Here's a fabulous action photograph of Jock Monteith loading up a perfect Spey cast for long range salmon fly delivery across the River Tay with his tweed jacket and chest waders on. This shot was captured on the Meetings Pool of the Lower Kinnaird Beat by top Scottish photographer Louise Bellin.

Here's Jock Monteith amidst a Spey casting lesson on the River Tay under the historic Telford Bridge demonstrating perfect D Loop loading with the single Spey cast. The traditional Spey cast is the most effective and satisfying casts. This photo was taken by local Dunkeld photographer Charlie MacDonald. Jock is wearing his Graham of Menteith tartan kilt while demonstrating Spey cast with his 15ft Monteith salmon fly rod.

This salmon fisher is out presenting his fly on the lovely Meetings Pool of the River Tay at Kinnaird. This entire area of the Tay Valley is steeped in natural beauty and attracts many salmon fishers each year. Book a professional River Tay salmon get to show you all of these middle Tay fly fishing hot spots.

Knowing how and where to wade through a salmon pool like this fisher is doing for minimal disruption is a vital skill to master in Scottish salmon fishing. Most anglers think that wading deeper is better but the true facts about wading are quite the opposite. Observe that this salmon fisher is only at knee depth so as not disturb the salmon pool which is essential for salmon fishing success.

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.

Here's some anglers receiving expert Spey casting tuition at Dunkeld on the River Tay. Learning to use a double handed salmon fly rod is easy when instructed by a professional salmon fishing guide who's fully tuned in to the traditional Scottish Speycast. This was a group lesson that was being given to a team of salmon fishing holiday guests who wanted to learn how to fly fish for salmon. Learning to fly fish for salmon is easy when you have the best salmon fishing guide instructors.

Spey Running Line Management

By Jock Monteith 17th July 2026

When fly fishing for salmon with a Spey line it is important that you understand the logical way to manage your running line if you're fishing a longish line.

The following information is what works well for me up to a 40 yard delivery.

This beautiful salmon fly reel id the Van Staal C-Vex Combo 9/11 in silver which is my own personal salmon reel. The light blue fly line is the Monteith Speycaster Multi System which was a Spey line I designed that fishes with 1 of 8 tips that come with the mainline to cover various different salmon fly depth swim applications. The fly rod is a 16ft Bruce & Walker Norway blank hand built to my specification with a stabilised walnut Struble reel seat.

The Advantages Of A Long Bellied Spey Line

One of the many advantages of fishing with a medium or long bellied Spey line is that you don't have the huge amount of usually overly thin & often springy running line to try to manage between each cast. Spey lines significantly reduce the amount of running line you need to manage and wasted fishing time in having to strip your shooting head all the way back until the head section is slightly overhanging the tip ring of your rod and ready for recasting. If you're fishing a shooting head at any sort of range this can often make you wish you'd been born an octopus!

I took this beautiful downstream shot of the River Tay in Perthshire which is a famous Scottish salmon river. This lovely shot was taken a few miles upstream from the Perthshire town of Dunkeld. You can clearly see my salmon fishing guest a few hundred yards below me. The dark shadowy water just off the main current is a great Tay salmon holding area and is always worth fishing through.

Maximising Your Effective Fly Fishing Time

If you add up all of the above shooting head running line 'stripping in' time that is required for a medium to long cast over the full course of the salmon fishing day you'll be surprised by the fishing time & water coverage you've lost. A Spey line cuts the line stripping process in half while fishing a 25 to 40 yard line, allows you to control the fly with a mend 'to the fly' when the fly line is fully extended upon touchdown and allows you much more 'ease of handing' of the running line between each cast. The best method I personally found was to limit yourself to 3 big loops of running line even when the full 40 yard line was being utilised.

Storing Your Spey Running Line Loops

The collection and storing of these loops would be done with my bottom hand at the butt of the rod and below the fly reel. These loops when drawing in line would be stored firstly with the biggest loop, then a slightly smaller biggish loop then finally another smaller one. The first big loop would reach approx the length of my 15ft rod so there you already have 30ft of tidy running line storage and so on. Logically at delivery release time the smallest loop would fly first followed by the next biggest loop then again followed by the largest loop and they all will exit the rod rings without any frustrating butt ring jamming issues.

Here's a salmon fishing angler mastering the power stroke which is the final part of the 3 stage Spey cast. This shot was taken by myself while serving as a salmon fishing guide at the neck of the Rock Pool on the Lower Tummel Beat of the River Tummel not too far away from the Perthshire town of Pitlochry.

The Spey Cast Power Stroke Bullet

You may think that only fishing 3 big running line storage loops between long casts will exert too much water pressure or drag (in faster water) on the trailing larger diameter running line of a properly thought out spey 'fishing' line. If your Spey cast lift has been high & smooth enough and you've turned your upper body a little upstream of the target through the smooth controlled swing and precisely & visually brought your peripheral vision into play to 'absolutely' nail your timing off the water you'll still create (and even at long range) that beautiful line slap off the butt section of the rod as it lets you know it likes your form!

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.

Nothing Beats 'Control Optimised' Fly Swim Time For Catching Salmon

Nothing beats the magnificence, elegance and effectiveness of learning & using a medium to long bellied Speyline with all of the huge fly fishing satisfaction benefits i.e. fly control 'to the fly', running line management ease, increase of effective fly fishing time, less chance of a drowned fly line when playing a good fish and no running line rod ring jamming issues. When I watch the majority of salmon fishers who can throw a long line with a shooting head or Skagit system and start counting down the lost effective 'fly swim' time from an aimlessly drifting fly which loses on average one third of its potentially 'effective' fly swim time during each cast I wonder if this design of casting system has also played a part in generally reduced salmon catches over the last few decades in addition to the other better understood and more obvious stock management, in-river predation & ocean mortality factors.

Here's Jock Monteith out in a traditional River Tay salmon boat in the Cottar Pool of the Newtyle Beat. This lovely shot was captured by top Scottish photographer Peter Sandground during late Spring. You can see 'Selkie' Jock's black labrador dog at the bow of the boat.

For More Information On Effective Salmon Fishing Tactics

This website's new sister site has a search directory for 'Questions & Answers' regarding various different salmon fishing topics & tactics. While the sister site design & content is fairly new and still very much a 'work in progress' there's already much useful content that could assist new or experienced Scottish salmon fishers in this fabulous pursuit. Follow this Salmon Fishing Information link for unlimited access to this new salmon fishing information source.