This is an upstream view of the Kinnaird Beat's Rock Pool neck where I moored the salmon fishing boat. You can see the shallow water to the right of frame which is a great mid river position to cast a fly into this side of the channel as many salmon hold between the camera and the boat. I teach salmon fishing trip guests these important salmon lies and how to identify them with ease.

Once you've got enough faith in a specific salmon fly pattern then look for the fly that outperforms it's replica associates. Here's a selection of my 'Jock Shrimp' & 'Copperass' patterns with a few other aces that I sometimes fish with too. I love these old aluminium Richard Wheatley fly boxes too and have many of them which I've collected over the decades.

Here's a River Tay coble clinker built salmon boat being used for harling on the Kinnaird Beat. There's a good salmon lie directly under the Logierait Bridge that you can see in this picture. Harling is a River Tay boat fishing method than fishes 3 or more lures at once. I took this shot in during high water in February.

When you see a big bunch of daffodils on any Scottish riverbank realise they are not there naturally and someone has planted them there for a reason. On a salmon river that reason will almost certainly be to mark one of the salmon beat's Spring salmon lies as you can clearly see here on the River Tay near Pitlochry. These are the subtle observational markers that real professional salmon fishing guides will know and teach to new salmon fishers while being tutored.

This perfect Newtyle salmon pool is known as 'The Boil' due to a huge riverbed stone that's positioned in the middle of the river opposite this salmon fisher which creates a huge boiling effect on the river surface. You can see Birnam Hill in the distance.

This is the gravel riverbank at the Meetings Pool on the River Tay where the River Tummel meets the Tay near the Perthshire town of Pitlochry. This type of salmon pool is every professional salmon guides dream to fish through due to this gently tapered riverbank terrain.

Here's my own trusted silver friend of 20 years. This is a Van Staal C-vex 9-11 salmon fly reel with the 9/10 spool fitted paired up with the brilliant Monteith 9/10 Speycaster Multi System fly line. These 2 items fished of my bespoke built Bruce & Walker 16ft 9/10 Spey rod is Spey casting perfection and that's my firm professional opinion. As a professional Scottish salmon fishing guide you need to have quality salmon fishing equipment like this fly reel.

Here's a glimpse of the salmon fly patterns I have absolute faith in. Although I'll always experiment with different fly patterns my main 2 are the 'Copperass' & the 'Jock's Shrimp' patterns which account for 85% of the salmon I'm involved in the capture of each year. The Maxima spools you see is my favourite salmon fly leader material.

Where Salmon Lie

By Jock Monteith 4th June 2021

Having the ability to recognise a salmon lie just by the movement of the water through a salmon pool will give you a huge advantage in salmon fishing.

Once you understand the subtleties of this and observe and test your salmon lie recognition abilities out while on the river then you'll quickly move into a different dimension with your effectiveness in this sport.

Forget Salmon Fly Distance

Far too many salmon fisher's thoughts are only tuned into the distance they can cast with a fly rod which has got very little to do with catching these fine creatures. The secret to salmon fishing is being able to recognise where salmon are likely to be found regardless of whether or not you already know the salmon beat you're fishing through.

Indentifying Salmon Lies

This photograph is of the neck of the Rock Pool on the Upper Kinnaird beat of the River Tay. There's a small man made croy right underneath where the boat is moored which creates that lovely break in the stream. Some of the bigger base stones of this subsurface man made feature are visible between the boat and the riverbank if you look closely enough.

This salmon fishing trip angler is wading down through the shallow water bar in the centre of the River Tay at the neck of the Rock Pool on the Kinnaird salmon beat near Dunkeld. This salmon fisher was taught to wade with stealth by his salmon fishing instructor which is an important salmon fishing skill to master.

Difficult To Spot Salmon Lies

The dark glassy water that's located directly opposite the stern of the boat in the above picture would look to most people like the obvious salmon lie and in many cases this 'look and feel' type of water would be. This angler is covering the above salmon lie from the middle of the river from this gravel bar which involves a low water careful wade out from the right hand bank of the Tay.

A Scottish Spring salmon is the most perfect creature of all and their physical beauty is something truly splendid especially when you have the tactical fishing awareness to create an up close inspection like this. This fine Springer I caught on the fly rod during April near Dunkeld on the River Tay in Perthshire. Look at the perfect marine colours this fish is still wearing while lying on this sand bar immediately before its quick release.

Fishing A Salmon Lie Correctly

This is a difficult salmon lie to spot and ones like this that are productive really need to be known or spotted in advance of fishing and can only be covered effectively with the right pace of fly from one certain angle. In this case that angle is with a short line and light sink tip from a casting position approx 15 yards above the boat's position.

The Salmon Lie Approach

This approach will not suit the vast majority of salmon fishers as it requires a stealthy wade and in most wind conditions a left hand up single Spey cast. The mainly used casting approach to this pool adopts a right hand up single Spey cast approach and in this case delivered from the centre seam of the river where you can clearly see the ripple coming off the shallow water that's present there.

The Correct Salmon Fly Swim Pace

The problem with the easy approach from this centralised shallow water wading strip is you're a good 35 yards away from the target area therefor even if you can reach this right hand bank salmon lie you're highly unlikely to be able to slow the fly up enough to cover this hot spot with the correct pace of fly to make a salmon take it.

Fish An Unpredictable Salmon Fly

To identify and cover a salmon lie properly you need to be a 'free thinker' and not fall into the salmon fishing 'sheep' category that systematically fish through the pools the same way on every visit. A different angled salmon fly from the less than easy fishing side is often the 'trigger' for a fish to 'have a go' and I can think of many occasions on different salmon beats where identifying tricky to cover salmon lies and putting a controlled fly through them has resulted in the only fish of the day.