Salmon Fishing Equipment

It is important to come on your salmon fishing holiday with the correct salmon fishing equipment in order to get the most from your Scottish salmon fishing trip and optimise your chances of catching salmon. It is also possible to hire a professional salmon fishing guide who will provide all the necessary salmon fishing equipment and any required casting & salmon fishing tuition.

Bringing Your Own Equipment

The salmon fishing equipment you will require to fish our Scottish salmon rivers;

Salmon Fly Rod 14ft-16ft (9/10-10/11 weight)
Salmon Fly Reel (with 30lbs backing) and 9/10-10/11 floating fly line with selection of sinking tips ranging from type 1.5 ips to 10 ips (ips = inch per second sink rate)
Chest Waders with studded boots
Waterproof wading jacket with hood
15lbs-20lbs leader material
A selection of salmon flies (see suggested patterns below)

For those who wish to spin for salmon;

Salmon Spinning Rod 9ft-11ft
Salmon Spinning Reel (fully fitted with 15lbs-20lbs mono or braid)
12 X 20g-30g spinning lures (see suggested lures below) with swivels
Sunglasses for eye protection
Life jacket
Digital camera
Suncream for skin protection
Warm thermal clothing
Warm hat
Good thick warm thermal socks
A spare set of dry clothing

A salmon landing net with a knotless mesh will also be required.

Salmon Fly Patterns For Scottish Rivers

The favoured Scottish salmon flies that have good success rates are patterns like the Copperass, Ally's Shrimp, Willie Gunn, Cascade, Orange Flamethrower, Sunray Shadow, Stoats Tail & Silver Stoat. In the early months of the year and late Autumn these patterns fish well tied on copper tubes from 1 to 2 inches for added weight and from late Spring through to early Autumn regular double hooked versions fish well. Personally I've always been a fan of Partridge hooks and the Salar doubles in silver, black or gold are without doubt quality hooks. Many of the Scandinavian fly patterns work well too for Scottish salmon like the Snaelda & Pot Bellied Pig ranges.

Spinning Lures For Scottish Rivers

Spinning lures on the Scottish rivers that do very well are typically the ABU 30grm Salmo toby in copper or silver, silver or copper 28grm regular ABU toby, 20grm-30grm flying condom in red, orange, black, yellow or purple & the devon minnow in black & gold, black & yellow for the Spring months & black & orange or black & red for the Autumn months. In recent yeas the more castable Rapala & Vision Oneten lures have also produced consistent results especially in the black & gold and red & orange type of colour ranges.

Salmon Beat Ghillie Advice

It is equally as important to listen to the advice given each day by the salmon beat resident ghillie who will usually be present. All these professional salmon fishing men in most cases have many years experience on their salmon beats and taking their advice on where to look for a taking salmon and how to fish each salmon pool is important during the brief time the resident ghillie is with you each day. Please do not confuse a resident beat ghillie with a personal guide as the two roles are completely different. A personal salmon fishing guide will be with you (& your party) throughout the entire salmon fishing day.