This fish was caught neat the Perthshire town of Murthly with this fortunate salmon angler's very first cast of the fly while I was serving as his personal salmon fishing guide. Sometime salmon can surprise the angler and his guide by showing up at the very start of the fishing day. This fine fish was caught in the Cottage Stream Pool on the Kercock salmon beat of the River Tay.

Here's a fine shot of the River Tay near Logierait which is one of the most scenic areas on the entire River Tay Valley. This is also a very popular area for visiting salmon fishers which flock to this are in pursuit of a salmon between March and October each year. These are mainly alder & oak trees that you see in this lovely shot.

This photograph of professional Scottish salmon fishing guide Jock Monteith was captured by TV producer Chris Webster outside Ferry Cottage on the Kinnaird Estate of the River Tay in Perthshire. You can see the snow clad hills and riverbanks in the background.

Here's professional Scottish salmon guide Jock Monteith with a salmon fishing tour guest at the neck of the famous Kinnaird Beat's Ash Tree Pool. You can clearly see the beautiful Perthshire hills behind Pitlochry in the distance and Jock carrying his favourite salmon landing net over his shoulder.

Here's a beautiful May shot showing a lone angler out on the River Tay near Dunkeld in search of a prized Scottish Spring salmon. The shadow of the trees on the far bank is a great salmon lie for fish that have powered up through the fast water immediately downstream.

When you see a big bunch of daffodils on any Scottish riverbank realise they are not there naturally and someone has planted them there for a reason. On a salmon river that reason will almost certainly be to mark one of the salmon beat's Spring salmon lies as you can clearly see here on the River Tay near Pitlochry. These are the subtle observational markers that real professional salmon fishing guides will know and teach to new salmon fishers while being tutored.

Catching A Quick Salmon

By Jock Monteith 3rd July 2026

As a professional ghillie it's always a great thing to take the pressure off and eliminate the 'expectation management' effort while looking after guests with a quick salmon capture at the start of the fishing day.

This is the Rock Pool on the River Tay slightly upstream of the River Tay & River Tummel confluence which is just visible in the background. This is a very good salmon fishing area in Scotland and worthy of a salmon fishing trip. I took this beautiful shot in low water conditions during June after commuting down in this traditional Tay salmon boat.

Salmon Fishing Can Often Be Totally Unpredictable

Scottish salmon fishing has always been unpredictable as there are far too many completely uncontrollable salmon stock & water conditions that can affect even the most astute river mind's fishing forecast. Over the years I recall a few brilliant experiences when salmon cooperated within seconds of a guest's fly or lure touching the water which took both myself and the fishing guests by surprise just as much as the fish and here's a few of these incidents.

Here's a salmon fishing guest fly fishing their way down through the Gean Tree Pool of the River Tay's Kercock salmon beat. This guest was under the supervision of a professional salmon guide resulting in 2 salmon being caught by this fisher that day even though it was a very bright July day. Look at the lovely sunlight sparkle coming off the water.

The Very First Cast Of The Fishing Day

Several seasons ago I recall being on the Tay with a returning guest who had completely nailed the Spey cast on his previous guided fishing visit even though he didn't catch a fish on that occasion. There wasn't really too much for me to do on this guest's 2nd visit other than to make sure he was fishing the best areas of the pool correctly so as his ghillie I thought it was only right to start proceedings off by lengthening his line to start then hand him the rod. I did exactly that and literally as I was handing him the rod a salmon took the fly! I'll never forget the look on his face as he realised what had just occurred and we both had a hand on the rod the split second the fish took. Thank goodness we had a witness upstream who also couldn't believe what he'd just seen!

To The Total Amazement Of Another Fishing Guest

That particular morning we were sharing the pool with another angler who I knew and who was already fishing the pool when we arrived. At lunchtime the other fisher said to me I wouldn't have believed what I just witnessed had I not seen that for myself! After pulling off line and flicking a short 20 yard cast the fly must have literally landed on the nose of a fish as featured in the photograph with the guest. My right hand was stretched out in the process of handing the rod to the guest and as the fly was very positively taken by the fish. This is one of the many brilliant components of salmon fishing and how a salmon can sometimes be your best friend!

Here's a River Tay coble clinker built salmon boat being used for harling on the Kinnaird Beat. There's a good salmon lie directly under the Logierait Bridge that you can see in this picture. Harling is a River Tay boat fishing method than fishes 3 or more lures at once. I took this shot in during high water in February.

Quick Takes While Harling On The River Tay

I recall numerous occasions on the River Tay as a professional boatman where sub surface cooperation occurred instantly. On one such occasion I was out with the beat owner's father in law who I'd just met for the first time. We were up on the Tay's Fiddlers Pool on Newtyle and had just quietly sneaked into position in the boat at the neck of the pool. I'd literally just cast the first 'harling' lure out and clicked over the bail arm on the reel and was stretching to place the butt of the rod into the 'harling' iron and the rod was buckled by a very lively 16 pounder! The owner's father in law's fishing success rate on the beat from previous visits with other boatmen wasn't great so he couldn't believe what he'd just witnessed and I soon became one of his best pals!

Here's Jock Monteith powering upstream in a traditional larch built River Tay salmon fishing 'coble' boat at the confluence of the River Tay & River Tummel during the month of May. Jock has his cold weather clothing on and Tweed cap in addition to his life jacket which is essential for all boat or riverbank duties.

The Being 'In It To Win It' Salmon Fishing Tactics

Cyber politics or theorising in a fishing hut is not as effective for creating your own salmon fishing luck by being out on the river effectively swimming a fly or lure. Salmon fishing on most Scottish beats will provide little 'windows of opportunity' that pop up throughout the course of the fishing day whether they are visible ones or not. Often you'll never be aware of the movement or presence of salmon as they enter or are holding up in a beat so work on the assumption they are always present because even during lower stock periods they will be! Let others rabble on about how it's a waste of time and all the other stuff that goes on and let it bounce off your kevlar coated fishing cap! You'll school them all properly when you're summoning them out of the fishing hut to land the fish you've just hooked that should have been theirs!

Here's a downstream shot taken in front of the Upper Kinnaird Beat salmon fishing hut on the River Tay. This lovely Tay salmon beat is located directly upstream of the Tummel Tay confluence and is a fantastic salmon beat for a quality River Tay fly fishing experience. The salmon pool 50 yards downstream of the boat id called Daffodil Lie and is marked with a big bunch of daffodils which appear each Spring when the pool fishes its best.

Silencing The Salmon Fishing Critics

This topic I could truly right a huge book on and so many times I've seen anglers or have personally demonstrated to the 'nae sayers' the presence of salmon that they were convinced weren't present. One incident at the Upper Kinnaird salmon beat hut where 2 Scandinavian fishers were bleating on about how the prevailing low cold water conditions were a waste of time as my long standing pal & guide Kevin McKay slipped out of the hut and with his 3rd cast hooked and landed a perfect Spring fish to their astonishment! I also recall a busy late Spring day on the same beat where a disgruntled fishing guest literally 'lobbed' his fly rod at me at lunchtime as we disembarked from the boat saying 'show me what you can do!' A dozen casts later I offered him his buckling fly rod back which he refused! He didn't know though that I had intentionally herded some Spring fish up into the Daffodil Lie (a natural shallow ridge stopper) below the Upper Kinnaird hut with the revs of the boat engine while commuting the anglers up from the bottom of the beat so before he even offered me his rod I already knew they'd likely be an 'alert' fish in there for the taking!