This is the tail of The Ash Tree Pool of the Tay near Dunkeld. Even in low water salmon can still run the Tay due to its width & depth. The gravel in this photograph would be fully covered during the earlier fishing months. You can see one of my salmon fishing trip guests out with his chest waders on searching for a fine Tay salmon. As a professional salmon fishing guide it's great to grab lovely River Tay photographs like this one.

A River Tay salmon guide will take you to the best fishing areas and will make sure you're fishing through them optimally. If you are new to the sport a guide will teach all of the basic fly fishing skills and will supply all of the required fishing equipment and permit access. This is an upstream shot of the March Pool on the River Tay opposite the River Tummel mouth. Look at the perfectly strimmed riverbank I completed for the benefit & safety of our many visiting River Tay salmon fishing trip guests.

This perfect Spring salmon was caught on a dull light early Spring salmon fishing day on the River Tay near Pitlochry. A fresh run Spring salmon like this isn't that bothered about the poor light conditions as it clearly still had it's oceanic hunting mindset when it took this American salmon fishing holiday angler's fly. Personally, as a salmon fishing guide I prefer a little bit of sunlight during the early season but often salmon like this one think differently!

Here's the bow section of a hand built River Tay 16ft salmon fishing 'coble' boat with a Brady fishing back and Bruce & Walker salmon Spey rod fitted with a Van Staal salmon fly reel. Professional salmon guides in Scotland take their personal salmon fishing equipment seriously too!

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 a shot of a professional salmon guide and his salmon fishing guest out on the famous Ash Tree Pool of the River Tay which is located in Highland Perthshire between Pitlochry & Dunkeld. This is a great area of the River Tay to fish for Atlantic salmon.

River Tay Salmon Beat Management

By Jock Monteith 10th December 2017

Once you've fished the middle area of the River Tay a few times you'll soon work out where the best chances of a salmon are to be found.

In addition to that you'll also see which beats are respectful to both the fly fishers and spin fishers via a bit of Head Ghillie 'pool segregation' common sense.

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.

Salmon Fly Fishing & Spin Fishing

The Tay is notorious for ghillies who allow spin fishers down through their pools before or sometimes even in front of a dedicated salmon fly fisher. There are arguments as to whether or not that truly matters to salmon but one thing for certain is it matters in the mind of most fly fishers. There's no better more effective way to ensure a fly fisher doesn't return to a beat than to let his water be spun through before he fishes it.

Here's a fine salmon capture photograph for River Tay salmon angler Martin Hunter at the famous Ash Tree Pool of the River Tay near Dunkeld. A personal guide always provides a salmon fishing advantage and even to experienced salmon fishers like Martin. I was Martin's personal salmon guide that day and took this perfect salmon capture shot.

The Salmon Fisher Experience

I hear the excuses now but really if a beat is to be run 'properly & effectively' then this should always be a consideration by the Head Ghillie to ensure the client experience is optimised fully for the chance of a return booking. You don't need to be Albert Einstein to realise that fly water and spinning water are 2 completely different things so there's never a need for 'cross over' outwith big dirty water conditions.

This is one of the salmon fishing middle River Tay hot spots. This stretch of water is known as the Ash Tree Pool which accounts for 40% of the salmon caught on the Lower Kinnaird beat. This salmon fishing guest is fishing the tail of the Ash Tree pool with a professional River Tay salmon guide who took this photograph.

The Kinnaird & Dunkeld House Beats

The two salmon beats on the middle Tay where there's consideration for the fly fisher during normal water conditions are on the lovely Lower Kinnaird beat & the Dunkeld House beat. These 2 popular Tay salmon fishing venues both have professional ghillies who were tuned into this way of doing things by 'yours truly' as both worked with me for many years in previous river lives. I once took a Tay beat from £15k to £86k turnover in 36 months without a website by implementing sensible fishery management policies like this.

Here's a close up shot of the head of the most sought after marine creature otherwise known as a fresh run Spring salmon. This fine fish was caught in May on the River Tay near the Tummel & Tay confluence which is a renowned holding area for Spring salmon near the Perthshire towns of Pitlochry & Dunkeld.

Why Do Salmon Sometimes Switch Off

The easy 'half way' house for those ghillies who have a mental block on this is to only allow spin fishing in the afternoon if pool segregation doesn't sit well. This way no fly fisher is going onto water in the afternoon that's been straifed that morning with spinners. Personally I believe through personal fishing results & observations that if a salmon sees too much of anything it diminishes the chances of cooperation and there's nothing subtle about a 30 gram Toby 'Salmo' as it 'Kodaks' over their heads.

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.

Salmon Pool Segregation Works Well

Don't misundertsand what I'm saying here as I love also to have a go for salmon with a spinning rod from time to time in certain water conditions but from what I've seen over 40 years on the Tay is that great fun can be had with a spinning rod on any Tay beat at any time of the year without interfering with the fly fishing water and in many cases with more success and less lure 'fatalities'. If you're a ghillie on the Tay consider this point and put yourself in the waders of a fly fisher who's head is down as he walks onto a pool knowing it's already been heavily spun through.