Tay Salmon Fishing Scotland Tay, Perthshire Salmon fishing report w/e 18th August 2018.

Tay Salmon Fishing Scotland Tay, Perthshire Salmon fishing report w/e 18th August 2018.

The Tay, Perthshire is now well into August for salmon fishing with encouraging results in recent weeksdue some rain and cooler weather conditions in our current outstanding summer. In recent weeks the weather pattern has changed giving us some rain to freshen the river up and dropping the river temperature by around 10F to produce some far better sport. The current conditions have improved dramatically giving everyone a great chance of landing a “Bar of Silver” and even possibly a fish of a lifetime with some of the multi sea winter fish currently being caught in recent weeks.

Beat catches reported

(week ending 18th August)
SALMON & GRILSE: Almondmouth 19, Waulkmill 6, Lower Redgorton 17, Upper Redgorton 4, Fishponds 2, Benchil 4, Upper Scone 7, Stobhall 6, Taymount 11, Ballathie 3, Cargill 6, Islamouth 14, Meikleour and Upper Islamouth 5, Kercock 7, Murthly 2 1, Dunkeld House 7, Dalmarnock 2, Dalguise 1, Lower Kinnaird 1, Farleyer Lower 1, Keithick Mains 1.
Total: 125 Largest: Lower Redgorton 18lbs
SEA TROUT: Taymount 1, Meikleour and Upper Islamouth 3, Dunkeld House 1, Lochlane and Laggan 1.
Total: 6 Largest: Dunkeld House 4lbs

Salmon were landed last week in far more favourable conditions with improving numbers after the change in conditions. The numbers were again encouraging in a difficult season with around 125 salmon recorded making it a positive week signaling a reasonable summer run and a few more grilse. The improving conditions meant some of the resident fish became more active also. The spring run is a memory, and frustratingly only small runs are still coming into the river this year but with improving conditions catches are being made in better numbers. Hopefully there will be a lot more of them to come as we go deeper into the summer period and enter autumn. 

On the Lower river most beats have had some better sport last week. At the bottom of the river Almondmouth, Lower Redgorton and Waulkmill all had fish confirming a run entering the river at long last and in reasonable numbers. Almondmouth had a good week with 19 mostly on the fly. Lower Redgorton had a good week with 17 including a superb day of 10. Upper Redgorton and Fishponds had 6 between them and on Upper Scone there was 7 accumulated during the week by various methods. 

Benchil produced most of the fish for Upper Scone and on Stanley days the fly produced 4 fish up to 14 pounds with Stuart Davies catching 2 fish in 2 casts on his birthday from Lundie. 

Later in the week James Annesly caught a 12 pounds fish in the tail of the Long Shot on one of his own tied flies on a very windy day making casting difficult. Stobhall and Taymount had a better week with 17 between them with fish into the teens. Ballathie had 3 and 

Cargill faired a bit better with 6 including Andrew Watkins catching a 9 pounds fish on the fly from the Pot Shot, Rory King landed a good fish, Peter Reichwald caught a grilse in the Bridge Stream and 

Mike Howells had a superb 17 pounder from the Cradle on the lower beat. Islamouth had another consistent week with 14 on the fly. 

Upper Islamouth and Meikleour had 5 in the week with youngsters Sandy Lumsden and Ryan Donnelly having success and a couple of 

Canadian guests catching their first ever salmon with Tom Brown. 

The Middle river had a few fish in the week but would dearly love more water to spice things up. Kercock had 7 for the week as did Dunkled House however the other beats in the area only produced odd fish with Murthly 2, Dalmarnock, Dalguise and Lower Kinnaird all picking up fish. 

The Upper river had 1 fish reported from Lower Farleyer. 

The Tummel is seeing fish continue on their journey now with around 2080 fish through the ladder. 

A single fish was reported on the Isla from Keithick Mains.

The past weeks have seen better catches after rain and cooler temperatures greatly improving sport in an extremely difficult year so far, so let us hope that continues.  

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 and the sheer class of the fish caught continues to be outstanding with hopefully a settled river in the coming weeks we 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 and it has so 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.