Being out on the River Tay fishing for salmon at sunrise is a glorious experience through the warmer low water months of the salmon fishing season when an early morning approach is appropriate. This perfect 7am sunrise shot was taken at the Tummel/Tay confluence near Pitlochry in Perthshire.

Here's the shimmering sunlight dancing across the River Tay near Pitlochry during early Spring. Even early Spring has some amazing scenery like this well before the leaves appear on the riverside trees. There's much more to Scottish salmon fishing trips than just catching salmon.

This fish was caught at sunrise on the River Tay near the Perthshire town of Dunkeld. This salmon weighed 14lbs and took a small fly at 7am just as the sun was rising. You can see the glimmer of light on the silver flanks of this fine fish as it lay in the landing net prior to its release.

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.

There's nothing more inspiring than the low Scottish sun appearing through the clouds on a cold early Spring fishing day to warm up the surface layer of the freezing cold river water as you can see in this photograph. This warmth is often an indicator trigger preceding the capture of an early Spring salmon so whenever I see this my expectation levels soar. I took this selfie during the early Spring month of February on the River Tay while out fishing from the boat near the River Tummel mouth.

This early Spring sunlight shot was taken by myself at the tail of the Upper Kinnaird Beat's Rock Pool during late January as the low Winter sun was flickering its rays through the leafless riverbank beech and oak trees.

This was a perfect River Tummel salmon of 11lbs caught that I caught while working as a salmon guide in May near the mouth of the River Tummel. You can see the light blue floating fly line on my fly rod which was fitted with a 15ft sinking tip just to get the fly down a foot or two in the water column. Note the fine meshed landing net bag the salmon is lying on.

Salmon River Sunlight

By Jock Monteith 10th April 2026

One of the biggest misconceptions I've heard from salmon anglers over the decades is that most of them relate sunlight as being bad for catching salmon.

The reality of this is that the presence of sunlight can often be a 'polar opposite' of that misconception if you apply a bit of good old common sense to your thought processes.

The Early Spring Sunlight Trigger

On so many occasions I've seen the fly rod nearly getting launched out of the stern of the boat when I was on the Tay and harling a high water column tube fly through the early months of the year. On the vast majority of these occasions it was during or shortly after the appearance of direct sunlight which I always found too much of a coincidence. In addition to that a salmon fly with some sparkly additions would truly 'light up' and go into 'flicker' mode with the presence of sunlight that a sunless sky could never achieve.

The Dark Back Of A Salmon

Apart from being useful for camouflage security from any predator that's hunting salmon from above I'm fairly sure God created the dark back colour of a salmon to also act as a cold water condition heat absorber. The reason I say that is because obviously dark colours absorb heat and light colours reflect heat so in freezing water conditions when the river is running very cold a salmon can draw that warmth from sunlight if it positions itself high in the water column which is exactly where you'll find salmon when Jack Frost has been around!

Early Spring Salmon River Sunlight

In salmon fishing I would choose a high pressure bright light day over a low pressure dull light day any day of the week as I relate the vast majority of early Spring salmon captures I've been involved with to higher pressure days with the presence of sunlight. At this time of the year where you have freezing cold weather the sun can often just warm the surface layer of the river up enough to get Spring salmon moving and in the mood for a fly.

Here's salmon fisher Chris Blandford with a perfect fly caught River Tay Spring salmon which he caught near the Perthshire town of Stanley during March while I was his salmon fishing guide. The bright clear sky Spring sunlight illuminated this salmon's beautiful silver flanks for this perfect salmon capture shot which I took.

Late Spring Sunlight In Salmon Fishing

Even through late Spring when the river starts to warm I'd still see more salmon caught on the brighter days and on the Tay the sun positioning in the sky for most beats would mean that it was directly shining up river in the angler's eyes for most of the day and not in the salmon's eyes. So check the angle of glare on whichever river you're fishing on and work out whether very bright light is really going to make a resident salmon hold deeper in the pool or not. Also be aware that most running fish that momentarily stop in a pool will be holding fairly high in the water column with or without the presence of sunlight.

Here's a perfect fast water deep glide salmon pool on the River Tay near Dunkeld. This is typical of where salmon like to hang out during low warm water conditions. This low water Summer shot was taken by myself while working as a professional Tay salmon fishing guide.

Summer Sunlight On The Salmon River

When the river warms up during late Spring and Summer which naturally coincides with a higher sky sun position 'resident' salmon will hold deeper in the pools for two reasons. The main reason will be temperature based as the cooler water is down deep at the bottom of the pool and the higher sun positioning 'glare' will be less comfortable for a fish by comparison to the lower sky sun positioning of early Spring. When salmon take that deeper holding position it's just the same for them as it would be for us putting a pair of Ray Bans on as the natural colouration of the river acts as a bright light filter.

This perfect Newtyle salmon pool is known as 'The Boil' due to a huge riverbed stone that's positioned in the middle of the river opposite this salmon fisher which creates a huge boiling effect on the river surface. You can see Birnam Hill in the distance.

Deep Holding Salmon In Late Spring & Summer

When you get resident salmon holding deep like that during late Spring & Summer the most effective way to catch them is to throw the rule book right out of the window. What I mean by that is the books generally tell you that a floating line is the way to deal with the warmer water conditions which will work with a really keen fish that's willing to come up several feet to intercept a fly in a medium depth pool. Most salmon however will not do that when they're lying deep so a very long and fast sink tip and and big mend to get the salmon fly right down onto them is always going to be the more logical approach. I recall a fine 12 pounder I hooked on the River Tay for a guest in bright light conditions with that very deep swim salmon fly tactic after everyone and their dog had been through the pool with zero success on an exceptionally bright light late Summer day.