The conditions last week were again superb on the Tay in Perthshire, Scotland with cold weather and low water all week producing the best weekly catch of the season so far which filled everyone with more optimism for the coming weeks. The weather is now much milder for this week that has given us much more water but hopefully this will continue to give us great prospects and will maintain early spring sport on this marvelous river and spread it throughout the whole 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 and 185 spring salmon registered in the Tay system. This was a continual improvement on the previous week giving us the best week of the season and superb for the river. March produced 350 mostly due to the cold conditions but April has got off to a flyer. The river has registered 344 for the first two weeks and last years monthly total was 310. The catches have been heartening mainly due to the cold weather but there is certainly a feeling now that there has been a far better run.
A springer about to go back to the river caught by Jason Stratton on the Catholes.
Could this be down to most anglers’ efforts to return spring salmon over the past few seasons? Spring salmon were caught all week up to 22 pounds in weight and throughout the river as temperatures began to rise which was tremendous news. 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 and temperatures have now risen hopefully to encourage more salmon to run the river and spread out. 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 13th April)
SALMON & GRILSE: Waulkmill 2, Lower Redgorton 3, Luncarty Spring Only 7, Upper Redgorton 6, Fishponds 8, Benchil and Catholes 10, Upper Scone 8, Pitlochrie and Catholes 3, Burnmouth 8, Stobhall 8, Taymount 12, Ballathie 7, Cargill 7, Islamouth 8, Lower and Upper Islamouth 11, Upper Islamouth and Meikleour House 2, Meikleour House 1, Kercock 7, Murthly 1 9, Glendelvine 3, Murthly 2 4, Newtyle 10, Dunkeld House 5, Dalmarnock 1, Dalguise 2, Lower Kinnaird 3, Upper Kinnaird 2, Findynate 1, Weem 1, Farleyer Upper 3, Farleyer Lower 1, Keithick Mains 4, Coupar Grange 15, Portnacraig Pitlochry 2, Loch Faskally 1.
Total: 185 Largest: Ballathie 22lbs
SEA TROUT: Coupar Grange 1.
Total: 1 Largest: Coupar Grange 1lbs
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 22 pounds, which is superb news. The Upper reaches have encountered fresh salmon again but in limited numbers due to the cold weather, this will change now as warmer conditions appear. The Upper river registered 8 spring salmon. Ray Doonan had a superb 15 pounds springer fly fishing Upper Farleyer as they started to produce salmon on a regular basis.
On Upper Kinnaird Nicholas Thompson landed a 12 pounds salmon from the Church pool and Kevin McKay caught a superb 15 pounds fish on Saturday.
The Tummel system registered 3 spring salmon with 2 coming from the Angling stretch at Pitlochry dam.
John Knox landed a 15 pounds salmon on a Toby on the Portnacraig bank and further down stream Gordon Nichol caught a 22 pounds beauty in the Sawmill stream. After the current spate calms down the catches on the Tummel should soar.
On the Middle river 47 spring salmon were caught this past week that is a marked improvement. When the water starts to warm up the middle river will fair even better.
Lower Kinnaird had a few with a Finnish party having success. On Dalguise Rex Onions landed his first ever Tay salmon weighing 10 pounds on a Toby.
On Dunkeld House Brian Joseph caught a 12 pounds springer on a Toby salmo, an 8 pounder out of the rock pool on a Vision110 and an 11 pounds salmon again from the Rock pool on the same bait, Saturday saw Willie Cummins with an 8 pounds fish from the Gauge pool, and the medicine man, Robert Harvey caught his first 10 pounds springer on a Toby salmo.
Newtyle had a good week with 10 caught. Allan Rennie had a superb day on Monday catching 4 salmon up to 10 pounds. Jimmy Black caught his first Tay salmon weighing an impressive 17 pounds fly fishing in the Trap. Other fish caught included Bruce Hay, German visitor Ernst Schleimann with his first Tay beauty caught fly fishing and Andy Kerr with an 11 pounds salmon on a Salmo. The Murthly beats and Glendelvine caught several Salmon in the week. On Kercock 7 fish were caught for the week with Gordon Manuel, Scott Connachan, Robert Mcfarlane and George Hunter all having success.
Story of the week was 13 years old Caleb Jack catching his first ever Salmon weighing 9 pounds.
The Lower River dominated the catches understandably with colder conditions and low water with 108 spring salmon for the week. Islamouth had good catches throughout the week.
Early in the week Neil McGowan had a cracking springer on the fly from the Long Head then at the end of the week Bernie Morritts party landed 8 salmon all fly fishing with a couple of first fish for new rods to the Tay. Ballathie and Cargill landed 14 salmon between them up to 22 pounds. Former Perth man and keen fisherman Graeme Nicols landed a superb 14 pounds springer fly fishing in the famous Pot Shot. Stobhall and Taymount continue their good spring with 20 salmon landed in the week. On Stobhall Martin Ferrie landed a 10 pounds fish on a salmo on Friday and on Taymount sport was enjoyed all week with salmon landed up to 14 pounds with Alf Vaisey, Mick Mills, Sean and Rory Lamont, Geoff Coats, Mick Muggleston, Walter Norton and James McLaughlan all being successful.
Story of the week was father and son Derek and Lewis Ferguson both catching with proud father Derek witnessing his young son Lewis landing his first ever salmon weighing 9 pounds. The beats around Stanley continued their early season success with several more spring salmon landed. The catches around Stanley are now the best in 30 years, which proves how good a spring season it had been. Burnmouth, Catholes, Pitlochrie and Benchil all produced good fish. On the Catholes salmon were landed up to 20 pounds mainly on Fly with John Shaw, Jamie Hyslop and Jason Stratton all having success. Saturday saw 3 salmon landed including a 16 pounds cracker for Ed Slaven on a Toby. On Pitlochrie Jim Fotheringham landed a memorable 15 pounds springer on a Rapala from the boat. There was a first ever salmon for Paula Gordon and Neil Gordon also caught in the week with Upper Scone. Dougie Wangert caught a lovely 10 pounds salmon in front of Stanley mills from the boat. Benchil has also been fishing very well with several salmon caught fly fishing. Alan Greene landed 2 in a day with Upper Scone and
Scott Jones caught a superb 15 pounds fish on Saturday. Jonathan Fulton caught a 10 pounds fish on the fly in the Long Shot on Friday. The lower part of the river has also faired well enjoying good success last week.
Luncarty had another tremendous day on Saturday producing 5 spring salmon. John Weir, Mark Paris and Owen McGinness catching fresh fish up to 20 pounds in weight all spinning.
Fishponds caught salmon up to 16 pounds.
The Isla registered 19 salmon from mostly Coupar Grange and 4 from Keithick Mains. The water continued to warm up and fish moved up river giving Coupar Grange a week of 15 salmon and 1 sea trout. Salmon were caught throughout the week up to 15 pounds with a large fish lost after 45 minutes on Wednesday. Successful anglers included John Muller, Jake Reid, Brian Gibson, Jim Hunter and Iain Smith, superb sport.
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 entering the second half of April with warmer weather and good river levels the spring catches should improve further over the coming weeks assuming the run continues and spread throughout the entire system.
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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