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.

Learning to fish for salmon on Scotland's largest and most famous salmon river is a real natural thrill under the supervision of a professional salmon guide. This picture was taken on the River Tay near Logierait with a guided salmon fisher out presenting his salmon fly through a well know salmon fishing hot spot during July.

So much nonsense is spoken about how to hook a salmon on the fly which results in the loss on thousands of Scottish salmon each year. Book a professional guide to get you into position and then show you exactly how to set the salmon fly hook effectively. This salmon in the landing net was hooked properly on the River Tay near the rivers Tay & Tummel confluence which is a great fishing area near Dunkeld in Perthshire.

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.

Look for unusual riverbank markers like a pile of stones as sometimes these are placed there by anglers to mark the location of salmon that have been showing. This shot was taken on the Meetings Pool of the River Tay near the Perthshire town of Pitlochry which is a popular salmon fishing location for anglers.

Look at this shimmering River Tay fly water perfection and think about what could be lying up in here and ready for a careful salmon fly presentation. This is the perfect March Pool on Scotland's famous River Tay which is one such perfect fly pool in this middle River Tay fishing area between the Perthshire towns of Pitlochry & Dunkeld.

Selecting Salmon Fly Sink Tips

By Jock Monteith 16th December 2025

The depth of your salmon fly is an important part of success in salmon fishing so in the next few paragraphs I'll give you a few of my own personal thoughts to hopefully clear up a few misconceptions on this fascinating topic.

This is the neck of the famous Ash Tree Pool on the Lower Kinnaird salmon beat which has a lovely fly fishing stream that you can see where many salmon hold up during late Spring through to early Autumn each year. This side of the river is the easiest side to fish from and this salmon fishing trip guest was accompanied by his professional salmon guide.

Know Where Your Salmon Fly Is Fishing

It has become apparently obvious over the years that although many salmon anglers fully understand all about the different densities and lengths of the sink tips that are available very few fully understand exactly where these tungsten impregnated sink tips are taking their salmon fly to in the water column during each and every differing water condition.

Grading Salmon Line Sink Tips

These sinking tip additions which sometimes come as part of a Spey Line or Shooting Head 'system' as they're known these days are badged in various numbers and usually described typically as Type 3 or Type 6 etc. What these number are referring to is the depth of what a 1 inch cut section of this material would sink at if dropped into a glass of water i.e 3 inches or 6 inches per second. Therefore these digits bear zero reference as to the sink rate performance the same sink tip material would achieve in a flowing river.

Look at the smile on this salmon angler's face moments after landing this perfect Summer salmon from the River Tay in Perthshire. Catching a salmon like this on the fly takes skill, patience and a good tactical understanding of how to fish your fly effectively. This 14lbs Summer salmon is being held in the McLean landing net for this photo before being released.

Fish Your Fly Down Onto Salmon

Salmon as predators hunt from below so a salmon that's in a serious taking mood will come a long way up off the riverbed to intercept a salmon fly if it wants it enough. On other occasions a fly that's fished too high above a disinterested fish won't even generate a flicker of its dorsal fin. In normal salmon fishing conditions like that you really need to be able to present your fly through the square metre of water right in-front of the salmon nose for half a chance of the desired reaction.

This perfectly conditioned 11lbs Spring salmon was hooked and landed by myself during May on my own designed fly line that had a 15ft type 3 sink tip added just to get the fly down a few feet. It's important to know where and how to fish your fly throughout the differing fishing seasons in Scotland based on what depth you think the salmon are holding in. This was my favourite salmon fly reel and fly rod you can see in the shot.

Be Your Own Judge On Salmon Fly Depth

I honestly believe that some of the salmon fishing book authors either have caught few salmon or had consumed far too many drams while they were writing. For example, 'deep & slow' in the early cold Spring and floating lines in the warm Summer water are logically inaccurate as there's much more chance of a salmon positioning itself high in the very cold water months where the warmer thermals are located as there is of a salmon lying deep on the bottom of the riverbed where the cooler water is to be found through the warmer Summer months.

