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.

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.

This young lady was part of a family salmon fishing group who had never fished before for salmon. This salmon is being momentarily held over the landing net in the March Pool on the Kinnaird salmon beat. Look at the perfectly cur green grassy riverbank which makes the salmon fishing easy.

Here's a fine shot of the River Tay near Logierait which is one of the most scenic areas on the entire River Tay Valley. This is also a very popular area for visiting salmon fishers which flock to this are in pursuit of a salmon between March and October each year. These are mainly alder & oak trees that you see in this lovely shot.

This River Tay guided salmon fishing guest just captured his first ever fly caught salmon hence the big smile on his face. Booking a professional guide that has the nose of the native otter is vital for giving you the best chance of salmon fishing success. This fish was caught at the Tummel Tay confluence which you can see in the background opposite the overhanging oak tree branches.

The 5pm Salmon Fishing Blues

By Jock Monteith 7th August 2025

After the elation & excitement of a brilliant day on a Scottish salmon river do you ever get to the end of a blank day when you're content but you just have that niggling inner feeling of what could have been!

Sadly that feeling is felt by too many salmon fishers who've not been shown how to make a salmon take consistently count!

This was one of my fishing guests fishing the River Tay in June after being taught to Speycast with this 15ft double handed salmon fly rod. The Tay is Scotland's biggest salmon river which is popular for salmon fishing trips. Look at the lovely riverbank and wooded Perthshire hillside on the far bank.

Bad Salmon Hooking Habits

There's nothing more stubborn that I've ever seen than a salmon fisher who's set in their ways and continues to miss glorious quality opportunities to 'effectively' hook salmon. I'm not talking here about newcomers to the sport as they're easy being 'blank canvasses' to brainwash properly on effective hooking techniques. I'm referring to the 'they'd rather not disclose it than fix it' more seasoned salmon angler brigade when it comes to hooking salmon. All salmon hooks 'logically' require sufficient pressure at the correct moment to be set 'effectively' as hooks don't just magic themselves into a salmon's generally tough mouth flesh all by themselves!

I can vividly recall the amazing thrill of landing this perfect fish during late May on the River Tay near Pitlochry in Highland Perthshire. Spring salmon in Scotland are always in perfect condition like you see here as this salmon lay beside my salmon fly rod and reel in the landing net before I released it back to the river.

Feel The Weight Before Lifting Your Rod

The above title does not state 'lift into the fish to then feel its weight' it clearly states 'feel the weight of the fish 'before' lifting into the fish'! If that isn't more logical than a big bag of logical things then I don't know what on earth is! If you time the tightening of your fly line by clamping your fly reel with the rod tip down to when the fish is swimming away from you all that is between you and the hook point is the braided core stretch of your fly line which means you don't need to be a physics professor to work out you'll set the hook! Keep lifting like a perfect salmon loss machine and sooner or later you're going to realise you're in the hands of the Gods whether your fish is going to stay on given the tough nature of the inside of a salmon's mouth and the 'useless' hook setting soft action of a salmon fly rod paired with a lightly set reel clutch (to correctly allow the fish to turn and draw away).

Here's a spin fisher out on the River Tay casting his spinning lure out across the river near Dunkeld during late June. The Tay allows spin fishing which can be a highly effective salmon fishing method if the correct salmon spin fishing tactics are understood by the angler. The big stones visible beside this salmon fisher guest make perfect casting platforms for easy river fishing access.

Spin Fishers Need To Know Too

If your riverbank movement is good enough to earn the take from a salmon while spinning on the Tay you've got no more than 5 second on contact with a fish to set the bigger hook of a 'Toby' or your fish will say goodbye prematurely! The biggest load of nonsense you'll here about that fantastic 'Toby' lure is that it's a bad hooker! That lure in the right hands is deadly and not just for attracting salmon but getting a firm grip of them too. The 'bad hooker' misinformation translates into 'illogical fishing technique' due to anglers fishing the lure with a slack clutch setting and naively hoping the fish will play 'tug of war' to set the hook the same way a dog would on the front lawn with a bath towel! Make sure your spinning reel clutch is initially set tight enough to hook the salmon then loosen the clutch off a little to play the fish 'after' you've set the hook and watch your faith in our magnificent salmon attracting 'Toby' lure soar sky high!

Here's a perfect Scottish River Tay Spring salmon in the landing net before being released back to the river. This fine Spring fish weighted 16lbs and was carefully weighed in this weigh scale salmon landing net.

Thousands Of Lost Salmon Hooking Opportunities

The thing that bothers me the most having watched the 'debacle' going on for decades is that it'll be effecting salmon fishery booking sheets by making them appear to have less salmon in them than they actually do. Often I hear of many of 'golden' hooking opportunities on the Tay that were squandered by anglers who don't technically know what they are doing. That frustrates me as all ghillies wants to see that amazing salmon smile on the angler's face after the successful conclusion of battle via a perfect salmon capture shot. The second a fish feels the hook its objective is to get rid of it and they are true masters at doing so unless you've 'clinically' set the hook to a degree where the fish would need to break your line to escape the landing net!

Here's a lovely fly caught salmon by one of our guided fishing guests which was caught on the River Tummel neat Ballinluig in July. This fishing area of the Tummel is close to Dunkeld & Pitlochry. You can see the salmon is being perfectly supported by this salmon fisher while I took the salmon capture shot as his salmon fishing guide.

The Amazing Taking Consistency Of Scottish Salmon

I'm certain due to high consistency levels of squandered salmon hooking opportunities that angler error plays its part in our game these days. The take to landed salmon ratio for the average salmon fisher at best would be about 3 to 1 from what I've personally seen. Think about the positive impact of these other 2 salmon being landed for salmon fisher retention in this sport and the sheer 'economic value' to Scotland. Science based (mis)information advises that we are in a salmon stock down turn even though it's impossible for science to truly know (as long as salmon angler rod catches are all we've got as a stock measuring tool and zero consideration for low warm water years!) however the majority of anglers could play a bigger part by obtaining the necessary salmon hooking skills to give them more consistency at turning their hard earned salmon takes into fish for the Scottish river dependent catch statistics.