Here's the beautiful head of a perfect fresh run Scottish salmon which I caught on the fly during Springtime on the River Tay. Note how the head of this silver flanked fresh run Spring fish has turned beige to match the riverbed terrain of the river. This fine salmon took a fly near Dunkeld on the River Tay as was quickly released by me immediately after this shot was taken.

This is the brown winged version of the Jock's Shrimp fitted with a Partridge Nordic No 6 tube fly hook. This is a true weapon of a salmon fly and lethal for attracting salmon on the famous River Tay and other Scottish salmon rivers.

Personally I love to use the Partridge Nordic tube fly hooks as they are micro barbed, very sharp and very strong. A single hook also hooks salmon better and does almost no damage to the mouth of a fish with 'Catch & Release' in mind. A good strong single hook also keeps the fly on an even keel when it's fishing. Once you've landed a few salmon on a single hook you'll be unlikely to ever go back to doubles or treble hooks. These are 3 Jock's Shrimp salmon tube fly patterns which is of my own design.

If you get rid of the soft rubber sleeves that most tube flies come with and replace them with rigid plastic sleeves they will result in more solid hook sets as the hard version don't pivot and keep the hoof straight while being set by the angler. It's fairly tricky to fit a hard plastic sleeve but some patience and a bit of heat will do the job. This is a Jock's Shrimp tube fly which I tied on a copper tube fly body.

Here's a guided salmon fishing guest fishing down through the right hand bank of the River Tay near Dunkeld. This area of the river is close to the towns of Pitlochry & Dunkeld. The dark shadowy water where you see the reflection of the tree is an exceptionally good salmon lie. The shadow being cast by the tree on the opposite riverbank is a great salmon lie that produces many salmon for our guided fishing guests each year.

If you're looking for a new pursuit in life here's a lovely salmon pool on the River Tay near Dunkeld. Nothing beats a salmon fishing holiday out on the salmon river pursuing that often elusive Atlantic salmon with a fly rod. This is the mouth of the River Tummel on the Kinnaird salmon beat you can see in the photograph.

Properly Fishing A Salmon Fly

By Jock Monteith 8th June 2026

The biggest area I see where the vast majority of salmon anglers could improve their salmon 'hit' rate is through fly control.

Get your brain fully tuned into your salmon fly to a point where you can sense its movement in the stream and bin any useless thoughts of what's going on above the waterline!

Here's Jock Monteith powering upstream in a traditional larch built River Tay salmon fishing 'coble' boat at the confluence of the River Tay & River Tummel during the month of May. Jock has his cold weather clothing on and Tweed cap in addition to his life jacket which is essential for all boat or riverbank duties.

Focus Your Brain On The Riverbed Terrain

If you want consistent success in this intriguing business focus on your salmon fly and get its movement pace 'across' and 'down' the river just right. Most salmon are smart & tough to catch on a fly so unless your presentation is up to scratch you're very likely heading for an inevitable blank! Out smarting salmon should become an obsession and placing that fly in their 'attack zone' is a truly fascinating element of this fine pursuit. Sometimes the salmon holding area in the water column may be high but more often than not you'll need to swim your fly right down in amongst them for one to have a go! Study the 'suspected' sub surface salmon pool terrain and let the surface movement of the river be your 'mirror' for signs of what lies below unless you already know exactly what lies beneath the waterline in the pool you're fishing.

Here's the double handede salmon Spey rod being held out and high across the fast stream at the Guay Pool on the Lower Kinnaird Beat of the River Tay near Dunkeld. This method is how you control your salmon fly at long range which is a rare skill seldom understood by the majority of new salmon fishers. A professional salmon fishing guide will teach these vital fly fishing skills.

Take Back Full Control Of Your Salmon Fly

The two most important areas of your fly's flight path are the first third and last third of its swing. The middle third normally takes care of itself as the stream will naturally add control to the fly by the time your line has swung round one third from its initial delivery angle. 'Taking command' of your fly early at the start of the first third of the swing is important as most anglers mend their line angle too late or are unable to mend to the fly at all with their shooting heads at range even though they've impressed the hell out of themselves with the distance they've achieved! A longer Speyline and Spey rod has a massive advantage for making that first third of the swing 'deadly' when covering long range salmon that require a normal paced & carefully 'controlled' salmon fly.

Here's a salmon fly fisher out in a traditional River Tay coble boat covering the Cathedral Stream salmon pool with a fly rod. This is a great area for a resting salmon to be located that's navigated up through the fast water below the bridge. The Telford Bridge you can see in the shot is over 200 years old and joins the village of Birnam to the town of Dunkeld.

Fishing Your Salmon Fly 'Through' The Dangle

When you think your salmon fly is reaching the end of the final third of its swing be very cautious and stop yourself from thinking only about the 'relaunch' process! Treat every swing of the fly with suspicion and as if a big brute of a fish is 'shadowing' your fly as it finally swings in downstream of you. Salmon are great at 'silently & invisibly' coming for a look so maintain movement in your fly by carefully drawing in line smoothly & consistency as you're hand lining in your running line. If you just whip the running line in too quickly or let the fly sag you may well be missing great hooking opportunities from fish that are following your fly. If a tiny camera was able to be fitted to your salmon fly your heart would be in your mouth on numerous occasions throughout the course of a fishing day so it's important while salmon fishing you pay attention to what you're seeing and also to what you may not be seeing!

Here's a great shot of Jock Monteith's Tweed jacket and favourite Monteith salmon fly rod. The salmon fly rod was hand built by Harrisons of Liverpool and the light blue fly line was produced by Airflo in Brecon, Wales. My Tweed jackets were always made by Haggarts of Aberfeldy who used to supply all of the fishing & shooting estates in Scotland.

Becoming A Sub Surface Salmon Pool Operator

The satisfaction from 'nicking' a fish from a salmon pool of old resident salmon after everyone and there dog has failed shouldn't be underestimated. This is when you'll know you're becoming good enough to hold a position in that rare top 5% of Scottish salmon fly fishers. Get your attention off the self gratification of your perfect tight looped Spey cast as Old Sam doesn't care about that type of thing. The time to focus your fishing mind is from the split second your fly touches down until it's all the way back to your side of the river and ready to be recast. This salmon fly swim time and what you do with it will determine how well you've done at the end of the fishing day. Get your fly down and right in about difficult resident fish with some added unexpected & inconsistent fly swim movements and watch what the difference!

Using A Single Hook

If you think doubles or treble hooks are likely to be more effective than a good old traditional styled single hook for getting a proper grip of a fish it's just an illusion. Not only will a fly also fish better on a more even keel with a single but it's also much kinder to the fish. From an effective hooking point of view it will naturally take less pressure at point of hook set to drive home a single than an equivalent double. The Partridge Nordic single hooks are superb tube fly hooks and fantastic for effective hook ups. You've zero to worry about with good quality sharp single hooks like these and once you've had a couple of fish on them you'll be unlikely to return to doubles or trebles. Setting your tube fly up with some rigid hard plastic hook sleeve material eliminates the chance of a pivoting hook point angle when setting the hook so get rid of these soft rubber sleeves and replace them with proper hard plastic equivalents. It takes a bit of fiddling about to do this as the hard plastic sleeve material isn't that easy to work with but gently heat it and wet the end of the tube fly and waggle it on patiently. Once done, you'll have seriously increased your ease of hooking ability!