catching fish

[garry4]

I have been fishing for salmon around 15 times this year and I have seen lots of fish but only had one am I doing somthing wrong?

[billytheghillie]

where do you fish? spinning or fly? do you take the lady with you? (lady luck)

[garry4]

I fly fish on the tay on all the beats mostly on dunkeld thats were I got my spring fish since then had nothing whats happening?

[billytheghillie]

dont despair im on the tweed and up till now it has been very poor. saying that the height has killed us but we should start to catch this week weather permitting. keep plugging away its just a matter of time. tight lines and screaming reels

[sagecaster]

Catches are influenced by the arrival and timing of Salmon runs.

The Salmon is a difficult enough creature to catch when fishing at the optimum time, ie straight off the tide and resting in your pool. Hence to improve your chances you need loads of fish, they need to be resting in your beat and reasonably fresh.

I am no expert on the Tay, even though I've fished it on and off for 30 years! It used to be that around the 3rd week in April would be peak time for the Spring Run, then it would gradually tail off until the beginning of the grilse run in late June, which would peak late July and fizzle out through August. In recent years the Grilse have been a month late, peaking in August. Finally, the Autumn run, the biggest and most numerous in terms of fish arrives around the beginning of September and peaks beginning October.

So in essence you have to learn when its really worth fishing and when you are wasting your time, this effectively means learning when and under what conditions fish are likely to be catchable in your beat. Check out the catch returns for the beat if you can, this will give you an indication as to when the fishing is at its best.

These fish that you see could either be running fish or stale potted fish both equally difficult to catch. You are after the recently arrived and rested fish, its odd but each beat seems to have a time of year, under particular water conditions, when fish will stop and are more catchable. You have to work out when this is and fish like hell when its at is best!

Incidently my father fished the tay for over 30 visits before catching a fish, then he caught 2 on the same day!

[garry4]

thanks very much

[jjtt61]

whit does ur faither say young garry

[garry4]

he says keep plugging away just wait your turn

[billytheghillie]

i do that garry we waited 6 weeks for fish!