Excellent season of salmon fishing on the Tay welcomed

THE RIVER Tay in Perthshire has had an excellent salmon fishing season by modern standards, with the FishTay website reporting more than 8,000 salmon and grilse for the season.

This total shows an 18 % increase on 2012 and a 26% increase on the five-year average for FishTay beats.

Catches reported per month through the season were: January 38, February 151, March 391, A pril 708, May 930, June 647, July 511, A ugust 888, September 1,659 and October 2,123.

The spring period from January to May was the big talking point, showing a staggering 82.5 % increase on 2012 and a 98% increase on the five-year average.

The summer period was not so prolific due to very low water and June to A ugust was down 15.6% on 2012. But the autumn was a more positive period, with September to October showing a 20% increase on 2012.

A nother aspect of the catch was the continuation of larger multi-sea winter salmon being caught throughout the Tay system in the 20 to 30lb class, plus a few more than 30.

The spring was the big plus which should bring renewed interest in spring fishing for 2014.

The river has had a superb run and catch this season, which may just be down to the majority of anglers returning salmon over the past seasons.

There are a number of beats that do not report catches on FishTay and the full rod catch for the River Tay in 2012 will be quite a bit higher than shown on the website.

John Shaw with a superb spring salmon caught on the Catholes.