This perfect Spring salmon was caught by myself on the River Tay during late February after hours of searching the river for a fish. When you go salmon fishing it requires a solid logic backed fishing plan at the start of the day to catch salmon and this fish was the result of that type of detailed planning. Look at the perfect shimmer from this early Spring salmon's silver flanks lying beside my salmon fly reel & Spey rod.

Make Logic Your Salmon Fly Judge

Let good old logic be your judge and these above contradictions are more than likely because the authors never truly knew where their salmon fly was really fishing when they caught salmon as a heavy sunk line in the big water of Spring in any pool with half a flow will only be 'flight pathing' your fly about a foot down even though giving the angler the impression of a much deeper swim. A floating line in Summer on some of the shallower Scottish rivers will obviously place the salmon fly close enough to salmon unless its a deeper pool when the fly will fish way up too high over their heads.

Here's a group of Canadian salmon fishers who had come to fish the River Tay learning how we tie our salmon flies onto the leader. This photo was taken near Murthly on the River Tay in Perthshire while professional salmon guide Jock Monteith was teaching these salmon fishing holiday guests the basic salmon fishing skills.

Making Fly Line Leader Weight Selection

The other factors to understand about fly fishing for salmon with sink tips or a full floating line is to know what length of leader to use. The rule of thumb is to shorten the leader down to as little as 3 or 4ft if you're fishing a heavy sink tip as you don't want the fast sinking tip down deep and the fly still riding high because your leader is too long. With a higher fishing sink tip a 5ft to 6ft leader or a 10ft leader with a full floating line is normally about right.

This Maxima monofilament line has stood the test of time and I've personally used it throughout my entire professional salmon fishing career and never once has it let me down when capturing Scottish salmon.

Is Maxima Chameleon Leader Material Any Good

Leader strength selection should be all about the weight of the fly you are fishing as you'll need a bulky leader to transfer the energy to the fly as a light leader just will not be able to do that effectively. With a copper 2 inch tube fly I'd personally be using 4ft of 25lbs Maxima Chameleon monofilament to get the energy transfer turnover bang on. With a light size 9 or 11 late Spring or Summer fly on the Tay I'd be fishing between 15lbs & 18lbs Maxima and nothing lighter than that in case a high teenager or bigger salmon has a go as I don't want to wait until after spawning time to have a chance of landing it!

Here's a glimpse of the salmon fly patterns I have absolute faith in. Although I'll always experiment with different fly patterns my main 2 are the 'Copperass' & the 'Jock's Shrimp' patterns which account for 85% of the salmon I'm involved in the capture of each year. The Maxima spools you see is my favourite salmon fly leader material.

Fluorocarbon Or Mono For Your Salmon Fly Leader

I've never been a fan of fluorocarbon as it's no where near as reliable as Maxima for various reasons and I've personally seen far too many salmon escape capture even though it'll suit a tackle dealer to sell it! When I was a young salmon fisher and part time River Tay Summer ghillie in the 70's good old Maxima was doing a reliable job then just as it does today for many Tay ghillies so on the basis that 'if it's not broken (excuse the pun) then why fix it'.

I caught this lovely Summer salmon at the tail of the Rock Pool during July. You can see this fresh run fish is in the landing net beside my salmon fly rod and reel. The salmon fly that's still in the fish's mouth is the deadly Jock's Shrimp pattern.

Are Salmon Leader Shy

One of our anglers was dropped off on the far side of the Tay one morning before the ghillie went boat fishing to the top end of the beat. The angler landed a salmon even though when he started to fish he got his fly snagged and lost the only leader he had as he'd forgot to lift his spare leader material from his car boot earlier that morning. He had in desperation stripped back a few inches of the PVC coating from the front of his fly line and tied a fly onto the braided core front end!