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.

Here's a lovely well stocked salmon fly box containing a few highly effective salmon flies. It's good practice to sort out your fly boxes a few times every season and get your fly stock in good order like this. The predominant fly pattern that you see in this big fly box is the Monteith 'Copperass' pattern which is a particularly effective salmon fly which I designed while working on the Tay as a professional salmon guide.

Tape your salmon fly rod joints tightly with pre-stretched electrical tape exactly centred between both joints like you can see here. 5 or 6 turns of taut tape will stop the rod twisting from loosening off the joints which if that happens could easily end up in rod joint damage. A good salmon fly rod will last a lifetime if this simple taping protocol is followed before every fishing outing. This shot was taken of me playing a salmon in the Guay Pool on the Lower Kinnaird salmon beat of the River Tay while I was working as a salmon fishing instructor.

Here's the bow section of a hand built River Tay 16ft salmon fishing 'coble' boat with a Brady fishing back and Bruce & Walker salmon Spey rod fitted with a Van Staal salmon fly reel. Professional salmon guides in Scotland take their personal salmon fishing equipment seriously too!

Here's all of the days fishing kit laid out waiting for the fishing guests to arrive on the River Tay near Dunkeld. You can see there's both fly rods and spinning rods in addition to a big McLean salmon landing net and Brady fishing bag full of lures, flies and other important salmon fly fishing accessories.

This perfect early Spring River Tay salmon took a Copperass tube fly neat the River Tummel River Tay confluence which is a renowned salmon fishing area near Dunkeld. Early Spring salmon like this are always perfect specimens to catch and there's huge fishing satisfaction from outsmarting them. As a professional Scottish salmon fishing guide I love to show visiting fly fishing guests these fine fish up close like this.

Salmon Fishing Tackle

By Jock Monteith 12th November 2018

As we're now all approaching the start of the 2019 Scottish salmon river openings this time of year usually brings about the checking, cleaning and preparing of salmon fishing equipment.

If you've not already done this at the end of last season. Here's one or two thoughts on different aspects of salmon fishing kit & fishing preparation.

Salmon Fly Line Maintenance

Your salmon fly line and backing should be completely taken off your reel and allowed to dry on the floor before being wound back onto your reel. When you get to the fly line section you should apply a good few spays of a plastic conditioner like armarol onto some kitchen towel and wind the line through this or run it up and down the line. You'll be amazed at the grime that appears on the towel and this will keep your fly line in top condition and shooting well through your rod rings.

Here's a perfectly stocked salmon fly fishing box which was manufactured by Wheatley in England. These fly patterns include Red Flamethrowers, Orange Flamethrowers, Copperass to name a few. It's always good to have a quality selection of flies like this to draw on throughout the seasonal salmon fishing in Scotland.

Organise Your Salmon Fly Box

Salmon fly boxes can become overly cluttered and messy by the end of the previous fishing season so I always like to take everything out and reload my main fly box double checking the hook & dressing condition of each fly before allowing it entry back into the box. Any fly that looks as if it's completely beat should be crimped and tossed into the bin unless it's been a loyal lifelong friend then it should be transferred to your 'special memories' fly box or fishing bonnet!. It's much easier on the eye when your main fly box is tidy and you'll also instantly know which patterns you're getting short of that need tying.

I bought this Hardy salmon rod to test its Spey casting ability out on the River Tay and I was instantly also testing its salmon playing action! This beautiful fresh run 10lbs salmon was hooked by me at the tail of the March Pool on the Tay's Kinnaird Beat and it put up a tremendous fight before I got a chance with the landing net. I kept this fine fresh run salmon in the McLean landing net to capture this fine photograph.

Taping Your Salmon Rods Joints

Over the years in my professional ghillie career I've seen loads of things but the one that troubles me the most is when I see a brand new or good fly rod with its joints not properly taped or taped at all. There's been much nonsense spoken about the taping of joints but I can assure you that with the 'torquing and twisting' of the Spey cast all joints can work loose. You do not need special tape to do this as good old regular electrical tape is perfect as long as you're stretching it as you're applying it exactly over each rod joint and five neatly fitted turns are all you need on each joint. I've seen anglers appear on the riverbank with this high costing super stretchy tape and think to myself why are you even bothering as tape that can be stretched further is completely counter productive.

Salmon Rod Manufacturer Fake News

As a continuation on the taping of rod joints theme I notice that many rod manufacturers do not recommend the taping of their rod joints but logically a failed joint means the purchase of another rod so don't fall for that one as many anglers have done. The minute you see a fine parallel line in the rod joint varnish you know the rod joint is fractured and your rod's value has gone & life span reduced. Lock your rod joints down tightly before you tape them as taping is pointless if you haven't done this as there will be play in that joint which will eventually split the female joint end. The manufacturer's 'non taping' nonsense was in my opinion to hide the cheap finish on low quality foreign built rods as the joint tape when removed would 'lift off' this low quality rod varnish finish which it could never do on a quality finished salmon rod.

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.

Looking After Your Salmon Fly Reel

Your salmon fly reel should trigger memories of epic salmon action battles when you look at it and already be a friend for life. I've seen many anglers clunk the reel down or concrete or gravel while threading their fly line through the rod rings which always makes me shudder. Look after your reel and take it apart at least twice a season and give it a blast of WD40 where the reel manufacturer recommends. Although I've not only read about this I've personally noticed as a former professional River Tay boatman that any time my hands have been exposed to WD40 and I'm tying on a salmon fly that fly usually always gets some extra sub surface attention!