvine and Miekleour also had fish.
The Lower River dominated the catches understandably with colder conditions after the snow melt started to clear on Thursday and a dropping water with 41 spring salmon for the week. Islamouth had better catches this week with Tom Borthwick landing a 10 pounds springer in the Long Head and Richard Muir catching a 13 pounds fish in the Newshot both on Vision 110’s. Ballathie and Cargill caught during the week.
Taymount continued to fair well during the week catching several spring fish. Amongst the successful anglers were David Budd and John Hutcheon landing 4 on Thursday between them. Friday saw Eddie Slaven and Danny Fulton landing fish in Stank End then John Murray and Brian Stobie caught on Saturday. Burnmouth had a successful week landing 7 fish. Frank Muller had a good trip to the Tay landing fresh fish on Cargill and the Catholes plus several other Kelts. Neil Williams had a 13 pounds beauty on a harled fly in front of Stanley Mills and Euan Clark landed his second springer of the season fly fishing in Horsey on the Pitlochrie beat. On the same beat Alan McCaig caught a 9 pounds beauty in Horsey with Upper Scone.
At Fishponds John McElroy had a 18 pounds cracker on the harl and Upper Redgorton finished the week well with a 20 pounds beauty for Greggor Nimmo. Lower Redgorton also had fish for the Davis brothers. The continued colder conditions for this coming week should prove successful for the lower river again.
The Isla registered 1 salmon from Coupar Grange.
It was certainly another superb spring week to remember with some great stories, very cold weather and springers caught with good conditions but now as we enter the end of March with more settled weather (hopefully!) and river levels the spring catches should improve further over the coming weeks assuming the run continues.
If you have any news or pictures of catches or experiences on the Tay and you would like to share them please email me on robert.salmonfishing@googlemail.com to be included in the reports.
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