Cooler weather after scorching summer brings better Tay sport

On the lower River Tay, most beats have had better sport last week.

At the bottom of the river Almondmouth, Lower Redgorton and Waulkmill all had fish and in reasonable numbers.

Lower Redgorton saw a few fresh fish caught on the fly, with Ian Muir having four in a day, and on Almondmouth, Bill Jack had an 18 pounds fish on the fly on Friday.

Upper Scone had a reasonable week, catching 10 fish, with Gary Perks landing a monster 25-pounder on a red Devon.

At Stanley, Ann Emsens caught an eight-pound fish on the fly from the Woodside on the Pitlochry beat.

The water heights have improved slowly helping Taymount and Stobhall, giving them a far more productive week with 42 fish.

Ballathie and Cargill also did well with 31 fish up to 22 pounds. On Cargill good fish were caught by Neil French, Peter Jacques, David Sands, William Sinclaire, Alan Muir, the Robertsons and John Boreboom, to name a few.

Islamouth had a good week with 20, and Upper Islamouth and Meik le our had a similar score, with 18 up to 10 pounds, recording fish everyday. Successful rods included John Cameron, George Thomson, Ross Coker, Ryan Bunyan, Eric Young, Bill Robertson, Stewart Morris, Mr Tripp, Ken Halbet and Claire Mercer-Nairne.

The middle river have been really struggling but catches started to improve last week with a steady rise in water levels. Kercock had a good week with 14 fish, including seven caught on Saturday.

The Upper river did not report any fish last week.

The past weeks have seen better catches after rain and cooler temperatures greatly improving sport in an extremely difficult year so far on the Tay.

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 should see improved catches with a settled forecast as well.

The summer was difficult with extremely hot weather, but in recent weeks, after rain and cooler temperatures, catches have picked up, which hopefully will continue as we enter autumn.