Here's a picture of River Tay professional salmon fishing ghillie legend Willie Laird in a pondering pose beside the river. Willie was a career ghillie and boatman on the Tay for 50+ years before his retirement in 1986. Willie was the Head Ghillie on the Tay's Newtyle Beat near Dunkeld for all of his adult life.

Kilted Scottish entrepreneur Donald A Monteith with his mother and father with Rolls Royce Silver Shadow (800 GRM) outside his home Dalvey House (now Bracken House) on the Old Mugdock Road in Strathblane, Stirlingshire, Scotland. Donald was one of Scotland's best known Glasgow based businessmen throughout the 1960's & 1970's era.

Here's a shot from 2004 of the late Peter Anderson with myself in front of the Newtyle Beat fishing hut on the River Tay near Dunkeld. Peter was a colossal figure within Scottish salmon fishing and possessed exceptional skills with a fly or spinning rod which really had to be seen to be believed! You can see the Newtyle Beat jetty casting platform behind Peter.

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.

Here's a picture of River Tay legend Willie Laird with a perfect 36lbs Spring salmon. Willie was a career salmon ghillie on the Tay for 50+ years before his retirement in 1986. Willie was the Head Ghillie on the Tay's Newtyle Beat near Dunkeld and over his lifetime he inspired thousands of salmon fishers.

This Tay 'coble' boat was hand made by famous River Tay boatbuilder John Ferguson who's based in Stanley in the Tay Valley. These traditional salmon fishing boats serve many different fishing applications and are a pleasure to be out on the Tay in one for the day. This photograph of me in the boat with my fly rod & my labrador dog 'Selkie' was taken in the Cottar Pool on the Newtyle Beat of the River Tay by professional photographer Peter Sandground.

Here's a picture of River Tay legend Willie Laird ready for action in his traditional Tay coble boat. Willie was a career ghillie on the Tay for 50+ years before his retirement in 1986. Willie was the Head Ghillie on the Tay's Newtyle Beat near Dunkeld and Willie was an exceptionally talented and renowned salmon fishing guide in Scotland.

Here's a picture of River Tay salmon guide legend Willie Laird out in the boat on the river. Willie was a career ghillie on the Tay for 50+ years before his retirement in 1986. Willie was the Head Ghillie on the Tay's Newtyle Beat near Dunkeld which is still a very popular Tay salmon fishing beat.

Here's a traditional River Tay salmon boat out fishing the Cathedral Stream at Dunkeld during the last hour of daylight. The sun is about to set over the Perthshire hills which it did 15 minutes after this lovely shot was taken from the Telford Bridge in Dunkeld.

Here's 3 River Tay salmon fishing professional ghillie legends. Willie 'the ghillie' Laird, Ian Redford & Calum Gillies were 3 of the most renowned salmon fishing men in the 70's on the Tay. This was a 15th of January opening day picture taken at lunchtime in front of the Newtyle Beat fishing hut in Birnam.

Salmon Fishing Reflections

By Jock Monteith 1st November 2025

For those of you who are old enough, do you remember the days when the newspaper used to run a 'Place The Ball' competition where you could win a prize for placing an X on the position of a hidden football during a live game scene.

I think we should do something similar which would be useful for fine tuning salmon fisher's minds as to where to locate resting salmon!

Your Health Is Your Wealth

Those were also the days of the Embassy coupons when our mothers & fathers where conned into almost smoking themselves to death for these little blue paper tokens so they could exchange them for some meaningless prize from a magazine catalogue which never displayed salmon fishing kit! My late father Donald was caught up excessively in the Scottish building trade at that time where he excelled and was eventually bought out by George Wimpey in 1974 at the age of 32 for £1 million which was big money back then for a young man. Sadly, alcohol got the better of his amazing entrepreneurial spirit over the following 20 years and eventually killed him when he was in his 60's.

Salmon Fishing Hut Discussions

During the same early 70's era I was deeply and mentally immersed in thoughts of the Tay which my dad introduced me to when I was 5 years old. In those days I was much better at keeping my mouth shut and my ears fully open for any golden snippets of salmon fishing information that would give a fishing advantage anytime there was a tactical salmon fishing discussion in the fishing hut involving the more experienced River Tay salmon fishers. Reflecting back to that era I was a 'dry sponge' for information & knowledge that could result in the huge excitement of another salmon capture.

