Here's a shot of myself while serving as a professional River Tay salmon fishing guide with my black labrador dog 'Selkie' out in the Cottar Pool of the Newtyle Beat near Dunkeld. This shot was taken by professional Scottish photographer Peter Sandground for the Glasgow Herald Magazine.

Look at this fine picture of the River Tay taken from the Upper Kinnaird salmon fishing hut which sits in a perfect elevated position overlooking the river. The little riffle you see in the picture is known as Daffodil Lie which often produces a quick salmon fishing guests.

Here's the perfect end result of a carefully presented River Tay salmon fly in the middle area of the Tay Valley near Dunkeld during May. Look at the physical perfection of this salmon and it's no wonder these Spring run fish are the most highly regarded of all the Scottish salmon runs. The fish is in the landing net beside my salmon fly rod & reel.

Here's a shot of a lone salmon fishing angler wading down through The Croys Pool of the River Tay which is located near the Perthshire village of Murthly. Wading no further than knee depth is a safer way to fish and will spook less salmon too like you see here. You can see the shallow water in the foreground of this shot which makes it easy for a shallow wade through the pool.

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.

This photograph of professional Scottish salmon fishing guide Jock Monteith was captured by TV producer Chris Webster outside Ferry Cottage on the Kinnaird Estate of the River Tay in Perthshire. You can see the snow clad hills and riverbanks in the background.

The Best Salmon Fishing Approach

By Jock Monteith 9th November 2025

There's nothing in the natural world that comes close to the magic & brilliance of a Scottish salmon river that's in good order especially if you're on it 'tooled up' with enough tactical intelligence to be in with a fair shout of success.

I took this shot of a salmon fly fishing angler at the Croys Pool of the Kercock salmon beat which is one of many middle River Tay hot spots. This middle area of the Tay is good for salmon fishing from March through to October and the Tay can be fished with the fly or with a spinning lure. This lovely gravel riverbank is easy to fish from unlike the far tree clad riverbank.

Manage Your Salmon Fishing Expectations

There's a great sense of excitement for any angler who's heading to a salmon river for the day and that same buzz is felt by all the professional Scottish ghillies too. It's important that you manage this natural energy carefully and don't burn out after the first hour or two because the fish you seek is playing hard to get! The key to this game is without doubt having the ability to keep your expectation levels under control and your persistency levels high so as to 'drip feed' yourself that natural energy throughout the full course of the fishing day. Trying also to keep your mind in neutral expectation mode also works a treat as I'm 1000% convinced salmon can sense over eagerness and will shy away from it on every occasion. 9 times out of 10 a salmon take sneaks up on you when you're 'defocussed' so think about what I've just said for a moment or two before reading on.

Here's an angler out fly fishing the renowned Meeting Pool on the River Tay's Upper Kinnaird salmon beat which is a perfect salmon fishing hot spot and one where many new salmon fishers are launched into the sport each year. This is the confluence of the rivers Tay & Tummel and the Tay is the river that goes up to the left hand side of frame. Look at the beautiful big riverbank oak tree to the left of frame.

Understanding Salmon Fishing

Understanding the educational qualities of the salmon game are important as a salmon river and the inevitable blank fishing days can both be daunting to an untrained mind. In an instant gratification society we are all trained to expect results quickly where we can even speed most results up with credit cards or soon to be phased out cash! You cannot however buy a salmon into making it take your fly or lure so controlled patience is vital and even when you're fishing on the most prolific of Scottish salmon beats. Switching your mind and fishing approach into logical 'water coverage' mode will put you well ahead of the pack especially if that is paired with 'sub surface' lure or fly control thoughts.

Make Your Own Salmon Fishing Success

When you're out on the river your part of the deal is to 'effectively' cover as much water as you can in both the morning & afternoon fishing sessions. Don't stay in the one spot hoping a salmon is going to come to you or keep bombarding a salmon lie where you know fish are likely to be holding. If a salmon wants your fly it will let you know about it fairly quickly so bombarding a particular salmon lie is more often than not counter productive as you're only training salmon to accept the presence of your lure or fly in the stream. The most effective way I've personally found to make a salmon take is to 'startle' it by not showing too much of the fly via properly spaced water coverage which will often 'trigger' its oceanic hunting instinct rather than try to bore a fish to death hoping it'll eventually change its mind! If a salmon only briefly sees a fly or lure it has to make a snap decision whether or not to commit to a full investigation and we all know what curiosity did to the cat!

Here's a lovely River Tay salmon Pool known as Daffodil Lie which is a salmon fishing hotspot that's formed by a sub surface pile of riverbed stones that you can clearly see the surface disturbance from in this photograph. Salmon love to hold up in here and can be frequently caught by anglers who know this salmon lie and how to fish it. As a salmon fishing guide and tactical fishing instructor I know only too well the potency of this River Tay salmon lie hot spot..

Study The Salmon River

Whatever pools you're allocated by the Head Ghillie on arrival at a salmon beat switch into Google Earth 'Satellite' mode. What I mean by this is take that aerial snapshot in your mind and make your objective to fill that entire river map in with precision sweeps with your fly that are all identically spaced by about 3 or 4 feet. When it comes to lunchtime or 5pm you'll have covered not just the 'hot spots' properly but all the rest of the water too. This is the logical approach to Scottish salmon fishing that is completely missed by the majority of Scottish salmon fishers who give effective water coverage little thought or they've never been effectively shown. On the River Tay the boat scores highly on any salmon beat that possesses a skilled boatman primarily due to this 'effective' water coverage principle.

This was a perfect River Tummel salmon of 11lbs caught that I caught while working as a salmon guide in May near the mouth of the River Tummel. You can see the light blue floating fly line on my fly rod which was fitted with a 15ft sinking tip just to get the fly down a foot or two in the water column. Note the fine meshed landing net bag the salmon is lying on.

Pairing Water Coverage With Salmon Fly Depth & Speed

If you adopt the above logical water coverage theme and add into this a careful presentation thought process of intentionally trying to achieve the correct 'depth & speed' of your fly or lure to match the seasonal water conditions and temperatures you'll then have transformed yourself into a absolute salmon fishing machine! Be sure when your fly fishing with a shooting head type of line system that you're 'controlling' your fly for the first 1/3rd of the swing and not just letting the fly swing 'aimlessly' like I see 99% of the time from anglers. Add up that wasted fly swim time over the full course of the fishing day and you'll see you've lost at least 2 hours of what would otherwise have been additional 'effective' fly swim time! By adding these additional thought processes & skill sets to your salmon fishing approach you'll also have added yourself into the top 5% bracket of Scottish salmon fishers. Once you've properly mastered all of these above important salmon fishing skills you'll take almost as much satisfaction from the effective water coverage you're consistently deploying as you'll do from the 'inevitable' salmon you will catch!

Look at the nice streamy water that starts to fade out 100 yards downstream of where this River Tay salmon fishing holiday fisherman is positioned. Salmon will briefly stop there before pushing on up through the streamy water above. Now you'll start feeling like you can sense the presence of salmon once you can identify their likely holding areas.

Manage Your Senses On The Salmon River

Take a deep breath of fresh Scottish riverbank air and hold it in your lungs then cast your eyes out across the dark mysterious swirling salmon water of the mighty River Tay with that deep routed underlying suspicion of the presence of a 'highly prized' silver flanked power house is definitely one of the greatest natural feelings of all if you dare to venture into this perfect natural playground. Your kit has been carefully prepared and your riverbank movement is 'spot on' so deep down you know it's only a matter of time before our 'Salmon God' approves!