2019 Fishing in Scotland Season Review

As the 2019 fishing season in Scotland comes to an end I have to look back with fondness of another great year showcasing fishing in Scotland to clients from across the globe!

Spring Fishing Season 2019

I got our season off and running with my first ever Salmon caught in February from the River Tay! I was having a stressful time and there is no better way to de-stress than to go fishing!

fishing-report-2019
Boom! 8lbs of spring Salmon!

The Spring Salmon season started well with some returning client Richard aka the Salmon slayer managing a fine brace! This was the larger of the two at 14lbs!

Ricky the Salmon Slayer returns!

Local man Bill made the journey south to fish the Tay for the first time and done superb landing this wee springer from one of my favourite pools on the River Tay!

One happy man!

The spring run did suffer later on this season as there seemed to be a smaller than average run. May was unusually tough for us with very few fresh fish entering the system.



The Brown Trout dry fly fishing was at times, sensational! Experienced rods done very well during huge March Brown and Large Dark Olive mayfly hatches. This is the best time of year to fly fish for Wild Brown Trout on our rivers. This presents the opportunity to land fish in excess of 5lbs!

Mr Rehwaldt capitalised on a short but huge March Brown hatch to land this well fed early season brown.

Clara from Malaysia took a day off during a trip to see the Spice Girls and tried fly fishing for the first ever time. She done great matching more than just the hatch!

The Pike fishing picked up after spawning and late May saw us back on the water chasing Scotland’s Apex predator! No leviathans for us during this period but visiting angler managed his first ever Pike on the fly after a few minutes of fishing!

Summer Fishing Season 2019

As the heat increased the trout & grayling fly fishing became a little slower and fishing was predominately nymphs and streamers in higher or coloured waters. Some lovely fish were caught using streamer tactics when conditions dictated.

Maddie smashed it out the park with a number of stunning Tweed Trout on the streamer!


The Grayling would make the odd appearance with some lovely summer specimens on the colder less bright days.

Dr Ian Phillip CBE wanted to rekindle his fond childhood memories of fishing with his father. He must have been looking down guiding him that day as he managed to land his first ever Grayling fishing a stretch of river he used to fish with his father when he was a boy!


The Grilse run arrived on the River Tay and our clients managed some great sport with these on both spinners and fly. Grilse are one sea winter Atlantic Salmon and tend to enter the rivers here in late spring and summer. They are normally very aggressive and good takers!

Mr Summerfield was rewarded for his perseverance!

I managed a couple of days north up on the River Dee for a change of scenery and was rewarded with three Atlantics over the trip with this one the best of the bunch and my biggest for the season.

Caught fishing close in on a big water at Park South

The Tay sea trout put in the odd appearance and seemed to be getting caught at larger than average. Our client managed this chunky sea trout fishing from the boat.

Biggest sea trout I have seen in flesh from the Tay system!



The summer Pike fishing was epic at times on poppers and large jerk baits. Giacomo smashed his personal best with this lean leviathan on the jerk baits!




Fall Fishing Season 2019

As the waters cooled the Pike fishing picked up with this chunky high double being the pick of the bunch for our Dutch party.


The Trout season drew to a close with a few nice fish throughout the year. Trout river fly fishing offers the most challenging and skilful experience here in Scotland.

Look at those markings!



The Grayling fishing picked up and we managed a number of fine specimens including this absolute tank!


The most famous time of year to fish for Atlantic Salmon in Scotland is fall. This is when the largest number of Salmon are in our rivers.

I managed a couple of outings in the River Tweed during this period due to cancellations and was rewarded with this lovely back end fish on the fly from the Upper river. Cleanest I have seen in recent years during this period so high up the system.

Just a man that loves to catch fish!

Ed Sheeran lookalike Tom Allsop done us all proud landing our biggest salmon of the season at 19.5lbs on the Mighty River Tay – what a fish!

That’s how to do it!


Meanwhile, the ladies were absolutely smashing it this year! The lovely Fiona Thomas landing this well proportioned Salmon from the River Tay!

Her first ever fish – way to go Fiona!


The Flordian ladies outdid their husbands with a fine brace of fresh Grilse from the boat too!

We still found a few Sea Trout in amongst the Salmon. Mike from Switzerland landing his first ever on a lure in a big dirty water!

We also landed our first ever Scottish Pink Salmon! These are non-native but do appear every odd year in small numbers. A couple of years ago there were numerous catches throughout Scotland’s salmon rivers. This year – not so many. This one was ready to spawn worryingly – releasing eggs everywhere whilst holding! Also caught among prime spawning gravels. We did try the same area in hope to remove another but to no avail!

What an ugly Salmon!

Winter Fishing Season 2019

Our 19/20 winter campaign is just kicking off but we’ve managed to land some great Pike of late on dead-baits.


The Grayling fishing has been sensational so far with quality over quantity and fish averaging 2lb plus – this is world class fishing! Early winter saw some fantastic results on the river with some beautiful Grays for clients including some firsts!

2019 Fishing Season Summary

No doubt the low spring salmon run affected our overall catches this spring but we still ticked away. Hopefully this small blip was just a one off and we cannot wait for the 2020 springers to arrive! Summer and fall were consistent with some lovely fish caught and plenty of first’s!

The Trout fishing is improving year on year in my opinion. There is no doubt the quality of the fish we have in our rivers. It is the most challenging fishing available here in Scotland from skill level point of view!

Pike continues to be the most consistent species in terms of catches – regardless of the conditions!

The Grayling fishing is improving all the time. It goes in cycles around 7 years they say and at the moment it was at the low end of the cycle meaning numbers are low but the size is up. We notice this immensely with average sizes around 1 1/2 – 2lbs.

2020 is already shaping up to be a busy season. We have some new venues and projects coming soon – stay tuned to the blog for more updates!