Here's a lovely River Tay salmon Pool known as Daffodil Lie which is a salmon fishing hotspot that's formed by a sub surface pile of riverbed stones that you can clearly see the surface disturbance from in this photograph. Salmon love to hold up in here and can be frequently caught by anglers who know this salmon lie and how to fish it. As a salmon fishing guide and tactical fishing instructor I know only too well the potency of this River Tay salmon lie hot spot..

Here's a River Tay salmon fishing trip guest buckled into a super fit fresh run Spring salmon in the Cottar Pool of the Newtyle Beat. This was one of five perfect salmon we caught that day and every fish was hooked from the boat then taken to the riverbank to play, land & release.

Here's a perfect Tay salmon swimming out of the landing net and regaining its freedom back to its river home. Look at the fish friendly landing net mesh which is essential to protect the flanks of the salmon from scale and mucous membrane damage while being landed and unhooked. This salmon was landed by my fishing guest and great friend John Gray while I was working as his salmon fishing guide for the day.

Here's a late May example of a fresh run River Tay caught Spring salmon which was captured on the Kinnaird salmon beats near Dunkeld. This is the most sought after salmon of all and it's a delight to land a fish like this on a 15ft salmon fly rod.

These fresh run Scottish salmon look as if they've been forged from molten silver and are often referred to as 'bars of silver'. This perfect Spring salmon took a 'Jock's Shrimp' salmon fly near the River Tummel & River Tay confluence during late May which is a great time to intercept a fish of this calibre. I took this perfect up close shot while this beautiful fish was still in the landing net before releasing it back to the river.

This is God's finest marine creature in a salmon landing net moments before it was released back to its River Tay habitat. This fine fish was caught during late March near Dunkeld and weight exactly 23lbs. The fish took a pearly pink 4 inch Classic Tomic lure in colour code 341. These lures are ordered from Tomic Lures in Canada especially for use on the River Tay by many professional salmon fishing guides.

Salmon Behaviour Observations

By Jock Monteith 24th April 2026

Having an good logic based understanding of how salmon behave after they have been caught is always going to be worth knowing whether you're a ghillie or a fishing guest.

Here's a few of my river life career observations for you to chew on!

What a perfect fresh run Spring salmon this one was which I captured directly outside the Upper Kinnaird fishing hut near Logierait on the River Tay. Look at its perfect ocean hunting colours and how it shows up so magnificently against the dark Spring water of the Tay. Note the landing net being used to stabilise the fish for this fine salmon photograph.

Catching River Tay Running Salmon

One of the River Tay salmon beats I used to work on wasn't the best of salmon holding beats so you really had to watch for the signs of running fish and know exactly where their flight paths were in all water conditions and where they were likely to briefly stop. During the early months of the season when you had only 'transients' and very few 'residents' I observed a few interesting behavioural traits that I'm completely convinced of are factual and now play a big part of the fishing success of any salmon beat.

This was my first fish of the 2024 River Tay salmon fishing season and a fine fish too as you can clearly see here in this photograph. Look at its beautiful oceanic colours as they highlight against the dark browns of the river environment. I caught this fine at the Rock Pool on Kinnaird Water which has always been a good Spring salmon fishing area.

Early Spring Salmon Capture

Before the days of mandatory 'catch & release' for Spring salmon and before I contacted the Scotsman in 2006 to properly explain the plight of the diminishing River Tay Spring runs and how an 18% release rate for Spring salmon on the Tay at that time was a death spiral which would guarantee the complete obliteration of God's finest run of salmon I constantly observed the following. Early running Spring fish that had been hooked, landed and removed from the Tay on one of these non holding area flight path locations would in most cases leave behind other fish that would periodically show in the exact area that fish had been hooked and landed at. Strange though that exactly 5 years after the Spring run on the Tay got a better level of protection thanks to a bit of much needed Scotsman 'sensationalism' the river was once again showing much better runs of Spring fish. Could have been a cyclical coincidence but maybe not.

Here's Alan Rennie playing one of 5 Spring salmon he caught that with myself as his salmon guide in the boat that day. Look are the riverbank where there's no leaves on the trees yet there's some beautiful sunlight which just gave the surface of the water of the river enough warmth to get these fish on the move and in a 'taking' frame of mind. This photo was taken in the Cottar Pool on the Newtyle Beat of the River Tay.

Observing Salmon Fight Behaviour

Some of these high water salmon 'flight path' areas were the most unlikely spots on that particular Tay beat that were never or could ever be regarded as proper salmon holding areas even though they became just that over the following days or weeks before these other fish eventually moved on again. On the once prolific Scottish West coast rivers before the governments decided to betray wild Atlantic salmon and the delicate sea loch ecology by turning our beautiful West coast sea lochs into large scale 'garbage' (not salmon) manufacturing factories I'd often see in the gin clear West coast river water other salmon following the distressed fish I was playing as a sign of loyalty or defence.

Here's a nice spin fishing shot I took of salmon fishing guest on the River Tay having a serious attempt at catching a salmon while on his fishing break. This slow moving deep pool near the village of Stanley is a great fishing area on the Tay. You can see the salmon fishing hut tucked in below the trees on the far side of the river.

The Deep Water Of The River Tay

On the bigger rivers like the Tay you seldom see these other shoal members following the salmon you've hooked but if you watch carefully over the following days or weeks you may observe the salmon that has been caught & released stay in that very area where it was interviewed! It has been proven by radio tagging salmon that have been caught that they don't immediately recommence their upstream journey and can and often hang about in the same 'capture' location before eventually moving on again. When a dominant 'lead dog' fish in a shoal of salmon attacks a fly and gets caught, released & in effect 'stopped' it is logical that its colleagues will stop too and this I have also witnessed over the years.

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.

Setting Up Your Salmon Beat Decoys

Maybe obscure thoughts & observations like these are maybe too much information but the bottom line is I 100% believe that when a salmon is caught and released that particular fish and other shoal members often stay behind in that exact location for a certain period of time. Even when a salmon is released the surprise of the temporary 'alien abduction' will keep that salmon in location for days, weeks or sometimes even longer before moving on again. The above scenario in effect is setting up 'decoys' for other running salmon to stop as we know these creatures are not lone wolves and like the company of others. The value of stopping early running Spring salmon on any salmon beat should not be under estimated and as a former Tay boatman I'd always be consistently out covering the water during the quieter early Spring months (with or without guests) looking to do exactly that!