This salmon fisher is out presenting his fly on the lovely Meetings Pool of the River Tay at Kinnaird. This entire area of the Tay Valley is steeped in natural beauty and attracts many salmon fishers each year. Book a professional River Tay salmon get to show you all of these middle Tay fly fishing hot spots.

A River Tay salmon guide will take you to the best fishing areas and will make sure you're fishing through them optimally. If you are new to the sport a guide will teach all of the basic fly fishing skills and will supply all of the required fishing equipment and permit access. This is an upstream shot of the March Pool on the River Tay opposite the River Tummel mouth. Look at the perfectly strimmed riverbank I completed for the benefit & safety of our many visiting River Tay salmon fishing trip guests.

This is the neck of the famous Ash Tree Pool on the Lower Kinnaird salmon beat which has a lovely fly fishing stream that you can see where many salmon hold up during late Spring through to early Autumn each year. This side of the river is the easiest side to fish from and this salmon fishing trip guest was accompanied by his professional salmon guide.

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 River Tay's Newtyle Beat has many good salmon fishing pools that can be fished with a fly or a spinner. This fly fishing angler is just approaching one such hotspot at the tail of The Trap Pool. I took this shot while working as a salmon fishing guide for this salmon fisher. This fine photograph was taken during August when many fish are present in this lovely Tay salmon pool.

This fish was caught at sunrise on the River Tay near the Perthshire town of Dunkeld. This salmon weighed 14lbs and took a small fly at 7am just as the sun was rising. You can see the glimmer of light on the silver flanks of this fine fish as it lay in the landing net prior to its release.

Here's a shot from 2004 of the late Peter Anderson with myself in front of the Newtyle Beat fishing hut on the River Tay near Dunkeld. Peter was a colossal figure within Scottish salmon fishing and possessed exceptional skills with a fly or spinning rod which really had to be seen to be believed! You can see the Newtyle Beat jetty casting platform behind Peter.

Fishing Your Salmon Fly

By Jock Monteith 22nd February 2024

If you want to become fine tuned in the art of Scottish salmon fishing the process extends way past being able to 'look the part' on a riverbank by throwing a nice long tight looped salmon line.

A wild Atlantic salmon cares not a jot about the arial performance of a fly line nor about the feel good factor a 'caster' achieves about the distance they think they're presenting their fly at.

Here's a great shot of Jock Monteith's Tweed jacket and favourite Monteith salmon fly rod. The salmon fly rod was hand built by Harrisons of Liverpool and the light blue fly line was produced by Airflo in Brecon, Wales. My Tweed jackets were always made by Haggarts of Aberfeldy who used to supply all of the fishing & shooting estates in Scotland.

Is Spey Casting Distance Important

As a Head Ghillie on the River Tay I lived & worked through the era where 'world record' distance casts were driving the entire industry. Don't pick me up wrongly here as our Scottish Speycasting team are all 100% professional 'time served' legends in the their own right and have been true ambassadors for the sport and still are to this very day. Their amazing abilities with a 100ft headed Speyline & 18ft competition Spey rod truly needs to be seen to be believed! In reality very few salmon are ever caught with a cast like that unless a downstream swimming fly is what's needed for the first half of the swing until the river flow finally straightens things up.

This floating salmon fly line is swinging around perfectly here into a renowned salmon lie on the River Tay near Dunkeld. The rod in the picture is my 16ft Bruce & Walker Spey casting rod which I've used as a professional salmon guide for over 20 years due to its perfect casting action.

Long Headed Spey Lines Are Not For Everyone

Back then, with every UK game fair fight for added distance a new product would hit the shelves and the tackle dealers were 'loving it' selling thousand of these 'long bellied' distance Spey lines like hot cakes. I recall an angler turning up on my beat and handing me one of these boxed brand new Speylines & his existing fly reel for fitting. Even after taking the backing off the reel the new 100ft headed Speyline wouldn't fit so I had to lend him one of my reels to try his new line out. He could get a line out but only if he worked with half of the head section! No wonder the old Hardy Marquis No 3 salmon fly reels became so popular once again during that time! The hard reality for actual fishing purposes is that a Spey line head optimal head length range should really fall in between 55ft and 75ft and anything longer than that is a specialist line or a distance casting line and not for the vast majority of salmon fishers including myself. This deluge of un-workable long bellied Speylines that flooded the market back then opened the door for the shooting head era which is still plaguing the sport to this day.

