Look at this for low summer water salmon pool perfection. This is the right hand bank of the River Tay on the Kinnaird Beat's March Pool. Many of our salmon fishing holiday guests catch salmon in this lovely pool each year while being looked after by our excellent salmon fishing guide team members. The best salmon lie hot spot here is in the shadow cast by the single tree on the opposite riverbank.

Here's a lady salmon fly fisher out covering the tail of The Trap Pool on the River Tay near Dunkeld. This fine shot was taken during May when the riverbanks were if full natural beauty mode. The light blue fly line she is working with is a full floating fly line with a sink tip on the front end to sink the salmon fly down a foot or two.

This red circle marks the best salmon lie in this delicious River Tay salmon fishing pool. A careful wade and long controlled salmon fly is required here for success. This fine shot was taken by myself while serving as a salmon fishing instructor in May and you can see the leaves have recently appeared on the overhanging oak tree branches.

Here's a shot of a lone salmon fishing angler wading down through The Croys Pool of the River Tay which is located near the Perthshire village of Murthly. Wading no further than knee depth is a safer way to fish and will spook less salmon too like you see here. You can see the shallow water in the foreground of this shot which makes it easy for a shallow wade through the pool.

This perfect heavyweight salmon was tamed from the boat at Dunkeld during March with the assistance of the professional Tay boatman. The lady angler that played this big fish was amazed as it was her first ever salmon as was her husband who had never caught a fish of this calibre! This Spring salmon was 23lbs and was quickly released to the Tay immediately after this fine shot was taken by myself as their salmon guide.

After the excitement and satisfaction of hooking and landing a salmon there's even more satisfaction in seeing the fish recover and strongly swim away. This was one such River Tay salmon on the riverbed stones on the right hand bank of the March Pool moments before it swam off. As a professional salmon guide there's a great feeling seeing all salmon swimming away after capture.

Here's a truly amazing piece of salmon water on the Kinnaird Estate near Pitlochry which is a firm favourite for visiting salmon anglers. Salmon love to sit close in to this riverbank beside the broken water riffles you can see in this photograph. Personally I seldom fail to hook a salmon while fishing through this perfect River Tay salmon pool.

I took this shot at the famous Ash Tree Pool of the Kinnaird Beat which is a must fish salmon pool for any salmon angler who's visiting the River Tay. This pool holds many Atlantic salmon from mid March through to mid October each year. This salmon angler was fishing the tail of the pool in this photograph.

Scottish Salmon Pools

By Jock Monteith 22nd June 2023

Have you ever truly thought about all the different components that create a really good salmon fishing pool and why salmon will congregate there in numbers.

The following paragraphs will give an insight into how a professional salmon guide's mind works on this topic and hopefully will unlock a few different trains of thought on this fascinating subject.

Good Salmon Holding Pools

The basic components that create a good salmon holding pool undoubtedly come down to depth and flow rate. When a salmon enters the fresh water rivers it loses the security the vastness of the ocean provides and has to run up through various shallow streams where it's vulnerable to all forms of predation. Therefore when a salmon reaches a deep water pool where it can become more or less invisible again it is highly likely to hold in that area before it senses the right time to move again. In recent decades exploding wild otter populations move salmon on that otherwise would have hung about much longer so this is another factor that most anglers are completely unaware of as are the otter's counterpart (the beaver) which to a salmon the beaver's movement & profile is exactly the same and will have the same disturbance affect on holding salmon through the nights.

Why A Salmon Holds In A Pool

Any deep water pool that has a steady slow flow that brings oxygenated water through its mouth and out of its gills is going to allow the salmon to preserve its energy levels until these precious reserves are needed once more when the next opportunity to run appears. Add into the 2 above components a fast water pool neck and a classic V shaped pool tail with a few different sub surface riverbed features in between with some depth for security and you have a great starting blend of features that salmon just love to be around.

Here you can see a perfect upstream shot from the Kinnaird Meetings Pool to the mouth of the River Tummel which flows in on the right hand side of frame directly behind the boat. This area of the Tay is fantastic for fly fishing and especially during March, April & May when the Spring salmon are running the River Tay & Tummel as they always hold up in this area and are easy to cover with a fly rod.

How Long Do Salmon Hold In A Pool

Salmon can hold for a long time in a pool where disturbance levels from anglers are not too high and a well run salmon beat will keep the rod pressure limited so as not to move salmon on or switch them off completely from taking a fly. The less salmon see of a fly or lure the more likely chance there is of a fish taking but many anglers don't fully understand this as often you'll see pools stuffed with fish that won't look at anything and that is often a sure sign of over-fishing.

After You Release Your Salmon

Another fact I've discovered over the decades of being professionally involved in this business is that when a salmon is caught and released the fish will not immediately resume its upstream journey but will sit in that pool for days, weeks or sometimes months before eventually moving on. On the River Tay catching an early Spring salmon (even in high water) and releasing it was a certain way of setting up a 'live decoy' in the pool which would naturally attract other running fish to stop.

Salmon Attract Other Salmon

The more salmon that are caught and released the more a pool will fill up with other salmon too until such times as the next big spate moves them on. What I've just mentioned has been carefully assessed through decades of observing salmon behaviour and I've seen this work on many occasions over the decades. There's much more to salmon behaviour than most people realise and that's why it's important to consult with only those who have spent enough time observing salmon habits through professional career based riverbank experience which should make enough sense.

I personally manufactured & named this salmon pool 25 years ago as previously it was a big deep hole full of fallen trees and was completely un-fishable. It took one week and much gravel movement to create and pack this perfect salmon fishing riverbank you can see. The pool was named The Trap as it is indeed a trap for running Tay salmon as the deep water channel flows right through this side of the river forcing salmon to come through and stop in this beautiful pool.

When A New Salmon Lie Appears

Just to make the fascinating business even more intriguing the Winter floods or any flood for that matter can reshuffle the salmon lies in a pool or even eliminate the pool entirely on occasions. I used to love walking the river during the first low water period in early Spring to see if the big chap upstairs had made any alterations to the beat and if so I'd be studying very closely if salmon were still holding in these areas. You can spend years learning a specific stretch of a river then all of a sudden a percentage of it can change virtually overnight so keep an open mind regarding known salmon lie alterations as 'Old Sam' will direct you to exactly where they're preferring to hold up soon enough!