This cleverly designed salmon lure marks the start of a new era of intelligent salmon lure designs as the niche market of salmon spin fishers have not benefitted from the advanced lure technology that's widely available for other target species. This Copper Sprat lure was designed by Jock Monteith and imitates the exact scale pattern of a 'live' North Sea sprat which form part of the Atlantic salmon's diet while feeding at sea.

Here's Jock Monteith photographed with his black labrador dog 'Selkie' in the Cottar Pool of the Newtyle Beat during late Spring. This shot was taken by professional Scottish photographer Peter Sandground while Jock was in his tweed jacket and traditional River Tay salmon fishing boat near Dunkeld. You can almost make out the bluebells on the grassy slopes in the background.

These are a carefully designed, named & coloured range of perfect new style salmon lures created by renowned Scottish salmon ghillie & River Tay boatman Jock Monteith. Salmon lures in general are seriously outdated and with reduced Atlantic salmon stock levels across the entire Northern Hemisphere more intelligent lures are required to capitalise on angler's limited fishing time. These professionally designed spin fishing lures will significantly increase the chance of salmon action!

This perfect 27lbs Tay Springer took me by surprise at the Kinnaird Beat's Rock Pool during a high water period at the end of May while I was working as a professional salmon fishing guide. What a absolutely perfect fish which showed up at 5pm after a full day of salmon fishing effort. You can see the size of this fish against the 32 inch frame of the salmon landing net the salmon is lying on before I released this fine fish.

It's important to know good spin fishing tactics to stand the best chances of success when spin fishing on the River Tay. This shot was taken on the Rock Pool near Logierait which is a very productive spin fishing area of the Tay. This fisher was on a guided River Tay salmon fishing day with me as his personal ghillie. You can see I've kitted him out in chest waders, a waterproof jacket, life jacket and fishing equipment.

The 'Spratman' salmon lure was designed to replicate the North Sea sprat's ‘live’ scale pattern & swim action, which is a target prey species for Atlantic salmon while feeding at sea. Perfect for bright or clouded light fishing days where there’s a sparkle of sunlight on the water as the holographic 'lifelike' sprat scale pattern will highlight perfectly in such conditions.

Here's the history & design motivation that resulted in the production of this clever salmon lure design. Astute professional salmon guide instructions on how to fish this lure have also been carefully detailed on the packaging which marks a first as far as salmon lure usage has been detailed previously on any mass production salmon lure. The Monteith 'Copper Sprat' 27g marks the first of an intelligent range of salmon lures that will assist the angler to catch more fish.

How can clearly see the perfect iron Logierait Bridge behind this River Tay spin fishing guest. This area of the Tay near Pitlochry has some lovely deep holding water for salmon which can be perfectly targeted with a spinning rod & spinner. Look at the lovely green grassy riverbank which makes it easy for fishing guests to fish from.

Spin Fishing The River Tay

By Jock Monteith 26th July 2026

While I've built my career on being successful at teaching the art of catching salmon on the fly I do on occasion like to go back to my boyhood River Tay days and have a proper go with a spinner.

Spinning is just as much of an 'art form' as fly fishing and here's a few of the reasons why.

Here's my son Johnny spinning the neck of the Rock Pool on Kinnaird with his 10ft spinning rod. The use of a spinning rod is allowed on some of the Scottish rivers such as the River Tay in Perthshire. This lovely upstream shot was taken on the Tay near Logierait which is a salmon fishing hot spot that's close to the River Tay & River Tummel confluence.

Spin Fishing On The Scottish Salmon Rivers

On many of the shallower & narrower Scottish salmon rivers the fly is all you need for successful salmon pool coverage and to batter out a big flashy salmon lure would just not be good etiquette and would likely get you barred from the beat or river! The River Tay is of course a totally different 'beast' as its big wide deep and often slow moving pools opens spinning up to be your only real chance of effectively covering that kind of slower & deeper Tay water scenario.

