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There a few extra feet of water coming dow the River Tay in this photograph. When the Scottish rivers are high like this all you need to do is work the river margins with a short controlled salmon fly as that's where the salmon will be holding and not out in the torrent. This shot was taken near Pitlochry in the River Tay Valley.
Here's a lucky Austrian guest buckled into an Autumn run River Tay salmon at the Trap Pool on the Newtyle Beat in the Scottish rain. Weather conditions are barely even noticeable when the salmon adrenalin is pumping through your body!
Poor rising water conditions via prolonged heavy rainfall didn't stop the smile from this happy Austrian salmon fisher holding this Autumn River Tay salmon that he'd just landed on the fly at the Trap Pool on the Newtyle salmon beat near Dunkeld.
Look at the high water powering downstream in this flood picture of the River Tay at Dunkeld. When the Scottish rivers are like this salmon are pushed into the river margins and can still be caught if you exercise some stealth by keeping well back from the edges.
The calm water in the little bay to the left of frame is where you can expect to locate salmon when the river is high like this. This shot was taken opposite the River Tummel mouth on the River Tay near the Perthshire towns of Pitlochry & Dunkeld.
Here's a salmon fisher fly fishing the river margins during mini flood conditions on the River Tay in Perthshire. Salmon are often caught close in to the riverbank during water conditions like this.

How To Fish For Salmon In High Water Conditions

Professional Scottish 'career based' salmon fishing guide advice on how best to align your salmon fishing approach to high water conditions.

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How To Fish For Salmon In High Water Conditions

Where To Find Salmon In High Water Conditions

High water conditions have always fascinated me as a professional salmon guide as on many occasions I've been astounded as to just how close to the riverbank resident or running salmon will position themselves. Naturally a salmon will take up a position in the river that doesn't physically tax them too much as will running salmon move upstream through the broken water at the side of the river where they'll have less water pressure to deal with. The above may well be a polar opposite of where you'd expect salmon to be located but trust my career experience and number one eyeball on this as I've seen too many instances where I've been personally shocked at just how close salmon will be found through the periodic high water levels on the Scottish salmon rivers.

Why You should Fish For Salmon From The Riverbank In High Water

With the above in mind you don't need to be in the river at all or if you do then just enough to give you enough upstream or downstream water space for the anchor point placement of your Spey cast. A short controlled salmon fly fishing it right into the riverbank is perfect and if the high water has added some discolouration to the clarity of the river going a size bigger and brighter than normal would be my advice. You also want a sink tip on the end of your floating fly line that's not too heavy to allow your fly to complete its swim right into the riverbank without bottoming out on the riverbed. Salmon lie identification becomes very easy in high water as all you need to do is scan for the pools that have calm steady water away from the main current as that's exactly where salmon will be found whether they are resident salmon or briefly pausing running fish.

Where To Find More Tactical High Water Salmon Fishing Information

I've written extensively regarding high water salmon fishing tactics on this website's sister website and follow this link for more information regarding fishing through high water conditions. Alternatively, if you'd like a crash course on optimising your general salmon fishing approach on a major Scottish salmon river then consider booking a professional salmon guide who will teach you from scratch or fine tune your salmon fishing skills. Your professional salmon guide will supply all of the correct salmon fishing equipment, career based tactical salmon fishing fine tuning in addition to seasonally appropriate salmon fishing access on either of the 4 major Scottish salmon rivers.

 

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