Salmon Fishing Scotland Tay, Perthshire Salmon Fishing Report for W/E 21st February 2015.

Salmon Fishing Scotland Tay, Perthshire Salmon Fishing Report for W/E 21st February 2015.

The salmon fishing on the Tay in Perthshire has improved this past week with good conditions for fishing in very cold weather and settled water levels at the end of the week. Milder weather with rain combined with high tides improved the run and catches increased. Expectation is high on the river for 2015 after successful springs in 2014 and 2013 and hopefully favourable conditions may trigger off improving runs and catches as we get close to March to give everyone a chance of landing a spring “Bar of Silver” as the last 2 years have proved.

Spring salmon were landed last week in much better numbers as cold weather returned and fortune favoured those who braved the elements in some cases.

The last few days in the week saw better numbers landed at long last and the quality of the salmon caught was simply outstanding with fish caught in the late teens and early twenties. There seems to be a lack of kelts as well which maybe reflects the poor autumn run and early big spates.

Salmon have been caught in the lower river this past week in better numbers, which is understanding with the cold conditions making it ideal as fish are running slowly due to the cold water temperature currently. The beats around Stanley traditionally lead the way in these conditions in early spring and should be a barometer for the runs and that has proved the case so far. The beats at Stanley are leading the way as expected. Further down river the Redgorton beats recorded their first fish of the season that was heartening. The Lower beat had a 7 pounds fish and

John Lessels caught the first springer off the Upper beat on Friday. At Stanley the Pitlochrie and Catholes beats featured on most days. Upper Scone caught a superb 19 pounds fish from Pitlochrie pool on Friday. Sally Bateson caught her first ever salmon from the boat early in the week and Stuart McArther caught a cracking fish on the fly from Horsey on Saturday. The Catholes fished reasonably well last week in good conditions. Another first was achieved by

Will Dawson landing a 10 pounds fish in the Little Head and George Gifford missed out on an outstanding picture of a beauty in the same pool due to ghillie pilot error! Saturday saw 2 fish off the beat including a 25 pounds corker for John Dewar fishing on his own in the Woodside with a Toby. He said it was a fight and a half taking numerous long runs and a fish of a lifetime. Well done John. Brain Stobie landed a much smaller fish in the Back Dam from the boat. Further up river Stobhall and Taymount continued their excellent start with 5 fish between them. The higher water will bring the Linn pool back into contention after the water came back up and that should produce several fish in the next week or so.

It certainly featured this past week with Andrew Spencer, Brendan Tumility and Stuart Miller all landing good springers there on the Taymount days and

Iain McLeod being successful with Stobhall.

Ballathie had a great fish fish for 10 year old Henry Mountford weighing 16 pounds under the watchful eye of ghillie Gary McErlain.

Islamouth had a better week with a couple of fish including a superb 21 pounds fish for Arnot McWhinnie from the boat. Charlie Martin also caught from the beat with a Toby Salmo.

On upper Islamouth and Meikleour Calum McRoberts reported “fresh water and milder weather last weekend, brought an improvement in sport during the week and confidence was high that we would catch a springer during the week. I'm happy to say that on Friday, we were proved right when we landed a 9lbs springer from Islamouth. Water height is great for us at the moment, so hopefully this might be the start of more regular sport.”

Further upstream Glendelvine reported their first fish, a 16 pounds beauty and Upper Kinnaird had a fish on Thursday. On the Loch Fish n’ Trips have been reporting salmon on a regular basis from early running salmon. Successful anglers included Marco Chicarella with 2 fish in a day up to 17 pounds in very challenging conditions, Brian Docherty and Bob Boyle also caught from the Loch.

The Spring Salmon fishing season has now nearly completed February and expectation is very high after previous seasons and poor overall catches last year. Last weeks catches hopefully encouraged everyone after fish were caught in the system up to 25 pounds in better numbers. Let us hope with improving conditions an upturn in catches will appear as last year proved. Tight lines!

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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