As the 2024 Scottish fishing season comes to an end it is time to reflect on what appears to have been a positive season throughout Scotland.
After a challenging few years it was great to see such positive Salmon catches throughout the country.
The River Tay, River Tweed and River Spey all saw an increase in catches and lets hope that good run continues.
2024 Spring Scottish Fishing Season Review
Although the season opens on the 15th January on the Tay, our Salmon fishing efforts don’t really begin till March. 2024 started off well with returning client Ben absolutely smashing it out the park with a brace of early season springers!
Ben’s second Salmon was smaller but no less welcome at approx 7lbs
There appeared to be a lot of fish in the system in latter part of March. During challenging high water conditions we hooked a number of Salmon, losing most of them, some absolute brutes at that!
All the way from my favourite country! Argentine Maria enjoyed some good sport with the trout in-between hail storms and Yerba mate breaks.
The ladies in particular smashed the trout fishing in spring!
The dry fly fishing wasn’t that great in spring, higher water and winds seemed to affect hatches. Patrick was rewarded for perseverance in tough conditions however, landing a special brown trout from the Tweed.
From late May onwards the number of Salmon in the river was a sight to behold. Catches improved dramatically throughout the country as the Salmon arrived in good numbers and in all shapes and sizes!
2024 Summer Scottish Fishing Review
Our clients experienced some fantastic salmon fishing in June, July and August.
Miles from Isola Gear in Switzerland fished a day with me for Salmon and after losing the first managed to land a beautiful fresh Grilse straight off the tide
The summer Pike fishing was productive as always. This is always a great alternative option when fishing in Scotland. Fishing we do is mostly from boat on lochs.
Dave from down under had a great day with us fishing soft plastics he had a few doubles, with the pick of the bunch this one below!
In August Lawrence and his party had a trip to remember hooking a bunch and landing three out six! This was the pick of the bunch in the high teens.
With such a wet August we timed it right to get some optimal salmon conditions on the Tweed. The ladies couldn’t let the men have all the fun!
With the lift in river levels the big browns were active again and Dave managed this specimen.
2024 Autumn Scottish Fishing Season
The back end Salmon fishing on the Tweed was particularly productive in October. We had great results for clients.
Scotia regular Tim was back again, doing what he does best, catching Scottish Salmon!
Simon and his family had a good day with Callum learning a bet for the week of fishing. This croc in full back spawning livery was the highlight on day one!
By early November there was a lot of early spawning evidence on the Tweed as the Salmon capitalised on the sustained low water river level conditions and optimal spawning conditions. Nature took its course and the river closed itself down early.
From Mid November we focused on the Scottish Sail fish – the Grayling! We had some outstanding sport with our clients.
Again, the ladies couldn’t let the men have all the fun!
So thats it, 2024 Scottish fishing season is over, I hope you enjoyed our short review. This is just a snippet of some highlights, there were so many it was hard to condense into a short(ish) blog post.
As I start to finish the last few trips of the year before a well earned break with my family over Christmas I want to thank all our customers for supporting Scotia over the past ten years. It’s been a fulfilling journey and we continue a strive to be the top provider of guided fishing in Scotland’s central belt.
For guided fishing in scotland packages please check our website. 2025 is already limited availability.
Best fishes for 2025!