The Salmon fishing season is well and truly started now on the mighty Tay in Perthshire, Scotland but we have been encountering some extreme conditions over the last week with continued mild weather and heavy rainfall making life very difficult as river levels have remained very high and unstable making the pursuit of that magical spring salmon near impossible. The weather hopefully will ease soon as we prey for colder settled conditions.
Currently the river is running high again after more extreme weather over Sunday (8’ on the Ballathie gauge). The unsettled weather is set to continue over the next few days then hopefully get colder which should benefit the river and give a great chance of producing some sport and some early "Bars of Silver" if you are prepared to brave the elements.
A glimpse of winter sun last week.
The weather is to continue wet over the next few days but hopefully get colder towards the end of the week. Colder conditions certainly benefit the river at this time of year slowing the spring salmon run down and giving everyone a chance to catch as they run up the river slowly. The milder weather will certainly give us more water and encourage salmon to run the river. Colder weather would settle the river back to good levels and ideal spring fishing conditions. The water temperature was around 40 degrees Fahrenheit or 4.5 degrees Celcius. These are higher temperatures for this time of year. The temperature may come back further with the colder forecast at the end of the week ahead but there have been salmon running throughout the system after milder conditions prior to the opening day and resulted in fish being caught well up the system, the milder weather and increased river levels will continue to encourage spring salmon to run. Hopefully there might be a chance of a fresh fish anywhere in the river. There will no doubt be quite a few kelts about on many beats and possibly some later run fish, which have yet to spawn. Spring salmon identification help for those not sure about the different types of fish in the river at this time of year.
Big water at Stanley.
As to methods, in settled conditions fishing by any method will have to be slow and deep with large lures to catch the elusive Tay Springer. Harling is also a favoured method at this time of year but be warned wrap up well or it will not be a pleasant experience.
Finally you are reminded that the Tay's policy for January - May 2014 is that all spring salmon should be released, i.e. the Tay has adopted a policy of 100% catch and release for spring salmon. Spring salmon are a scarce and precious resource. Please help preserve both them and the long term future of your sport by following the recommendations.
When releasing salmon please try to keep the fish in the water as much as possible to give them every chance to recover prior to release. Releasing fish from boats in the river is not recommended.Guidance on good Catch and Release practice.
This was last January in colder conditions.
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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