This little River Tay salmon pool is a favourite for salmon fishing guides to bring their fly fishing instruction guest to. The dark water you see is the main salmon lie and casting a salmon fly out to this area is easy from the gently tapered riverbank of the salmon pool which I named The Trap.

Here's a beautiful May shot showing a lone angler out on the River Tay near Dunkeld in search of a prized Scottish Spring salmon. The shadow of the trees on the far bank is a great salmon lie for fish that have powered up through the fast water immediately downstream.

Look at the shape and colours of this perfect marine feeding machine! This is a Scottish Spring salmon which was captured on the River Tay near Dunkeld during January. This fish fell to a carefully presented tube fly in the higher Spring water level even though most Tay fishers wrongly think spinning is the best method at that time of year. This fishing was captured by one of my salmon fishing holiday guests while I was assisting him as his personal fishing guide for the day.

Here's the result of 90 minutes on the Newtyle Beat of the River Tay by myself as the Head Ghillie. 2 of these fish were early run Spring salmon and the rest Autumn run fish. All of them were taken to the River Tay hatchery programme as brood stock although the 2 Spring fish were brought back 2 weeks later and released to go and reproduce naturally.

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.

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.

What Scotland's Rivers Need

By Jock Monteith 31st March 2018

I've spent many years as a professional ghillie observing the rivers and the political 'quagmire' before forming an accurate assessment of the state of affairs within Scottish salmon fishing.

Here's a few of my innermost thoughts on where the real problems lie and what our rivers now require if massive 'untapped' social economic benefits are to be realised.

This zoomed in shot was taken by me from the Rock Pool on Upper Kinnaird looking downstream to a party of 2 fishers accompanied by their professional salmon guide the moment a perfect 12lbs Spring salmon was landed which is barely visible in the landing net in this shot. The River Tay is a great Scottish salmon river even in low bright water conditions and this guest went on to land another salmon of similar size moments after this fine river shot was captured.

The End Result Of Successful Salmon River Management

Imagine a Scottish salmon fishing scenario where fishery management are pleading with Government officials to grant more commercial netting licenses to 'thin out' the over abundance of wild Atlantic salmon runs. Where the ghillies are keeping their own pet gooseanders to keep the huge shoals of fry in their beat fit and healthy! Where anglers are continually complaining to hotel management about their inability to get a parking place in the hotel car park or where Avis & Hertz have completely run out of hire cars at our international airports! Imagine a scenario where anglers who were all once used to catching & releasing salmon complaining bitterly that the Government & fishery board rules are now mandatory 'catch & kill' policy by law! Start releasing 10 million wild smolts into the Tay each year (as an example) and you don't need to be that clever with a pocket calculator to work out the inevitable!

Atlantic Salmon Genetic Integrity Nonsense

The above individual hatchery trays and individual ranching ponds would keep the 'genetic integrity' of these salmon intact to keep the scientists happy but the reality of that industry 'buzz word' is that it's nonsense as successful evolution requires the cross splicing of genes and always has done. If 'genetic integrity' was that high on the agenda why on earth were farmed salmon ever allowed into sea cages that have always been vulnerable to an escapee scenario! Look at our own species and ask yourself the question is there such a thing as a true Scot or Brit these days. Your family tree if studied would most probably tell you that your ancestors came from different areas of Europe or the world and it'll be no different for a salmon that is free to travel anywhere it wants without a passport or complex visa requirements!

Scottish Salmon Fishing Economic Value

Yes this will likely require a £10 to £20 million pound investment but that would be small potatoes to fully re-charge the Scottish salmon river stocks 'naturally' and would no doubt play a huge part in taking Scotland's salmon fishing economic revenue from the current £150 million up to a £1 billion within a 5 to 10 year period if the work started now. Siting this project on or near the A9 could potentially make the initiative a 'self funder' going forward if merchandising, classroom & restaurant facilities were incorporated into the plans given the massive volume of passing tourists, general public and the global fascination of the Atlantic salmon and its plight.

What Scotland's Salmon Rivers Really Need

If recreating huge runs of wild Atlantic salmon is the objective then there's no point continuing to poke the management of this God given asset with a stick so better the management properly engage their brains and get their shirt sleeves rolled up. What Scotland needs right now is a centralised super Atlantic salmon wild smolt producing 'mega' hatchery and wild smolt ranching facility sited somewhere accessible from the A9 between the Tay & Spey headwaters where all Scottish river staff can bring their eggs for hatching and rearing on. Let the experts do the calculations for the square footage required for its roofed section where pre fertilised eggs can be laid out on trays from individual Scottish rivers & tributaries before being taken outside to moving water ponds where the fry can safely and naturally be brought on to 'super fit' & 'ocean ready' smolts before returning them to their native rivers for release.

Here's my son Johnny spinning the neck of the Rock Pool on Kinnaird with his 10ft spinning rod. The use of a spinning rod is allowed on some of the Scottish rivers such as the River Tay in Perthshire. This lovely upstream shot was taken on the Tay near Logierait which is a salmon fishing hot spot that's close to the River Tay & River Tummel confluence.

Scottish Salmon Management's Vision

What is also clear is that at best the Scottish salmon fishing asset has been 'micro managed' and not 'visionary' managed to date which is a bi-product of a lack of funding being made available to protect & develop the resource and for significant wild Atlantic salmon stock investment initiatives. I also know our wild salmon are valuable and that has certainly been their downfall so if anyone thinks they are not being 'intentionally' targeted (not bi-catch) between their feeding grounds and the Scottish river estuaries then they're behaving like an ostrich! Human nature 'is what it is' so huge oceanic congregations of 'unguarded' £100 notes are not going to be magically ignored! I did however see an article recently which I hope is accurate showcasing some new high tech Royal Navy Fishery Patrol vessels that have been ordered which will do no harm since the original fleet was stood down!

The West Coast Commercial Salmon Farms

You've got to ask yourself why on earth this systematic global poisoning scheme has been allowed to continue & develop for 40 years given the fact that there's plenty of highly credible ecological evidence to prove they have polluted the Scottish West coast sea lochs in addition to destroying the West's once prolific runs of wild salmon and sea trout. For those of you who were fortunate (or unfortunate!) to experience fishing the west coast in the 70's (or before) you'll remember its sheer brilliance! I've personally seen salmon river pools on the West coast where you couldn't see the riverbed but only the slow waggling backs of hundreds of salmon where one cast of the fly was all that was ever needed!