Here's my favourite River Tay salmon fishing pool near Dunkeld in late Spring. This is the March Pool on the opposite side of the river which is shrouded in these lovely riverside oak trees. Look at the perfect tapered riverbed that leads over to the deep salmon water. I have assisted many salmon fishing guests to catch salmon on this fine pool over the years while serving as their salmon fishing guide.

This was my Monteith Sunk line salmon fly fishing system which was a sunk line Speyline that allowed salmon anglers to fish their fly as deep as necessary. This Speyline Multi tip system came with a pouch of braided core sink tips of varying sink rates which were carefully thought out by myself while working as a professional River Tay salmon fishing guide.

Here's a salmon with a mouthful of the deadly Jock's Shrimp salmon fly. This fish was caught near Dunkeld on the River Tay during July and is a good evidence of just how effective this salmon fly pattern can be. Tie one of these salmon flies onto your leader and watch what happens!

This shot was taken on the River Tay near Pitlochry during the Summer while I was the salmon guide for this fishing trip fisherman. Many anglers think salmon fishing is mainly about how well they can cast a fly but the truth of the matter is that the important thing to learn is how to move properly between each cast of the fly as that's logically what will place your fly in front of a cooperating salmon if your water coverage is good enough.

Once you've got enough faith in a specific salmon fly pattern then look for the fly that outperforms it's replica associates. Here's a selection of my 'Jock Shrimp' & 'Copperass' patterns with a few other aces that I sometimes fish with too. I love these old aluminium Richard Wheatley fly boxes too and have many of them which I've collected over the decades.

Salmon Fly Behaviour

By Jock Monteith 21st June 2026

Now here's a topic that's likely going to change the way you think when you're in a situation where salmon are playing hard to get.

Often in Scottish fishing we become far too rigid & robotic as to the way we fish a fly and sometimes it really boils down to a game of opposites if you're trying to get into a salmon's mind.

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.

Salmon Fishing In Scotland

My late great friend & mentor big Peter Anderson had the most brilliant assessment of salmon behaviour that I've ever heard. Peter says; "An Atlantic salmon is the easiest fish of them all to catch" then he pauses before saying "sometimes!" That is deadly accurate as all of you will know so what can you do when the going gets tough that could 'wake up' resident salmon that have been totally bombarded for weeks or even months.

This was one of 2 perfect Autumn salmon caught by 2 salmon fishing trip guests who drove from Switzerland all the way to Scotland to fish the River Tay. This was their first salmon which was caught on a fly and their 2nd fish was caught on a spinner.

The Skill Is In Catching The Educated Salmon

A blind dog in a snow storm can catch a fresh run sea-licer that's still in full oceanic hunting mode and still in an excitable state of mind about being back in the river like letting your dog back into the house after leaving him out too long! The true talent test in salmon fishing is can you catch the completely 'over fished' educated salmon that has seen nearly every salmon fly in production! This is when you need to have a mind that can think outside the box and your fishing thoughts are 'completely' sub surface.

Here's a guided River Tay salmon fishing guest fishing his way methodically down through the Meetings Pool on the Upper Kinnaird salmon beat which is a perfect holding area for salmon in medium to low water levels from mid March through to October each year. Look at the beautiful fully leafed oak trees on the far side of the river.

Low Water Salmon Pool Conditions

Normally you'll be faced with the above dilemma after or during late Spring when water levels drop and salmon congregate in these mainly milder & lower water conditions which makes salmon lie down in deep where the cooler water temperature is to be found. Step one is to get that time wasting 'robotic' Summer low water floating fly line mentality out of your head and select the appropriate braided core sink tip and get your fly right down in amongst them. If you don't like using the less elegant heavy sink tips that's fine as the actual aerial fly line presentation only bothers us and not the salmon!

This Ally's Shrimp salmon fly hybrid with it's green pearlescent body is an absolute salmon magnet during duller salmon fishing days and especially if tied with Artic fox fur in the tail & wing as you see here. On an overcast day this fly has serious presence in the stream and often cannot be ignored by salmon.

Polar Opposite Salmon Fly Behaviour

Once you get the depth you must control your salmon fly in a manner that the fish aren't expecting or have ever seen before. If you've got a fly that's tied with materials that waggle and pulse naturally in the water that's great too but introducing additional erratic & unpredicable salmon fly swim behaviour movements is 100% the 'combination to the 'silverware safe'. If you were a salmon lying at the bottom of the pool watching a 'cat walk' of salmon flies on a hourly or half hourly basis all 'boringly' slowly sweeping overhead you'd switch off too so waking salmon up via the above deep swimming 'crazed' fly swim tactics is vital to have a real chance of success.

This male River Tay caught salmon shows perfectly the lower hooked jaw known as a 'kype'. This male's (cock) hooked jaw is mainly used as a defence mechanism to fend off other male fish as the Winter spawning season approaches. This particular salmon was caught during late September near the mouth of the River Tummel near the Perthshire town of Ballinluig.

Waking Up A Resident Salmon

All of a sudden an 'erratic' unpredictable deep swimming 'fur ball' of Arctic fox and schlappen hackle darts right in close beside you and instantly rips away with a shudder, a stop, another dart and it's gone again! Now you're awake although you haven't reacted in your normal deeply programmed predatory manner but your dorsal fin is starting to flicker and you've moved off your lie two feet and returned in a more alert state than you've been in for weeks. Immediately again there's the fly but this time even closer than before and your reactionary hunting instinct has been compromised by being caught 'off guard' and BANG!

This salmon fisher had just been taught how to use a double handed salmon fly rod and had just started to fly fish unassisted in his chest waders when I took this shot on the Mike's Run Pool of the River Tummel.

Enough Unpredictable Fly Work Will Catch Salmon

To 'work' your salmon fly to that degree when conditions are tough is hard going especially while coordinating that with essential proper well spaced riverbank movement but this is essential when you're trying to 'startle' older deep holding resident salmon into action. The above fly swim behaviour will get your salmon fly attention if you persevere and especially if you're the first salmon fisher to deploy these 'crazed ninja' deep swimming salmon fly swim tactics through the pool.

A heart racing close up inspection with one of these fine Atlantic salmon and will remain in your memory banks for an entire lifetime. This perfect Summer salmon came to a deadly Jock's Shrimp salmon fly and was caught near to the River Tummel/Tay confluence which is located not too far away from Pitlochry in Perthshire. Note the fish friendly fine mesh of the landing net behind the salmon.

Forcing Salmon To Have a Go

If you've taken on board the above information and are prepared to consistently adopt these 'aggravated' salmon fly swim tactics when its proving difficult to catch salmon then you'll succeed at hooking fish that otherwise would not show any interest. You'll also feel many sub surface endorsements via nudges, dunts & bangs as resident fish will certainly react to this different fly swim approach. Personally to work a fly too much like this is not my favoured way to fish however the difference is night and day if placing a fish in the landing net is important to you when resident salmon are proving difficult to catch.