These 2 River Tay salmon fishers have become great friends after meeting on the salmon river 20 years previously. The salmon rivers of Scotland are great meeting places for people with the same fascinating salmon fishing obsession. This photo of these 2 great salmon fishing buddies was taken on the Dunkeld House Beat during the Summer.

Here's a fine salmon capture photograph for River Tay salmon angler Martin Hunter at the famous Ash Tree Pool of the River Tay near Dunkeld. A personal guide always provides a salmon fishing advantage and even to experienced salmon fishers like Martin. I was Martin's personal salmon guide that day and took this perfect salmon capture shot.

Here's professional River Dee salmon guide John Fyfe holding 1 or 3 salmon that he landed on the River Tay near Dunkeld during the month of August. I personally guided him this day to eliminate him guessing where the salmon were holding and his professional salmon fishing presentation expertise did the rest. This Summer salmon was landed at the Green Bank Pool on the Kinnaird beat and you can see the Tay salmon boat in the background.

Here's a lovely fly caught salmon by one of our guided fishing guests which was caught on the River Tummel neat Ballinluig in July. This fishing area of the Tummel is close to Dunkeld & Pitlochry. You can see the salmon is being perfectly supported by this salmon fisher while I took the salmon capture shot as his salmon fishing guide.

Learning how to fish with a salmon fly rod is important but learning how to hook a salmon on the fly is important too. This lovely Summer salmon was caught on the River Tay near Dunkeld and is typical of Summer run salmon. This fish was caught by one of our salmon fishing holiday guests during July with the assistance of his salmon fishing guide.

Here's young Johnny Monteith with a perfect Autumn hen salmon that he hooked under the bridge on the Cargill Beat of the River Tay which is a very good salmon fishing hot spot. This salmon took an ABU Toby Salmo lure and I was his salmon fishing guide that highly memorable day.

Salmon Fishing Friends

By Jock Monteith 26th October 2021

Salmon fishing is indeed a truly amazing pursuit and it's brilliant to be out on your own on the river searching for another addition to your own personal scoresheet.

What betters the above is having a great fishing friend to share these fantastic salmon encounters with.

Salmon Fishing Associations

The salmon river creates the perfect arena for meeting other fellow fishers and ghillies in a truly healthy environment who all have the common interest of an encounter with the 'King of Fish'. It is this common objective that sparks these fishing hut and riverbank interactions that in many cases will lead into significant life long relationships. Some of the most interesting fishing guests I've personally met have been fishing companions for decades and will seldom fish apart.

Salmon Fishing Success Protocol

If you're fortunate to catch a fish or two during the morning fishing session keep it to yourself until asked at lunchtime. There's nothing that will diminish the chances of developing great fishing friend relationships than running into a fishing hut shouting about your successes! Keep your heii down unless asked or let the beat ghillie do the talking for you. Anglers will get frustrated although they'll often feign happiness if an angler is too vocal with their results when fish are generally thin on the ground or playing hard to get.

Landing Salmon With A Friend

When you're out fishing with your fishing buddy the chances are that you'll be allocated salmon pools together which beats sharing pools with a complete stranger where there could be uncertainty as to their ability with a landing net! If it's your own fishing associate who's landing your fish for you then you'll know you're in safe hands unless of course there's a significant wager on that particular fish! There's as much skill & experience involved in landing a salmon for anyone and holding back with the net until you know for certain that the moment is right and not allowing the excitement of the salmon battle make you try to rush proceedings as you'll see often.

Competitive Salmon Fishing Friends

When two fishers strike up a salmon fishing relationship and book their fishing together there will usually always be an underlying and often unspoken competitive side to each river visit. Competition in anything is a great thing for productivity even though few understand that hard fact. Even juvenile salmon hone their survival instincts when they're competing against other juveniles for food in the stream! A salmon fishing friend will keep you on your toes and focussed throughout the full course of the fishing day whether you care to admit this or not. Nothing will motivate a salmon angler more than avoiding their colleague going 2 or 3 salmon ahead!

The Lone Wolf Salmon Fisher

There are however many salmon fishers who love to fish for salmon on their own. This doesn't mean they don't like company but more than likely they just have a deep routed craving for natural solitude which will be the main reason. A tuned in ghillie will see and sense this requirement especially from those who are used to a life of multiple daily interactions and are in need of a break from it! Cutting these salmon anglers their own space to operate and not pairing them up is the best way to handle them if you you want to establish them as regular returning clients. A ghillie who's on top of their game will have the ability to read every guest's requirements and devise each fishing guest's battle plan accordingly.