Here's a picture of River Tay professional salmon fishing ghillie legend Willie Laird in a pondering pose beside the river. Willie was a career ghillie and boatman on the Tay for 50+ years before his retirement in 1986. Willie was the Head Ghillie on the Tay's Newtyle Beat near Dunkeld for all of his adult life.

Here's a beauty of a fresh run River Tay salmon that came to inspect my fly on the River Tay during early June while working as a professional salmon fishing guide. This bright light day assisted my camera in picking up the perfect silver flanks of this beautiful fish before it was returned back to the Tay. Look at the fine rubberised fish friendly landing net mesh from my landing net to the rear of the salmon ensuring zero scale or mucous membrane damage to the salmon before releasing it.

Here's a picture of River Tay legend Willie Laird ready for action in his traditional Tay coble boat. Willie was a career ghillie on the Tay for 50+ years before his retirement in 1986. Willie was the Head Ghillie on the Tay's Newtyle Beat near Dunkeld and Willie was an exceptionally talented and renowned salmon fishing guide in Scotland.

Hooking one of these muscle bound Spring salmon is one skill but knowing exactly how to play the salmon correctly is a completely different discipline. This perfect 'Springer' was captured and quickly released on the River Tay by one of our salmon fishing holiday guests during late May near the Perthshire town of Dunkeld.

Here's a picture of River Tay legendary salmon guide Willie Laird with a perfect February caught 42lbs Spring salmon and happy student fishing guest! Willie was a career ghillie on the Tay for 50+ years before his retirement in 1986. Willie was the Head Ghillie on the Tay's Newtyle Beat near Dunkeld.

The May caught River Tay salmon was in perfect ocean run condition and was caught by myself while working as the salmon beat Head Ghillie at the neck of the Kinnard Beat's Rock Pool. This salmon fishing hot spot is located a few hundred yards upstream of the mouth of the River Tummel. This is undoubtedly a Tummel fish due to its short deep build proportions which the Tummel is renowned for.

The Salmon River Highs

By Jock Monteith 29th December 2022

There's way much more to the magical salmon rivers of Scotland than we'll ever fully understand with their ability to continually lure you in for their private show of magnificence.

Having spent too much time in God's finest playgrounds my thoughts go deeper than most on this fascinating topic.

My Mind's Salmon Fishing Slide Show

If I sit and think back to all the magical moments the Tay and other Scottish rivers have given me during my lifetime it's like an endless flashing slide show of absolute brilliance. These memory flashes are the end product of the positivity and adrenalin highs of various encounters with perfect silver flanked Atlantic salmon and the amazing folk who work or appear on the Scottish rivers in pursuit of these special creatures. The technology that's around these days assists with capturing these magical moments even though I wonder if that's the 'trade off' as technological advances over the last few decades have no doubt obliterated millions of perfect salmon in targeted and un-targeted (bycatch) commercial oceanic raids.

Special Salmon Fishing Memories From The River Tay

As a young boy I recall vividly many such experiences and none more so than being carried by my late mentor Willie Laird on his shoulders from the boat while wading 50 yards on to the Island Pool at the bottom of his beat while 'balancing' a 10ft 'telegraph pole' with a big purple prawn almost the size of a baby lobster mounted on a prawn spinning mount! Not long after that in the 70's I also recall the magical buzz of landing an early February 11lbs Springer on a 'Green Highlander' copper tube fly on my brand new 13ft Bruce & Walker 'Cordon Bleu' fibre glass fly rod at 'The Boil' on Newtyle immediately downstream of my father & Willie Laird who were out in the boat harling the Cottar and observing proceedings through the swirling snow!

The Natural High From Catching A Salmon

It takes hours and sometimes even days to come back down to earth after you treat yourself to some 'Salmo Salar' adrenalin and often it will put even the most accustomed recipient into a floating state of euphoria such is its potency power. For those of you who have experienced this unique natural high then you'll understand exactly what I'm referring to and for those who haven't then get with a professional salmon guide who's talented enough to help you put the ball in the back of the net! Salmon fishing 'escapism' is a powerful part of the attraction of salmon fishing in its own right but you need to score a few quality goals now and again to 'seriously' get the other half of the bigger picture!

A Special Species From Our Distant Past

If our perfect Atlantic salmon are not some kind of distant strain of super creature from the Atlantis era then how on earth can a salmon put you on such an amazing high when they're caught or even pursued! Their beauty, elegance and ability to move completely unseen migrating thousands of miles back to the gravel of their birth isn't a creature that's not highly astute as a survival and navigational specialist. What you've also got in the pursuit of salmon are clear components of a by gone time where water energies and outdoor survival intuition were way more relevant than they are in modern society today and all of its megahertz 'thought' contaminants.