Fishing the Lochs of Perthshire and Central Scotland

By Alex Clayton · Updated 24 October 2026

At Loch Leven you cannot fish from the bank at all. On Loch Tay, a Killin and Breadalbane Angling Club visitor permit covers trout and coarse fish for £10 a day. Perthshire fishing works like that: wild brown trout, stocked trout, pike and perch in one region, with every loch run by a different owner under its own rulebook.

One rule holds across Perthshire, Stirling and the Trossachs. You need permission everywhere and a rod licence nowhere. This guide, part of our wider guide to fishing in Scotland, covers who sells permits, the season and Sunday rules, the headline lochs and the smaller waters where access needs checking first.

Which Perthshire or Trossachs Loch Suits Your Trip?

Pick the fish first, then the loch. The five big names in Perthshire fishing and the Trossachs suit very different trips, and the way you get permission changes from one to the next.

Loch	Best for	Boat or bank	How you get permission	Nearest base
Loch Leven	Wild brown trout (fly only); pike outside 14 March to 1 May	Boat only, hired from the fishery	Book a boat with the fishery (fishlochleven.co.uk)	Kinross
Lake of Menteith	Stocked rainbow and brown trout; fly pike	Boat only, fishery fleet of around three dozen boats	Book with the fishery (menteith-fisheries.co.uk)	Port of Menteith, near Aberfoyle
Loch Tay	Brown trout, perch, pike (salmon arranged separately)	Boat and bank, strict boat rules	KBAC visitor permit (kbac-permit.org)	Killin
Loch Earn	Stocked brown and rainbow trout	Check locally	Permission needed; check outlets locally	St Fillans or Lochearnhead
Loch Lomond	Pike, perch, trout; salmon catch and release	Bank; check boat hire locally	LLAIA permit or one of its listed retailers (lochlomondangling.com)	Balloch

Prices are in the venue sections below. For a near-certain bent rod on a stocked water, start at Menteith. For wild fish on a famous big loch, go to Leven. For cheap, flexible mixed fishing, Tay is the pick.

Do You Need a Fishing Licence in Perthshire? No, but You Need Permission

Anglers used to an Environment Agency rod licence tend to get Scotland wrong in one of two ways. Some buy a licence they do not need. Others assume that with no licence system, the water is free to fish. Neither is right.

The Scottish Government is clear: there is no recreational fishing licence in Scotland, but you need a permit or written permission from whoever holds the fishing rights. Every loch in this guide has an owner, club or association controlling those rights. Our guide to fishing licences in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland covers the wider picture.

Pike catch some visitors out. Fisheries Management Scotland’s legal summary explains that pike are treated in law like brown trout, with no common right to fish for them. The permission rule applies whether you are after trout or predators.

Loch Tay goes a step further. It is covered by a Protection Order, so written permission is required, and the Killin and Breadalbane Angling Club (KBAC) issues it. Carry your permit on the bank or in the boat.

For Trossachs and Stirling fishing, Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park says permits are sold through newsagents and tackle shops. Brown trout fishing needs the riparian owner’s permission, coarse anglers may use up to four rods on rests, and live vertebrate bait is banned.

The verdict: no permit in your pocket, no fishing, however empty the water looks.

Seasons, Sunday Rules and Pike Close Times

There is no statutory close season for pike or perch in Scotland. Yet you still cannot pike fish Loch Leven in April. The national rules are short. On most Perthshire fishing trips, the fishery rules are what catch people out.

Rule	What it says	Who sets it
Brown trout	Close time 7 October to 14 March; no weekly close time	Scottish Government (gov.scot)
Salmon and sea trout	No rod fishing for salmon on a Sunday; sea trout count as salmon in law. Does not apply to brown trout, pike or perch	gov.scot; Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 2003, s13
Pike and perch	No statutory weekly or annual close time	gov.scot (fisheries set their own)
Loch Leven pike	Closed 14 March to 1 May	Loch Leven fishery
Loch Tay pike	Open 1 January to 31 March and 1 May to 31 December; all pike returned	KBAC
Loch Tay trout and charr	15 March to 6 October	KBAC
Lake of Menteith pike	All pike returned; no pike fishing when the water is above 18°C at 6ft at noon	Menteith fishery
Loch Tay salmon	Rod season 15 January to 15 October; mandatory catch and release 15 January to 31 March	Scottish Statutory Instrument 2014/327

Fisheries can open later or close earlier than the national dates, so check the current year’s rules with the water before you travel. For the UK-wide picture, see our fishing seasons guide and the salmon fishing rules.

Loch Leven: Wild Brown Trout from a Boat

Turn up at Loch Leven with a rod and no booking and you will not fish. It is boat only, and trout fishing is fly only.

The 2026 trout season opened on 15 March. Boats come with an outboard and life jackets, but drogues are not provided, so bring your own to slow the drift. Rod hire is available; check the current charge when you book. A day session runs from 9am to 5:30pm.

The fishery’s published 2026 day boat prices, including VAT:

Session	Monday	Tuesday to Friday	Saturday and Sunday
Boat, 2 to 3 anglers	£50	£65	£70
Single angler	£40	£45	£50

Evening sessions cost £50 per boat or £40 for a single angler.

Two details conflict on the fishery’s own website. The single-angler booking notice appears as 48 hours on the scale of charges and three days elsewhere. The trout size limit is 10 inches on one page and 11 inches on others. Confirm both when you book. No bag limit is stated.

