This is God's finest marine creature in a salmon landing net moments before it was released back to its River Tay habitat. This fine fish was caught during late March near Dunkeld and weight exactly 23lbs. The fish took a pearly pink 4 inch Classic Tomic lure in colour code 341. These lures are ordered from Tomic Lures in Canada especially for use on the River Tay by many professional salmon fishing guides.

Personally I love to use the Partridge Nordic tube fly hooks as they are micro barbed, very sharp and very strong. A single hook also hooks salmon better and does almost no damage to the mouth of a fish with 'Catch & Release' in mind. A good strong single hook also keeps the fly on an even keel when it's fishing. Once you've landed a few salmon on a single hook you'll be unlikely to ever go back to doubles or treble hooks. These are 3 Jock's Shrimp salmon tube fly patterns which is of my own design.

This perfect heavyweight salmon was caught during late March on the Perthshire River Tay at Dunkeld. This photograph was taken by the salmon fishing instructor as the fish was being released and moments after the salmon swam away out of the landing net.

This is the brown winged version of the Jock's Shrimp fitted with a Partridge Nordic No 6 tube fly hook. This is a true weapon of a salmon fly and lethal for attracting salmon on the famous River Tay and other Scottish salmon rivers.

This is the Rock Pool on the River Tay slightly upstream of the River Tay & River Tummel confluence which is just visible in the background. This is a very good salmon fishing area in Scotland and worthy of a salmon fishing trip. I took this beautiful shot in low water conditions during June after commuting down in this traditional Tay salmon boat.

I took this photo of the stone build Newtyle Beat jetty which dates back to 1970 when it was constructed by Willie Laird who was the Newtyle Beat ghillie at that time. I served as Head Ghillie on Newtyle from 2001 to 2009 which was a fantastic period for me as a professional salmon guide. You can see the boathouse I built in 2008 on the opposite bank if you look closely. You can also see one of our traditional River Tay harling boats just upstream of this famous jetty.

The King Of Fish

By Jock Monteith 7th December 2025

Here's a close up of Neptune's finest and most astute fish of them all which is globally regarded as 'The King of Fish'.

These are precious natural commodities which have amazingly survived the ecological changes to the oceanic coastal waters & river glens to 'still' appear each year in the Scottish rivers to ignite the enthusiasm & imagination of many thousands of visiting salmon fishers.

When you hook a salmon it's important to know how to play the fish properly to gain control of proceedings. This perfect Spring salmon was caught on the middle area of the Tay during early June and is typical of the quality of fish found in the Scottish rivers at that time. The fly in this salmon's mouth is the deadly Jock's Shrimp salmon fly pattern.

The Amazing Colours Of A Salmon

The beautiful steel blue, aquamarine and silver flanked colours these perfect specimens are dressed in when they arrive back in the fresh water rivers are unique to any creature. Even top performing artists often struggle to truly replicate the natural shimmer of iridescence that is inlayed in a fresh run salmon's flanks nor the sea greens and blue beige head colours that perfectly blends this prolific marine predator into its oceanic feeding environment.

Big Scottish River Tay Spring Salmon

This perfect heavyweight Spring salmon tipped the weigh net scales at 23lbs and was caught on the famous River Tay during the month of March which has always been (and still is) a great month for catching salmon of this calibre on the Tay. The sight of a big fresh run powerhouse Spring fish like this in its bright silver sea coat highlighting against the dark light conditions of early Spring is a fantastic thing to see as it battles hard to avoid capture. This shot was taken seconds before this perfect fish was quickly released back out of the landing net.

Here's a perfect fresh run Summer salmon which one of my fishing trip guest's caught near Pitlochry on the River Tay while I was working as his salmon fishing guide. This fish took a small deep fished salmon fly and put up a great fight before being drawn to the fine green meshed landing net that you can see behind the salmon.

Landing Nets And Big Spring Salmon

Handling these salmon properly is a big part of ensuring they survive the stresses of capture. Many salmon net bags that come with even the most popular brands of landing net are only good for the fire and should be replaced immediately with a fine meshed rubberised version before first use. The fine mesh supports the fins of the salmon much more effectively unlike these standard lower quality net bags which can tear the salmon's fins. You'll sadly often see this pectoral fin damage if you look closely at many photographs of captured salmon which is so easy avoided.

Use Barbless Single Hooks While Salmon Fishing

Some of the management involved in Scottish salmon fishing know what they are doing and have banned fully barbed and treble hooks from being used. A micro barbed single hooked salmon fly is all you need to get a good hold of a salmon with no possibility of a 2nd or 3rd hook point catching the landing net as the salmon twists and turns in the net causing unnecessary and often terminal mouth injury to the fish. There's too many officials in influential Scottish salmon fishing management positions who lack practical riverbank experience on basic salmon protection topics like this and who have never seen what often happens during the landing stage of a salmon fight when treble hooks are used.

The Future Of Scottish Salmon Fishing

Salmon numbers in general have been declining for decades but are often unfairly attacked by the press following abnormally hot and low water salmon fishing seasons when salmon prefer to hold back before running the rivers. Oceanic mortality (commercial exploitation) where we've never seemed competent enough to collectively fund a basic satellite surveillance enhanced fishery patrol vessel to enquire about the intentions of commercial vessels operating in known salmon migration routes (to & from the feeding grounds) and reduced outgoing juvenile smolt migrations due to various man made (aquaculture), ecological (commercial forestation & hydro dam scheme impacts on traditional spawning gravel quality) in addition to significant in-river predation imbalances being the main three 'obvious' factors for this general steady decline.

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.

Rise To The Challenge Of Catching A Salmon

While many anglers love to go to areas of the world where its easier to catch salmon I honestly believe there's value in the challenge of it not being too easy! There have never been guarantees in this fine pursuit and any negativity about anglers not catching fish without consideration for 'media induced' & 'catch stats' reduced rod pressure or 'natural' low & warmer water seasons truly defies logic at times. I believe that lower stock numbers increases the challenge and value of the capture of a perfect wild Atlantic salmon and the Diamond Consortium De Beers doesn't flood the global markets with their precious gem stones but instead slowly 'drip feeds' their vast diamond stocks into the market to maintain commodity value. Personally however I'd prefer an adrenalin fuelled close encounter with God's finest marine predator over any piece of massively over-valued ancient carbon!