Here's one of my hard working trusted River Tay boat fishing lures which has performed numerous times over the years as you can see by its battered external condition. This is the pearly pink 4 inch Tomic Classic lure from Canada which is the only River Tay 'harling' lure required from January to the end of April each year. As a professional River Tay boatman having trusted effective lures like this are vital for success.

This is a perfectly thought out salmon spin fishing lure colour combination. A North Sea sprat forms an important part of the Atlantic salmon's diet combined with copper which has always been the most consistent attractor of all metal finishes. At 100mm in length and weighing in at 27g a perfect slow presentation 'lively' lure swim action is also achieved to maximise your chances of a take.

Here's a 16ft River Tay salmon fishing coble constructed from larch and oak. These traditional salmon boats are very stable yet can navigate shallow water when required. I've spent years out in this style of River Tay boat and enjoyed the capture of many salmon while boat fishing. This is one of the Kinnaird Beat boats on the River Tay near Pitlochry in Highland Perthshire.

These are a carefully designed and coloured range of perfect new style salmon lures created by renowned Scottish salmon ghillie & River Tay boatman Jock Monteith. Salmon lures in general are seriously outdated and with reduced Atlantic salmon stock levels across the entire Northern Hemisphere more intelligent lures are required to maximise an angler's limited fishing time. These professionally designed 21g lures will significantly increase the chance of salmon action!

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.

This strong single hook replaced the 3 treble hooks this lure comes with for better salmon hook ups. This lure is the champagne Vision Oneten which is a renowned salmon catcher on the River Tay in Scotland and is used by most professional salmon fishing instructors.

This mum and son salmon fishing tour team seen here with the boatman at Dunkeld were over for a few days of Scottish salmon fishing from Switzerland. The young boy Oscar actually hooked and landed a 12lbs salmon with his very first cast of a salmon rod the day prior much to the total amazement of Mum, me and young Oscar himself!

River Tay Harling Lures

By Jock Monteith 10th December 2025

As a former professional River Tay boatman there were certain lures at certain times of the salmon fishing season where I just didn't ever have to doubt their effectiveness.

The next few paragraphs will give you my take on the highly successful 'pearly pink' 4 inch Tomic 'Classic' lure.

Here's a shot of myself while serving as a professional River Tay salmon fishing guide with my black labrador dog 'Selkie' out in the Cottar Pool of the Newtyle Beat near Dunkeld. This shot was taken by professional Scottish photographer Peter Sandground for the Glasgow Herald Magazine.

A Battered Salmon Lure Tells A Potent Story

Firstly let me draw your attention to the 'battle scars' that are present on the above 4 inch Tomic 'Classic'. Other than the rub marks from the hook swinging back and forth across the underbelly of the lure (known as the smile) all that other paint damage has been caught by sub surface smash attacks and 'tugs of war' from prime River Tay Spring salmon. Never be put off by the surface paint condition of a lure as it will keep working if you keep using it much longer than you could ever feel comfortable with or imagine.

New Intelligent Salmon Spinning Lures

While traditional salmon spin fishing lures do still catch salmon nothing beats the professional career observational eye & 'hands on' experience when creating or selecting a salmon lure. Professional guides are dependent on catching salmon with their guests and this is exactly why the Monteith 'Copper Sprat' 27g salmon lure was created as a more 'lively' and more visually attractive version of the original 30g ABU Salmo lure. Follow this link to obtain a pair of these perfect salmon lures. This is the first of many intelligent 'new breed' specialist salmon spin fishing lures currently being introduced to the salmon spin fishing lure market by Jock Monteith.

Complete Salmon Lure Faith

If you're a Tay fisher or ghillie who hasn't gained faith in this particular 'weapon' my only advice to you is don't get too distracted by the incoming assault of 'mega buck' bass lures from the USA as they are not as good as the Tomic for staying connected to salmon with due to their little bass hooks even though they are very attractive movers in the water. You don't want a shallow hook hold on a big Tay Springer with a fine wire hook and logic should tell you why. Nor do you want to badly injure a fish when multiple trebles catch the landing net mesh when the salmon inevitably writhes. In saying that these Vision Oneten lures fish fine with a single iron if you rig it up the same way as you see here. The micro barbed single can be perfectly held in 'balanced' position with a twist of fuse wire to the centre redundant hook mound which will 'break away' when a salmon is hooked.

