I took this photograph of this salmon fisher on the River Tay while serving as his salmon fishing guide. The former legendary Kinnaird Beat ghillie Bob Grant always described the Guay Pool as his favourite and most productive salmon pool. Having personally steered many fishing guests to salmon in this lovely pool I can only agree with Bob's evaluation. Nothing has changed in recent years as the Guay Pool is still the most productive Lower Kinnaird Beat salmon pool.

Here's the ultimate Scottish rural pursuit challenge. This is the capture of a perfect River Tay salmon on a fly rod which is easy to say but not easy to achieve without astute tactical awareness, casting skills and patience. This salmon was caught at sunrise by one of our River Tay salmon guide team members during late July.

Spring salmon are the real prize in Scottish salmon fishing due to their perfect physical condition and powerful fighting qualities. The river Tay, Tweed, Dee & Spey all have a run of these special creatures between March & June so if you're planning a salmon fishing trip to Scotland try to make it while these Spring salmon are in the river. This perfect example of a Spring salmon was caught by one of our River Tay salmon fishing guide team members.

Hooking one of these muscle bound Spring salmon is one skill but knowing exactly how to play the salmon correctly is a completely different discipline. This perfect 'Springer' was captured and quickly released on the River Tay by one of our salmon fishing holiday guests during late May near the Perthshire town of Dunkeld.

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.

I took this shot of a boat load of visiting salmon fishers being brought back over to the fishing hut for their lunch on the River Tay near Birnam. The boats on this beat have been kept on this sandy riverbank for over 60 years. You can see the boathouse on the far riverbank which I built in 2007 while I was working on this Tay salmon beat as the Head Ghillie.

This was one of my fishing guests fishing the River Tay in June after being taught to Speycast with this 15ft double handed salmon fly rod. The Tay is Scotland's biggest salmon river which is popular for salmon fishing trips. Look at the lovely riverbank and wooded Perthshire hillside on the far bank.

Re-align Your Salmon Fly Fishing Thoughts

By Jock Monteith 9th August 2025

The biggest area where the vast majority of salmon anglers could improve their salmon 'hit' rate is through fly control.

Tune your focal point into your salmon fly via the pace and angle of the front end of your fly line to a point where you can sense the fly's movement in the stream even though you won't be able to see it. Bin any useless thoughts of what's going on with the aerial performance of your fly line as even a poorer cast will self straighten in the stream or can be straightened via an immediate line mend.

I took this shot of one of the most famous River Tay salmon fishing huts which dates back to 1970 when Willie Laird the ghillie and a few colleagues sited this local Victorian golf course hut on the banks of the Tay as the fishing hut for the Newtyle Beat. Look at the lovely woodland to the rear of the hut and the perfect grass bank in the foreground for salmon anglers and salmon guides to fish from.

Focus On The Riverbed Terrain

If you want consistent success in this intriguing business focus on your salmon fly and get its movement pace 'across' and 'down' the river just right. Most salmon are smart & tough to catch on a fly so unless your presentation is up to scratch you're likely heading for an inevitable blank! Out smarting salmon should become an obsession and placing that fly in their 'attack zone' is a truly fascinating element of this fine pursuit. Sometimes the salmon holding area in the water column may be high but more often than not you'll need to swim your fly right down in amongst them for one to lose its 'fly avoidance' mind set! Study the 'suspected' sub surface salmon pool terrain and let the surface movement of the river be your 'mirror' for signs of what lies below and where salmon could be holding in the pool.

Here's myself with a fine Spring salmon in the landing net immediately prior to its release. A good landing net with fish friendly mesh is an essential piece of salmon fishing equipment. I caught this fine salmon at the Daffodil Lie Pool on the beautiful Kinnaird Beat of the River Tay in Highland Perthshire.

Full Control Of Your Salmon Fly Is Important

The two most important areas of your fly's flight path are the first third and last third of its swing. The middle third normally takes care of itself as the stream will naturally add control to the fly by the time your line has swung round one third from its initial delivery angle. 'Taking command' of your fly early at the start of the first third of the swing is important as most anglers mend their line angle too late or are unable to mend to the fly at all with their shooting heads at range even though they've impressed the hell out of themselves with the distance they've achieved! A longer Speyline and Spey rod has a massive advantage for making that first third of the swing 'deadly' when covering long range salmon lies that require a normal paced & carefully 'controlled' salmon fly. An immediate 'to the fly' mend at touch down paired with instant fly control thoughts is often the tactic that avoids a blank day.

Here's a look at my own personal salmon fly box which includes my main 2 salmon fly patterns which are the Jock's Shrimp & Copperass salmon fly patterns. These 2 patterns have been responsible for over 80% of the salmon I've caught in the last 2 decades. This shot was taken at the River Tay/Tummel confluence near the Perthshire town of Pitlochry.

Fish Your Salmon Fly 'Through' The Dangle

When you think your salmon fly has reached the end of the final third of its swing be very cautious and stop yourself from thinking only about the 'relaunch' process! Treat every swing of the fly with suspicion in case a big brute of a fish is 'shadowing' your fly as it finally swings in downstream of you. Salmon are great at 'silently & invisibly' coming for a look so maintain movement in your fly by carefully drawing in line smoothly & consistency as you are hand lining in your running line. If you just whip the running line in too quickly or let the fly sag you may well be missing great hooking opportunities from fish that are following your fly. If a tiny camera was able to be fitted to your salmon fly your heart would be in your mouth on numerous occasions throughout the course of a fishing day so it's important while salmon fishing you pay attention to what you're seeing and also to what you may not be seeing!