Here's a perfect Scottish River Tay Spring salmon in the landing net before being released back to the river. This fine Spring fish weighted 16lbs and was carefully weighed in this weigh scale salmon landing net.

Abu Fishing Tackle

Those were the days when salmon flies came in little printed packets and ABU Toby's came in a little light blue/green cardboard box fitted with a clear perspex lid and a silver toby finish meant a 'silver' finish not some neutered pewter simulation like we see today! It's no wonder as a Piscean I got well caught up in it all with the leading tackle manufacturer ABU even printing the best fishing days (in advance) for the year on the back of their popular "Tight Lines' tackle brochure. I'm still trying to work out their best fishing date identification formula!

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.

The Old Abu Awards Program

Even bronze, silver & gold award pins were issued for specimen fish of any species caught on ABU tackle based on the size categories of each species. I nailed many bronze & silver awards as a youngster but the gold pin always eluded me as did the purchase of their 'Rolls Royce' Ambassador black & gold multiplier reel! Thinking back to those days I realise many of these ABU related initiatives had certainly placed me under a spell which still hasn't been lifted!

This beautiful salmon fly reel id the Van Staal C-Vex Combo 9/11 in silver which is my own personal salmon reel. The light blue fly line is the Monteith Speycaster Multi System which was a Spey line I designed that fishes with 1 of 8 tips that come with the mainline to cover various different salmon fly depth swim applications. The fly rod is a 16ft Bruce & Walker Norway blank hand built to my specification with a stabilised walnut Struble reel seat.

Bruce & Walker Salmon Rod Marketing

Bruce & Walker were doing their rounds and handing out their lovely glass fibre 'Expert' salmon fly rods to all the leading Scottish ghillies which was a fantastic marketing initiative unlike many of the manufacturers of today who seem to mainly hoard their precious kit. Many do not have the commercial awareness to understand that a busy salmon beat that hosts hundreds of annually visiting salmon fishing guests with the Head Ghillie's personal endorsement & product demonstration and or riverbank trial supersedes any often confusing 'overstocked' retail tackle shop showroom or website.

World Casting Champion Peter Anderson

In the same era my late friend and world casting champion Perter Anderson was involved with Milbro the tackle manufacturer. I'd often bump into Peter on the Tay and he'd align my thoughts with all of the latest fishing equipment including some Milbro Ghillie salmon spinning rods and DAM spinning reels which I've still got to this day. Peter understood everything about this business and he was the first salmon fisher I ever heard talking 'common sense' on every aspect of salmon fishing based on a very logical thought process. Peter really was a colossal figure within Scottish salmon fishing and possessed exceptional skills with a fly or spinning rod which really had to be seen to be believed!

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.

Salmon Fishing Reflections

Reflecting back over the decades to that first tug from a salmon in 1970 all I can say is 'wow' as this has been a fantastic journey full of 'highs & lows' but always one that has fully engaged my mind, body & soul. They say money is the 'route of all evil' as commercial exploitation has impacted Atlantic salmon whether it be the massively destructive sea lice or proven salmon virus issues from the salmon farming industry which destroyed our West Coast rivers and has now been allowed to duplicate on the migration routes that will most definitely impact our East Coast rivers too if not already doing so! The commercial over netting of wild Atlantic salmon whether intentional or under the guise of accidental bi-catch by ocean raiders is another unchecked issue. Imagine a big bag of £100 notes being unleashed on a windy Saturday afternoon on Glasgow's Buchanan Street and then believing no one would pick them up!

A True Salmon River Millionaire Lifestyle

The wealthiest man I ever met (even though I've met many billionaires on the Scottish riverbanks) was my late friend and mentor Willie 'the ghillie' Laird. Willie never owned a house or car and had minimal savings in his bank account and was a humble & gentle man (most of the time). If you really think about his 50+ years of River Tay ghillie life brilliance you'll likely come to the realisation (like I've done) that Willie enjoyed 'true wealth' that even the richest on the planet couldn't match for stress free 'peace of mind' in a widely respected & fascinating natural God given pursuit.