The Cathedral Stream salmon fishing pool was beautifully captured in this fine Summer shot by myself from the grounds of the Dunkeld Cathedral. The sandstone Telford Bridge is 200 years old and is a significant landmark on the middle area of the River Tay. The bridge also separates the Perthshire village of Birnam from the town of Dunkeld.

Here's a fine Spring salmon in full oceanic hunting colours. This fish had only just arrived back in the River Tay from the ocean when it was captured near Dunkeld which is a popular salmon fishing area of the Tay Valley. Our salmon guide placed this fish temporarily on the rubber mat in the landing net to unhook this salmon prior to releasing it.

Another fine River Tay salmon is landed at Dunkeld on the River Tay by our salmon guide. This fish was caught on the fly from the boat which is a great method for salmon fishing success on the middle stretches of the Tay. You can see fish friendly landing net mesh and a soft padded landing mat being used which is important to protect the salmon prior to release.

Here's a perfect River Tay Spring salmon that was hooked and landed from the boat in the Cathedral Stream Pool at Dunkeld by our professional salmon fishing guide. This is a great salmon fishing pool in low water conditions in this very popular fishing area of the Tay Valley. You can see the salmon being held safely in the landing net at the side of the boat for this lovely photograph.

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.

There's something magical about fishing the Cathedral Stream on the Dunkeld House Beat of the River Tay. Maybe it's something to do with the old ley lines that run through this location. This natural energy can be felt by anglers and salmon! I took this shot of the salmon beat head ghillie in his boat while serving as the accompanying guest's salmon fishing guide. I took this upstream shot from the mid section of the 200 year old Telford Bridge at Dunkeld.

The Cathedral Stream Pool In Dunkeld

By Jock Monteith 21st June 2018

Having the ability to use your gut instincts in salmon fishing plays an important role in success.

That's part of the reason why I went heavy on the Dunkeld House beat's beautiful Cathedral Stream a few days ago as my gut was telling me this pool was about to come into a class of its own.

A Perfect Middle Tay Salmon Pool

This main photograph was taken from the Dunkeld Cathedral grounds and shows this perfect middle Tay salmon pool in optimal fishing condition. During lower water periods the only flight path running salmon have through the streamy water in this area directly upstream of Dunkeld Bridge is along this channel directly in front of the Cathedral lawn. The two deep troughs on the river bed of this pool offer salmon broken water pockets to hold up in with the added advantage of being able to process more oxygen in the faster stream during warmer water conditions.

Never Say Never In Salmon Fishing

With the surge of Summer salmon that entered the Tay in the last few days I'm not surprised one little bit that this pool produced 3 salmon in under an hour yesterday afternoon when the ghillie finally ventured out on his own for a cast following a last minute 'call off' from 2 fishing guests who were probably self convinced themselves that the Tay was a complete waste of time! That in a nutshell is salmon fishing and another perfect example of these 'windows of opportunity' I keep referring to. On another similar occasion earlier this year a Dunkeld House beat guest called off and his last minute replacement quickly landed 2 perfect Spring salmon of 22lbs & 18lbs!

I took this shot of this salmon fishing guest spinning through the Green Bank pool on the River Tay near Pitlochry. You can see from the bare trees this shot was taken during early Spring. The spinner offers a salmon fisher the ability to cover much more water on a big river than what could realistically be achieved with a fly rod. This significantly increases the chance of a salmon take on big rivers like the River Tay in Perthshire but only if good riverbank cast spacings are added to the tactical spin approach.

Salmon Fishing Sleeping Sickness

From what I see the vast majority of Scottish salmon fishers are asleep right now due to the low number of salmon that were caught in the rivers this Spring and few anglers acknowledged the magnificence of the much the bigger than average Tay salmon that were caught. From the mainly unchanged salmon beat permit availability I observe from week to week it looks to me like many anglers aren't bothering to fish. This is undoubtedly the result of 'catch stats' brain washing that periodically cripples the industry and an underlying false narrative that salmon fishing in Scotland this year is a waste of time.

These fresh run Scottish salmon look as if they've been forged from molten silver and are often referred to as 'bars of silver'. This perfect Spring salmon took a 'Jock's Shrimp' salmon fly near the River Tummel & River Tay confluence during late May which is a great time to intercept a fish of this calibre. I took this perfect up close shot while this beautiful fish was still in the landing net before releasing it back to the river.

Salmon Always Do There Own Thing

On a personal basis I've never had a busier year for bookings as 95% of my clients come from international destinations and aren't 'hypnotised' by the normal brain washing factors the same way most UK salmon fisher seem to be. Like anything in life you've got to work with what you've got and when there's less anglers out trying then obviously less fish are going to be caught. In the Dunkeld House Cathedral Stream at this time the chances of catching a salmon are at least 50/50 which I'd say are great odds given the completely wild nature of an Atlantic salmon. Don't let the 'nae sayers' contaminate your drinking water and get yourself out there as many perfect Scottish salmon pools are well rested at this time which means there's a far greater chance salmon will be looking for something to chase!