Tay Salmon Fishing Scotland Tay, Perthshire Salmon fishing report w/e 7th July 2018.

Tay Salmon Fishing Scotland Tay, Perthshire Salmon fishing report w/e 7th July 2018.

The Tay, Perthshire is now in July for salmon fishing with disappointing results in recent weeks with the exception of a fortnight ago with a much improved catch after fresh waterhowever that did not continue over the last 2 weeks primarily due to very hot and bright weather conditions in our current outstanding summer. The hot weather is making life extremely difficult with water temperatures going over 70F/21C daily. The most positive news this season has been the number of multi sea winter fish landed on the river especially in the spring which has put the Tay again at the centre of everyone’s attention. Hopefully the weather will turn soon but remain reasonably settled over the coming weeks and give everyone a chance of landing a “Bar of Silver” and even possibly a fish of a lifetime.

Beat catches reported

(week ending 7th July)
SALMON & GRILSE: Benchil 1, Taymount 1, Ballathie 1, Cargill 1, Islamouth 5, Newtyle 1, Dalmarnock 1, Lower Kinnaird 1.
Total: 12 Largest: Islamouth 14lbs

Salmon were landed last week in very hot and bright conditions in much smaller numbers in lower levels now due to the lack of rain and far warmer forecasts. The numbers were understandably very low with around 12 fresh salmon recorded making it very disappointing and frustrating. The spring run is a memory, and frustratingly only small runs are coming into the river until this spell of weather breaks, it seems that there is a start to a summer run with some grilse appearing which hopefully will build, and last but fluctuating weather can make fishing difficult especially in very hot weather. Hopefully there will be a lot more of them to come as we go deeper into the summer period. 

Benchil was the lowest beat on the river to record a fish with a party from Gleneagles Hotel having success on the fly from the Long Shot. Taymount had a single fish on Saturday and singles were caught on Ballathie and Cargill. On Ballathie, Peter Sprosten caught an 8 pounds fish on a Vision and on Cargill, John Cottam caught a lovely 9 pounds fish on the fly. Islamouth had the best week by far on a bad week for the river landing 5 fish. The middle river accounted for 3 fish with Newtyle, Dalmarnock and Lower Kinnaird all recording single fish. Archie Nicoll caught the fish on Dalmarnock on the fly from Clachantaggart weighing 9 pounds. On a positive note, there are now over 1600 fish through the Pitlochry fish ladder. 

The Tay is certainly the place to come to for the chance of a fish of a lifetime. The sheer size of the river produces very powerful large salmon and the possibility of a 40 pounds fish must be on the cards now. The food source for Atlantic salmon is moving further away from our shores with sea temperatures rising and salmon are spending longer away in the ocean before they are returning making the possibility of much bigger fish finding its way back. The fish that are being caught now is further evidence of that phenomenon. 

There have been some encouraging signs in the past week or so however the very hot settled summer weather has slowed things down in the meantime, but the sheer class of the fish caught continues to be outstanding and with hopefully a settled river in the coming weeks should see improved catches with a settled forecast as well. 

The Spring Salmon fishing was slow as we saw out May with the end of that run this year. June had picked up probably due to some fresh water and the emergence of some summer fish a couple of weeks ago but we now need the current hot weather to break, let us hope that the summer run builds further in the weeks to come. It has been a quiet start but let us hope the season lives up to every one’s expectations over the coming weeks and months and when you visit the Tay you catch a fish of a lifetime. Tight lines!

If you have any news or pictures of catches or experiences on the Tay and you would like to share them please email me on robert.salmonfishing@googlemail.com to be included in the reports.