Learning to use your left non dominant hand with a Scottish Spey cast opens up a much bigger tactical range for your salmon fishing approach. This salmon fishing tour angler was learning how to do this from his professional salmon fly fishing instructor on the Oak Tree Pool near Meikleour on the River Tay.

Salmon Fly Control Is Important

At 60 or 70 yards the only thing you're in control of is the terror you're inflicting upon the wildlife on the other side of the river so forget the distance theme that I personally feel has significantly hindered this business. The angling community at large couldn't 'cast a shadow' when it came to these monster lines and in came the 'easy to use' shooting head concept. These convenient little washing lines are the furthest thing away from arial elegance you could ever imagine in a salmon fly line yet they could be 'effortlessly' delivered at reasonable distance my most anglers so they quickly caught on. The shooting head theme was developed further into these even bulkier Skagit monstrosities that you also see today on the guise that they can turn-over even heavier sink tips which I personally never struggled doing with my properly tapered Speylines. One of my ghillie friends refers to these new breed fly lines as 'talent compensators' which just about sums them up perfectly.

What Really Matters In Salmon Fishing

Anglers need to realise that from a salmon's point of view its only the fly that matters and how it's swimming & waggling in and across the stream. An un-mendable distance cast with a shooting head (if your running line management is good enough!) or a huge Speyline cast at 50/70 yards puts your fly into 'no man's land' as far as fly control goes until it's back within 30 to 40 yards of your own riverbank. If you need distance like that it would be far more sensible to have the ghillie take you over in the boat to the far bank where you can fish a shorter lined 'controlled' fly or go to the nearest bridge! In high water salmon are found closer to the riverbank so no real need for distance casting or deep wading and in low water salmon will be holding in the central seam of the river and wading will be easier so it would really be a rare fishing application requirement where a 50+ yard cast could ever be required from a functional salmon fly fishing presentation point of view.

Here's a fabulous action photograph of Jock Monteith loading up a perfect Spey cast for long range salmon fly delivery across the River Tay with his tweed jacket and chest waders on. This shot was captured on the Meetings Pool of the Lower Kinnaird Beat by top Scottish photographer Louise Bellin.

The Facts About Salmon Fly Fishing Distance

The reality of Scottish salmon fly fishing is that most salmon will take a fly at between 10 & 20 yards from your side of the river where the fly is swimming and being 'controlled' optimally. Save your energy and the need to impress other salmon fishers as the only thing you need to impress is that big silvery beast who's looking for something to attack from its lie at the bottom of the river. Get your thoughts sub surface as quickly as you can if you want success in this game. Look for the fisher who throws 3 flies away after testing them at the side of the river on a piece of nylon before tying the 'chosen one' on to his leader that's passed their strict in-stream natural movement test. Look for the fisher who's come through a pool that 2 or 3 others have fished before yet still hooks and lands the only 2 salmon of the day. That fisher will sometimes be an angler but more often than not he will be a 'professional' ghillie.

Acquire A Fly Fishing Mentor

Talent spotting on the rivers of Scotland is easy as social media & fishing hut chat will give you a few clues but if you want to learn how to be a true 'sub surface' salmon fishing technician and have your catch results soar then you need to find a mentor who's got the correct approach and forget the distance casting theme. It's often only a split second decision for a salmon to be impressed enough to take a controlled and optimally spaced salmon fly as it glides and waggles its way down across a pool. The only thoughts you should be focussed on are your fly's depth, speed and most importantly of all its natural movement in the stream as what happens above the waterline is of zero significance to a salmon. When you encounter a 'sub surface' specialist with a higher than normal batting average study their form carefully and you'll learn more than anything the books or their authors will likely divulge or know.