Here's an angler salmon fishing with a spinning rod at the rocky point of the Upper Kinnaird Beat's Rock Pool. There's a deep drop off in front of this salmon fishing guest that goes from 5ft down to 20ft and salmon just love to sit on the edge of this deep water. This River Tay salmon fishing hot spot is 20 minutes north of Dunkeld on the A9 motorway.

Effective Spin Fishing Riverbank Movement

All too many times I've seen anglers 'willie nillieing' down a pool having a flick here and a flick there with clearly no real battle or execution plan which is fine if you're just out for a day in the fresh air. If your objective is truly to catch a salmon or two on the Tay's vast salmon pools you need to be 100% focussed on the effectiveness of your water coverage throughout the entire fishing day. The next few paragraphs are my take on how to make sure you catch a salmon on a spinning lure on every visit to the Tay or at least grind out an offer or two.

There's just as much tactical skill in using a spinning rod as there is in fly fishing and make no mistake about that fact. Big Scottish salmon rivers like Tay requires an intelligently thought out fishing plkan with either fishing method. This shot was taken at the tail of the Green Bank Pool near the River Tummel / River Tay confluence.

Space Your Riverbank Movement Consistently

Before I get into the 'nitty gritty' of lure depth & retrieve options the basics of this commences with methodically thought out riverbank movement. Most spinning rods that are used on the River Tay are 10ft in length (give or take a foot). There is your very measure to make life easy for you and moving one rod length with every cast throughout the entire course of the fishing day will obviously allow you to effectively 'carpet bomb' a vast amount of water. It is this precise water coverage that will sooner or later on the 'law of averages' position your spinning lure in front of a 'taking' salmon.

There's much skill and understanding involved in catching a Scottish salmon on a spinning rod and make no mistake about that fact. This visiting American salmon fisher was learning these spin fishing skills near Dunkeld on the River Tay during the low water of Summertime while under my supervision as his salmon guide.

Spin Fishing Casting Angles

I've seen anglers give a little flick of their lure and drop it 30 yards away where the Tay is 100 yards plus wide. Again this is fine if you're just out for a jolly but I'd personally be looking to maximise my casting range by getting some 'punch' into each cast and not mess about with a half cooked casting approach unless the river is in full flood where all you have to search is the margins. Thump each cast of your lure across the Tay at a 'slight' upstream angle as this 'curve ball' retrieve seems by far to be the one that works best of all. Remember at all times that your true goal leading up to the inevitable capture of a salmon is effective 'water coverage'.

The New Monteith Salmon Lures

Over the last few years I've been working 'intensively' on creating a range of superior salmon lures to assist salmon fishers with hooking more salmon on their trips to the river. The reality of the salmon fishing lure game up until this point was that the current salmon lure selections are very much 'antiquated' by modern day lure technology standards and almost none of them were designed by professional salmon guides with decades of riverbank salmon take observations & experience under their belts. I've now released a range of ground breaking Monteith salmon lures that have perfect swim actions which will likely make many of us wonder what exactly where we all fishing with previously!

The Depth & Speed Of Your Spinning Lure

When the above key movement & cast angle points become 'auto pilot' for you the next important part of success with spinning is to 'switch on' and not 'switch off' each time your lure hits the water. I agree that often a salmon will 'attack' a lure when your mind has drifted away as it can be difficult in a tranquil riverbank setting to stay 100% focussed at all times but you need to be aware of your lure's depth & speed even if you're fishing in auto pilot mode. It's important to adjust the retrieve depth of your lure to suit the varying water level and temperature ranges of each season and to match where salmon are likely to be holding in the water column and their eagerness to have a go. My take on this is based on riverbank career experience is fish the lure high and slow in the water column in freezing water conditions and deeper and slightly faster in warmer water conditions from late Spring onwards.

