Professional guides take care of their own individual salmon fishing beats for the enjoyment and safety of their visiting salmon fishing guests. Here's a perfectly cut riverbank on the River Tay near Pitlochry which is a popular salmon fishing area in Scotland.

Look at this fine picture of the River Tay taken from the Upper Kinnaird salmon fishing hut which sits in a perfect elevated position overlooking the river. The little riffle you see in the picture is known as Daffodil Lie which often produces a quick salmon fishing guests.

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.

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.

Here's the most perfect River Tay salmon pool where the River Tummel meets the Tay. This has always been a great area for catching salmon on a fly. Located between the Perthshire towns of Pitlochry & Dunkeld this area is fairly easy to access from all major Scottish cities making it a must for any visiting salmon fishing trip guests. This salmon fisher was being guided by one of our salmon fishing guide team members who captured this lovely shot of the occasion.

It's easily possible to go into a dream like state of mind when your immersed in the natural beauty of the River Tay's magnificent scenery like this. This shot was taken from the Green Bank Pool at Kinnaird looking downstream towards the Rock Pool and the mouth of the River Tummel beyond which is an amazing area of the Tay Valley near Dunkeld. Many salmon fishing guides host our clients in this perfect salmon fishing area.

Identifying The Salmon Lie

By Jock Monteith 14th July 2026

In periods of low water it's much easier to identify the exact areas of a salmon pool where fish are likely to be found.

If you focus your efforts on these likely areas you'll fish far more effectively and your 'batting average' is likely to soar!

Here's a guided River Tay salmon fishing guest fishing his way methodically down through the Meetings Pool on the Upper Kinnaird salmon beat which is a perfect holding area for salmon in medium to low water levels from mid March through to October each year. Look at the beautiful fully leafed oak trees on the far side of the river.

Limited Low Water Lies

Even turning up on a busy salmon beat where a salmon pool rotation is issued to the guests for the morning and afternoon fishing sessions I'd personally much rather go through a hot spot twice with completely different salmon flies and depths than wasting fishing time on areas that seldom produce a result. Little and often with complete sub surface fly swim thoughts are how you take advantage of limited fly water on a busy salmon beat when multiple salmon pools are thin on the ground. Just because you or another fly fisher has been through a pool means nothing if the tactical fly fishing depth, speed and fly size hasn't been correct so you should have a back up plan if your first swing through the pool doesn't excite its occupants!

Here's Jock Monteith photographed with his black labrador dog 'Selkie' in the Cottar Pool of the Newtyle Beat during late Spring. This shot was taken by professional Scottish photographer Peter Sandground while Jock was in his tweed jacket and traditional River Tay salmon fishing boat near Dunkeld. You can almost make out the bluebells on the grassy slopes in the background.

Don't Read Too Many Salmon Fishing Books

Most of the books written about salmon fishing have illogical salmon fishing information in them so use logic as your reference point and not hearsay. When the river warms during late Spring & Summer resident salmon will always be found in the deeper water and at the bottom of the pool where it is 'logically' cooler. In very cold early Spring water salmon are found high in the water column where they can draw warmth on their backs from the sun or where 'logically' the warmer water thermals are located. If you want to place your salmon fly in a non cooperative salmon's 'strike zone' during warm water conditions then you need to make sure your fly is down deep enough to match the depth of the pool you're fishing. This floating line Summer fishing theme will catch the new keen fish that'll come several feet or more for a fly but as for hooking older educated deep holding resident salmon it's usually always a complete waste of time.

This fine Spring salmon was caught in the Guay Pool on Lower Kinnaird during a light snow storm in early Spring. This was a perfect end result for the fishing effort on a cold and wet Spring morning as you can see in this cold day shot. This guest came from Ireland and booked me as his salmon guide and although the weather wasn't kind the salmon fishing objective was clearly achieved.

Apply Stealth To Your Salmon Pool Approach

While you'll often still see salmon showing in a pool after they've been 'spooked' out of their lies by a careless wader they do after that point become very difficult to catch. Just because the river is shallower and you can wade in the river much more easily you should at all times be extremely aware of the disturbance you're causing and especially during low water periods. A good salmon pool that could easily yield 2 or 3 salmon that day can be completely wasted if not treated respectfully. Far too many anglers from what I've seen just charge straight in and wreck their chances of success so keeping back and move carefully even if it means throwing a longer line will always be far more effective through these lower water fishing conditions. In addition to that the increased height you'll have above the water line by staying in the shallows permits a more effective long range delivery as even a 16ft salmon rod technically reduces to 13ft when you're in the river waist deep!