Here's a group of new fly fishers testing out their newly taught skills with a double handed salmon fly rod during the Summer. Many larger groups come to me for a crash course in salmon fishing and this was one such party that I guided for on the River Tay near Pitlochry.

Here's professional Scottish salmon guide Jock Monteith with a salmon fishing tour guest at the neck of the famous Kinnaird Beat's Ash Tree Pool. You can clearly see the beautiful Perthshire hills behind Pitlochry in the distance and Jock carrying his favourite salmon landing net over his shoulder.

Here's a salmon fishing guest fly fishing their way down through the Gean Tree Pool of the River Tay's Kercock salmon beat. This guest was under the supervision of a professional salmon guide resulting in 2 salmon being caught by this fisher that day even though it was a very bright July day. Look at the lovely sunlight sparkle coming off the water.

With many malt whisky distilleries spread across the glens of Scotland whisky tours & whisky tasting is big business in the tourism sector. Here's some whisky tasting taking place.

Fishing the River Tay through the Summer months can be very fruitful as there's alway big Summer fish. in the Tay from June onwards. Connecting with one on a fly rod will be an experience you'll never forget so it's always best to book a salmon guide to assist you to intercept perfectly proportioned salmon like this fine specimen.

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.

Salmon Fishing Tuition

By Jock Monteith 19th February 2025

As a professional ghillie I always love to see anglers catching salmon and especially when someone's fishing for the very first time.

We are there to assist when & where possible and even a one liner from a professional ghillie can often be the difference between catching a salmon or not.

I caught this fine 16lbs specimen Spring salmon in February on the River Tay near Dunkeld as hard proof that early run Scottish salmon certainly do exist. Look at the caliber of this perfect fish which is exceptional and easily caught too for those who know how & where to fish during the early Spring months in Scotland.

Consistent Salmon Fishing Effort

What I've personally seen on the Tay over the years is a mixed bag of angler skill sets from absolute tactical perfectionists to anglers who are just completely wasting their time if catching a salmon is their real objective. Our pursuit has been through a rough enough time since the Greenland feeding grounds were discovered and were commercially 'annihilated' and clearly stock levels have dipped significantly across the globe since then. We are now decades into an era where you really need to know what you're doing to stand a reasonable chance of catching salmon on any river and gaining better satisfaction from this fine pursuit.

Ignore Salmon Catch Statistics

The problem that's been created these days has been letting 'catch stats' run the show. As we are all highly trained 'statisticians' in modern day living these little 'nail in the coffin' daily digits have been allowed to 'creep' into this most amazing natural pursuit to a point where it now can often negatively influence the booking patterns of salmon anglers. Anglers are now assuming that a blank day on a salmon beat means it's not worth booking or that there was no chance of a fish which will be the furthest thing away from the truth you could imagine in the vast majority of cases.

The Macallan Whisky Poem

No anglers no fish, no fish no anglers reminds me of a beautiful poem that used to appear with a bottle of Macallan where the guests wouldn't offer the ghillie a dram but continued to drink in front of him all week. At the end of the week the fish-less guest says to the ghillie "Ghillie no fish no Macallan" to which the ghillie replies "no Macallan no fish!" This is a similar scenario today as the vast majority of the UK salmon fishers are watching daily catch reports prior to booking their fishing and in many cases that lack of forward planning commitment will mean the fishing trip never happens and a beat doesn't get fished.

You Should Love Inevitable Blank Fishing Days

To counteract the 'stats' dilemma that's now been allowed a firm hold it's now time for salmon fishers who are serious about their approach to get more effective on how they are actually approaching the water. A blank day on any beat should be celebrated if the pools have been fished correctly as that blank day is 'logically' bringing you one day closer to success and back down to earth to preserve the challenge of this amazing pursuit. On the other hand a blank day where salmon hooking opportunities were squandered or the pools weren't even covered (or fished effectively enough) can hurt beat booking revenue and therefore also the local economy.

Book Effective Salmon Fishing Tuition

If you're new to this amazing sport or want to increase your salmon fishing effectiveness then get with a true professional who's highly skilled in whatever method of salmon fishing you want to brush up on. Hire a professional salmon guide for a day who's on top of their game to grasp the basics of effective riverbank movement, perfect water coverage via optimised fly swing spacings, setting the hook and playing & landing a salmon firmly established in your mind will be time well spent. The difference between success and failure in this sport can often be the slightest adjustment to one or more of the above disciplines so if you're serious about catching salmon mastering the above skills should never be underestimated.