Professional Scottish salmon guide Jock Monteith's career information about where pike can be found on Scotland's famous River Tay.
Scotland's famour River Tay has many more species of fish than just salmon. There's a healthy population of wild brown trout, sea trout and graying in the Tay along with roach, perch, eels and minnows to name but a few. The biggest predatory fish in addition to Atlantic salmon however is the Northern Pike (Esox Lucius) which are sometimes encountered on the famous Tay and other Scottish salmon rivers.
Having fished and professionally served on the River Tay for most of my life I'm fascinated by all other fish species that are in the Scottish rivers and where they can be located. Pike are generally ambush specialists so you're more likely to find them in the deeper calmer stretches of the Tay where they can expend littlle energy while in pursuit of their prey. This however doesn't always apply as I've personally hooked pike in faster watered salmon pools however only when they've been lurking in about the deeper calmer water close to the riverbanks.
Whenever I've encountered pike on the River Tay they've readily taken the regular salmon spinning lures we mainly use like the 30g Toby 'Salmo'. There are dedicated pike anglers who come to fish the upper middle reaches of the Tay who will use dead baits for pike whether ledgered or fished up off the riverbed with the aid of a pike float. These days there are so many amazing pike bait fish replicas available to purchase in most fishing tackle stores that there's no reason why anyone would go to pike inhabited water and not catch a pike on one of these superb actioned replica fish lures. A wire trace while pike fishing is essential so you don't learn the hard way as to how good a pike's teeth are at slicing through monofilament!