This is a hand built 16ft River Tay 'coble' boat which are constructed from larch & oak by master boat builder John Ferguson who's based in Stanley in Perthshire. These beautiful river salmon fishing boats are a pleasure to use as a professional salmon guide and open up multi faceted fishing applications in addition to the normal fishing tactics deployed from the riverbanks.

The Lure Action 'Waggle' Of The 4 Inch Tomic Classic

The Tomic 4 Inch Classic 'in river' action is an absolute enigma as to what on earth it is reminding a salmon of. If you study the form of the lure as it's fishing you'll see a slowish consistent side to side kick type of waggle that is truly tantalising to salmon. The only thing I could relate it to is maybe a 'backing off' injured squid or some other type of oceanic salmon delicacy. Personally I loved using these most in the bigger water conditions of Spring and especially on the duller low light days and often I'd be 'harling' 3 of these identical lures at once with the logic that salmon in the ocean are never likely feeding on any more than one food source type at any one time so they are only used to seeing multiples of the same item of prey which might just give your harling presentation the 'natural' edge on occasion.

Here is a traditional River Tay harling boat moored on the lovely sandbank at the Kinnaird Beat Rock Pool. The 2 salmon anglers on the right hand side of the river with their professional guide had just landed their 2nd salmon when I took this perfect shot. This fishing area of the Tay is between Pitlochry & Dunkeld where the River Tummel greets the Tay and is a renowned hot spot. The deep water to the right hand side of the boat is a serious salmon holding pool that our salmon guides love to take salmon fishing guests to.

The Harling 'Double Dunt' Hook Up

On a few instances over the years I've had 2 rods buckle in the boat at the same time while performing this multiple pearly pink Tomic lure approach. On one such occasion I was out harling the Tay with my late colleague Ian Redford when this happened. I handed Ian one buckled rod put my boot on the other and quickly whipped in the 3rd lure. Ian said to me 'what are we going to do' and I replied where going to make for the riverbank and you run that way and I'll run the other way and we'll see if they part! Two perfect and nearly identical 11 pound sea-liced February springers were soon landed.

Lure Action Difference Between Tomic Classic & Kynoch

The 4 inch Classic Tomic has a narrower body than the 'Lucky Louie' originated 'Kynoch Killer' which is also another highly successful River Tay salmon 'harling' lure. This slightly less bulky body & smaller front nose gives the 4 inch Classic Tomic a slower less erratic action which personally I like better in the cold water of early Spring. From a salmon's point of view both are highly attractive and from a faith point of view they only ever take the one you're using! The action of a 4 inch Classic Tomic can be speeded up by adjusting & double anchoring the knot position to put the lure's nose down more. That's maybe too much detail though and easier to just switch to a Kynoch or 3 inch Tay Lure equivalent when you want to speed up the action which I always did later in the Spring.

The Pearly Pink Salmon Lure Paint Job

This pearlescent finish with a florescent pink stripe is another difficult aspect to truly understand but I think I've got it at least half solved. This pearly white body paint job when delivered sub surface into the Tay transforms into a lovely light golden colour due to the natural sedimentation stain of the river. Gold was always a great attractor for salmon and especially through the Spring months. The fluorescent pink stripe on any lure is one of the most potent & bright colours when viewed in low light conditions under the UV spectrum. Other fluorescent non pink colours that appear to our eyes visually brighter pare into insignificance compared to the fluorescent pink equivalent when the light source reduces hence my earlier comments about the deadly attributes of this amazing lure during lower light days.

Traditional Boat Salmon Fishing On The River Tay

Harling on the River Tay is a traditional approach that's been deployed for centuries. On the big wide River Tay the boat offers a distinct advantage when it comes to maximising 'water coverage'. The boat also delivers a 'harled' lure or fly over the salmon lies at exactly the right speed which often can be far more difficult or impossible to achieve from the riverbank. A big part of salmon fishing success is down to 'effective' water coverage and quality lure or fly swim time. The 'law of averages' will be seriously tipped in your favour if you're out on the Tay with one of it's skilled boatmen with 3 lures that are being correctly & systematically swum down through all the suspected salmon holding areas throughout the full course of the fishing day. While fly fishing on the Tay is most salmon angler's number 1 choice there's definitely a time and place for everything.