The Above River Tay Spin Fishing Basics

Before I move on let's recap on the value of those above 2 points and why they are so important. Firstly I've never see anyone performing that precision cast spacing nor that consistent long range 'slightly' upstream casting angle. That means if you adopt these basic & proven spin fishing techniques to achieve maximum effective water coverage you will instantly be in the top 1% of 'effective' River Tay spin fishers. Nothing in salmon fishing is rocket science and it's all about common sense & logic which is probably one of the reasons why the sport is so popular and easy to grasp once shown properly.

Spinning Tactics When The Going Is Tough

If you've followed the above and you've not had success but you know for certain you've been covering salmon then you should retry as a psychologist! In other words you've covered the pool perfectly by working 'traditionally' downstream and separated each cast by 10ft with a consistently good casting distance and 'slight' upstream casting angle. Assuming you're on the salmon pool yourself with no other angler to consider then try an upstream approach as this time salmon will not see the lure coming like they did with your initial downstream approach. This new upstream approach will also have even more 'psychological impact' on a salmon if you switch your lure's colours to something completely different which doesn't necessarily mean changing the type or size of lure you're fishing with. A 'startled' salmon could easily become a reactive salmon!

Spin Fishing With A Tight Clutch

Unless you're fishing with one of the many re-purposed bass jerk bait lures that have flooded the market in recent years that have little needle point treble hooks designed to achieve a shallow surface hook hold in a bass's soft mouth you'll need a reasonable degree of hook point pressure to set the bigger hook on the more popular spoon style of lures. The hook on a spoon lure needs good pressure to be set correctly when a salmon takes and you've got no more than 10 seconds to do this which you'll be very lucky to achieve with a slack clutch.

This is a perfectly thought out salmon spin fishing lure colour combination. A North Sea sprat forms an important part of the Atlantic salmon's diet combined with copper which has always been the most consistent attractor of all metal finishes. At 100mm in length and weighing in at 27g a perfect slow presentation 'lively' lure swim action is also achieved to maximise your chances of a take.

The Monteith Copper Sprat Salmon Lure

Here's a new lure colour combination I've created on the scaled down shape (for better action) & weight of the old Toby Salmo. This lure has been purposely designed to trigger an Atlantic salmon's predatory memory recall instinct but please be fully aware that a salmon is a real master at getting rid of unwanted foreign objects in its mouth and it will more than likely prove that to you if you can't set the hook properly due to a slack clutch setting. Bin that myth about fishing 2 spit rings at the tail of your lure as that was only added into the confusion by the plentiful slack clutch spin reel operators who couldn't work out why Toby style spin lures were losing them fish. Moving a hook further away from the target on a Toby style lure via a 2nd split ring is one of the most illogical things I've ever seen in this pursuit. This Copper Sprat lure is purposely configured with 1 rear split ring to ensure a better hook up ratio if correctly fished with an initial tightish reel clutch setting.

Loosen Your Spinning Reel Clutch To Play The Fish

Once you've set the hook (after several seconds of solid contact) then loosen off your clutch to play the fish. God knows how many lost salmon I've seen over the decades by anglers fishing with a slack clutch with a Toby which got to the point where the lure was being blamed (even by tackle dealers) and a salmon all of a sudden was able to create 'leverage' on the hook hold which is absolute 'illogical' nonsense! Get the hook set properly with sufficient 'logical' early hook point pressure and capitalise on your perfect spinning water coverage technique. Don't become a 40 yard 'catch & release' specialist as it's always more satisfying to see your salmon in the landing net.

Salmon Spinning Reels

To close this article the picture is of my own personal' weapon of choice' with is an absolute beauty of a spinning reel to fish with. This little Van Staal VS100 is widely regarded as one of the finest spinning reels in the world with no bail arm to go wrong, a sealed reel casing and an amazing drag system that has tamed powerful Spring Tay salmon up to 27lbs for me. This is an indication as to how seriously I take spin fishing when the occasion arises on the River Tay. There are many fine reels on the market these days and the Shimano Stradic 5000 is another beauty which can be purchased without breaking the bank. Personally I prefer a front drag to these rear drag reels as a front drag seems to be smoother & sturdier and easy to get at for exact instant adjustment when an adrenalin surge requires!