This River Tay fisher is Spey casting from the traditional Tay salmon fishing boat during late January on the Tay at Dunkeld. If you look closely you'll see the 200 year old Telford Bridge in the distance which is one of the Tay's most historic & beautiful sandstone bridges. You can see this fly fisher is wrapped up warmly due to the early Spring cold weather conditions.

Here's Jock Monteith amidst a Spey casting lesson on the River Tay under the historic Telford Bridge demonstrating perfect D Loop loading with the single Spey cast. The traditional Spey cast is the most effective and satisfying casts. This photo was taken by local Dunkeld photographer Charlie MacDonald. Jock is wearing his Graham of Menteith tartan kilt while demonstrating Spey cast with his 15ft Monteith salmon fly rod.

A Scottish Spring salmon is the most perfect creature of all and their physical beauty is something truly splendid especially when you have the tactical fishing awareness to create an up close inspection like this. This fine Springer I caught on the fly rod during April near Dunkeld on the River Tay in Perthshire. Look at the perfect marine colours this fish is still wearing while lying on this sand bar immediately before its quick release.

Here's my own trusted silver friend of 20 years. This is a Van Staal C-vex 9-11 salmon fly reel with the 9/10 spool fitted paired up with the brilliant Monteith 9/10 Speycaster Multi System fly line. These 2 items fished of my bespoke built Bruce & Walker 16ft 9/10 Spey rod is Spey casting perfection and that's my firm professional opinion. As a professional Scottish salmon fishing guide you need to have quality salmon fishing equipment like this fly reel.

This photograph of professional Scottish salmon fishing guide Jock Monteith was captured by TV producer Chris Webster outside Ferry Cottage on the Kinnaird Estate of the River Tay in Perthshire. You can see the snow clad hills and riverbanks in the background.

This perfect Spring salmon was caught by myself on the River Tay during late February after hours of searching the river for a fish. When you go salmon fishing it requires a solid logic backed fishing plan at the start of the day to catch salmon and this fish was the result of that type of detailed planning. Look at the perfect shimmer from this early Spring salmon's silver flanks lying beside my salmon fly reel & Spey rod.

Look at this perfect Spring salmon lying on the rubber mat on the floor boards of this River Tay salmon boat. This fine salmon is lying in the landing net after being hooked and landed by one of our salmon fishing holiday guests before the fish was released back to the Tay.

Salmon Fishing Perseverance

By Jock Monteith 12th May 2018

A big part of achieving success in salmon fishing is maximising your 'controlled' salmon fly swim time through consistent perseverance.

This week was another classic lesson in what it takes for success when fishing for salmon.

River Tay Fly Caught Salmon At Dunkeld

On the Dunkeld House beat of the Tay this week 3 lovely fish have been caught so far. The first was a perfect 17 pound fresh run beastie that was taken fairly quickly from the boat by one of our fortunate salmon fishing guests on the fly. It's always nice for everyone including the ghillie when a fine salmon appears early in the day but the reality is that isn't always the case and a fair bit of effort has to normally be applied to get there. At the end of the fishing day all anglers should feel that they've made their best fishing effort and maximised their chances of success.

Here's an absolute peach of a fresh run Spring salmon weighing 24lbs which was caught near Dunkeld on the River Tay by our top professional salmon fishing guide. These highly prized heavyweight Spring salmon are what the River Tay is famous for producing and thousands of salmon fishing trip anglers come to the Tay each year for the chance of catching one.

Salmon Fishing Day Highlights

The majority of salmon that are caught usually need a fair bit of coaxing and the 2nd fish at Dunkeld on Wednesday literally came in the last 30 minutes of the fishing day. It's amazing how the human mind can delete all the hours of searching when that initial tug, draw and weight of a salmon is felt! The effort level to get to that stage must simply be there and consistently applied throughout the full course of the fishing day as giving up mentally or physically stands you a very minimal chance of success.

Here's a River Tay Spring salmon that was aught on the fly near Dunkeld during the first week of June. Although caught in June this is a Spring salmon that's been in the river for a few weeks so still technically a Spring run salmon. The silver salmon fly reel you can see is a Van Staal C-Vex 9-11 Combo model which is my favourite salmon fly reel.

Highlights From The River Tay

The highlight on the Dunkeld House beat this week was the capture of a perfect fresh run sea-liced 9 pounder for visiting 70 year old South African fisherman Dave Gibbon. Dave came to Scotland for a few days to realise his dream of catching a salmon and quickly mastered the double handed Spey rod to an outstanding level of competence. Literally with Dave's last cast of the day on his last fishing day yesterday our Salmon God rewarded him for his flawless & consistent salmon fly fishing approach.

There's nothing more inspiring than the low Scottish sun appearing through the clouds on a cold early Spring fishing day to warm up the surface layer of the freezing cold river water as you can see in this photograph. This warmth is often an indicator trigger preceding the capture of an early Spring salmon so whenever I see this my expectation levels soar. I took this selfie during the early Spring month of February on the River Tay while out fishing from the boat near the River Tummel mouth.

Play The Salmon Fishing Long Game

Perseverance accounted for 2 lovely Tay Spring fish this week of the 3 that have been caught at Dunkeld and this component of salmon fishing should never be underestimated. Don't just turn up on a river and think it's your God given right to catch salmon with a 'low energy' approach as that seldom happens. The reward from persevering is truly great and it always amazes me to see how perseverance pays off for those who are willing to not only listen to their ghillie's detailed advice but to also switch into 'long game' mode!