This is a hand built 16ft River Tay 'coble' boat which are constructed from larch & oak by master boat builder John Ferguson who's based in Stanley in Perthshire. These beautiful river salmon fishing boats are a pleasure to use as a professional salmon guide and open up multi faceted fishing applications in addition to the normal fishing tactics deployed from the riverbanks.

Here's a River Tay coble clinker built salmon boat being used for harling on the Kinnaird Beat. There's a good salmon lie directly under the Logierait Bridge that you can see in this picture. Harling is a River Tay boat fishing method than fishes 3 or more lures at once. I took this shot in during high water in February.

Here is a traditional River Tay harling boat moored on the lovely sandbank at the Kinnaird Beat Rock Pool. The 2 salmon anglers on the right hand side of the river with their professional guide had just landed their 2nd salmon when I took this perfect shot. This fishing area of the Tay is between Pitlochry & Dunkeld where the River Tummel greets the Tay and is a renowned hot spot. The deep water to the right hand side of the boat is a serious salmon holding pool that our salmon guides love to take salmon fishing guests to.

This Tay 'coble' boat was hand made by famous River Tay boatbuilder John Ferguson who's based in Stanley in the Tay Valley. These traditional salmon fishing boats serve many different fishing applications and are a pleasure to be out on the Tay in one for the day. This photograph of me in the boat with my fly rod & my labrador dog 'Selkie' was taken in the Cottar Pool on the Newtyle Beat of the River Tay by professional photographer Peter Sandground.

Here's a downstream shot taken in front of the Upper Kinnaird Beat salmon fishing hut on the River Tay. This lovely Tay salmon beat is located directly upstream of the Tummel Tay confluence and is a fantastic salmon beat for a quality River Tay fly fishing experience. The salmon pool 50 yards downstream of the boat id called Daffodil Lie and is marked with a big bunch of daffodils which appear each Spring when the pool fishes its best.

Salmon River Traditions

By Jock Monteith 19th September 2023

There's some lovely traditions that add to the magic of Scottish salmon fishing that makes it even more appealing than other types of fresh water angling.

The fishing effectiveness from a traditional River Tay salmon boat with a professional boatman is without doubt one of them.

The River Tay Coble Salmon Fishing Boat

The use of a traditional River Tay 16ft coble salmon fishing boat offers several definite salmon fishing advantages on the Tay where there are often long distance salmon lies which would be difficult to effectively cover from the riverbank with the correct pace of fly or lure. A skilled boatman on the Tay or any other larger Scottish salmon river where boats are often used will handle his boating techniques with absolute perfection even though on the majority of occasions you'll not even be aware of his constant concentration levels and precision maneuvering.

A Skilled River Tay Boatman

An experienced River Tay boatman will use the minimum of energy required on the outboard's throttle while navigating upstream and downstream with no bow wave commotion that could move salmon off their lies in the salmon pools being commuted through. What's the point in using the boat as a fishing advantage if you're going to 'scatter the pigeons' before you even start fishing! Watching a true master boatman is an education in itself and I was fortunate as a young man to have such guidance from the renowned Tay ghillie Willie Laird who was indeed a true master craftsman. In the old days before the outboard era you'd have had 2 boatmen on the oars all day when 'harling' duties were required and a long day that would have been on the oars!

Salmon River Fishing From A Boat

The traditional larch built Tay coble salmon boat is often also used during lower water conditions as a casting platform where a professional boatman will rope you down through the pools while you cast a consistent length of line as he's doing so. This is a truly methodical method of salmon pool coverage where your boatman is in full control of your fly swing spacings over the likely salmon lies. The boat can also be used for traditional River Tay 'harling' where lures or flies are swung methodically behind the boat as it slowly works through the pools in a downstream direction. The water coverage achieved from 3 lures that never leave the water for re-casting should never be underestimated!

River Tay Salmon Fishing Harling

With 'harling' the proper technique involves having your lures or flies staggered at different ranges with the middle rod of typically 3 rods fishing the longest line. The correct River Tay 'harling' approach is to drop the boat back downstream one boat length between each turn of the boat. When you study the 'harling' form of a true River Tay skilled boatman you'll see it's a serious business of water coverage and making sure the lures are moving at the correct pace for the water and temperature conditions. A top notch boatman will always be totally aware of exactly where his harling lures are working and that requires focus so even when engaged in conversation with his guests he'll be operating on peripheral vision and his professional concentration levels will be hardly noticeable until a buckling rod confirms this theory!