Pike fishing is closed from 14 March to 1 May. Outside that window the rules are strict: one species per outing, no live bait, no trolling, deadbaits must be sea species, lures must be at least 5in, and you need a wire trace and a minimum of 50lb braid or 25lb mono. I use a wire trace whenever I fish for pike on Windermere, and anyone who pike fishes in England will find that part of the Leven rules familiar.

More detail is in our Loch Leven fishing guide.

Best for: fly anglers after wild fish. Skip if: you want bank fishing or bait.

Lake of Menteith and the Trossachs

If you want a bent rod on your first Scottish trip, Menteith is the safest bet, because it is stocked every week.

The lake is boat only, with a fishery fleet of around three dozen boats. It is stocked weekly with rainbow and brown trout, trout fishing is fly only, and trout under 11in go back. The fishery opens daily from 8am, with late sessions from 2pm to 10pm between 1 May and 15 August 2026. Prices could not be verified for this guide, so check the fishery’s prices page or phone 01877 385664 before you travel.

Menteith also runs fly fishing for pike, plus a limited number of PAAS/PAC lure and deadbait days. All pike are returned, and the fishery asks that nobody pike fishes when the water is above 18°C at 6ft at noon. On Windermere I’ve found pike fight hard in warm water and take longer to recover afterwards, so a warm-water limit is sound fish care.

Beyond Menteith, the National Park counts 22 lochs. Permits come through newsagents and tackle shops, and Loch Drunkie is one brown trout loch worth asking about locally. Follow Check Clean Dry when you move between waters (see our invasive species guide), and note that camping byelaws apply on some lochshores from March to September.

Our Lake of Menteith guide has more.

Direct recommendation: if you are new to boat fishing, book a session here before you attempt Leven.

Loch Tay and Loch Earn: Big Highland Lochs on a Budget

A week on Loch Tay for trout and coarse fish costs £30 on a KBAC visitor permit. That is less than a single weekday boat at Leven.

Loch Tay is covered by a Protection Order, so written permission is required. KBAC sells visitor permits online for trout and coarse fish at £10 for a day, £20 for three consecutive days and £30 for seven. Your receipt is your permit, so keep it on your phone. Salmon is not covered.

Boat fishing on the loch is fly only, with no spinning or trolling. Pike can be fished from the bank, or from a boat at anchor, using barbless or semi-barbless hooks and a wire trace, and every pike goes back. Season dates are in the rules table above.

Salmon is a separate matter. The rod season runs from 15 January to 15 October, with mandatory catch and release from 15 January to 31 March. The club’s boat salmon right is for members only, so visiting salmon anglers need to arrange their fishing separately.

On Windermere, in my experience, perch and pike hold on drop-offs and around points rather than in open water. Those same features are the obvious place to start on any big, deep loch, Tay included.

Loch Earn is reported in secondary sources to hold stocked brown and rainbow trout. Permission is needed, but permit outlets and boat hire could not be verified, so check locally before travelling. See our Loch Tay guide and Loch Earn guide.

Quick comparison: Tay is cheaper and more flexible, with bank and boat options; Leven costs more but puts you in a fishery boat on a famous wild-trout water.

Loch Lomond: Pike, Perch and a Salmon Release Rule

Two fish in Loch Lomond are illegal to fish for at all: eel and powan.

Coarse and game permits come from the Loch Lomond Angling Improvement Association (LLAIA) and its 16 listed retailers, so permits are widely sold. Rules vary between sections of the loch, so read the conditions on the permit you buy. Live vertebrate bait is banned.

Salmon on the Lomond system are all catch and release in 2026. The season on the River Leven, the loch’s outflow and not to be confused with Loch Leven in Kinross, runs from 11 February to 31 October.

Boat hire operators could not be verified for this guide. Check with the LLAIA or the National Park before you plan a boat day.

Our Loch Lomond fishing guide covers the loch in more depth.

Best for: predator anglers who want big water. Skip if: you want to keep a salmon.

Butterstone and Carron Valley: Check Access Before You Go

Older guides send visitors to both of these trout waters, but neither one’s current access could be confirmed from a primary source.

Butterstone Loch, near Dunkeld, is a trout water whose access is reported to run through the Dunkeld and Birnam Angling Association. Contact the association to confirm access and prices before you travel.

Carron Valley Reservoir, between Stirling and Glasgow, covers around 1,000 acres and holds stocked and wild brown trout, according to secondary sources. Its day-ticket status could not be confirmed, and some sources say it is members only, so check with the fishery first.

More on each: Butterstone Loch and Carron Valley.

Verdict: treat both as phone-first waters.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a rod licence to fish in Perthshire?

No. Scotland has no recreational fishing licence, so an Environment Agency licence is not needed. You do need a permit or written permission from whoever holds the fishing rights, according to the Scottish Government. On Loch Tay, a Protection Order means written permission is required.

Can I fish on a Sunday in Perthshire?

Yes for brown trout, pike and perch, unless the fishery's own rules say otherwise. Rod fishing for salmon is banned on a Sunday across Scotland, and sea trout count as salmon in law, under section 13 of the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 2003.

When is the trout season in Perthshire?

The national brown trout close time runs from 7 October to 14 March. Fisheries can set shorter seasons: Loch Leven opened on 15 March in 2026, and Loch Tay's trout season runs from 15 March to 6 October under the KBAC rules. Check the current year with the fishery.

Is there a close season for pike in Scotland?

There is no close season for pike in Scottish law. Fisheries set their own rules instead. Loch Leven is closed to pike from 14 March to 1 May, and Loch Tay is closed to pike through April, opening again on 1 May. Check the water's rules before you go.