Brownies from a sea loch | SIB fishing and camping | Loch Etive 

Thanks - you're right, there was quite a variety of colours in these fish. That was the first time I targeted trout as my main species for a trip to Etive and it paid off nicely. It certainly makes a change from the usual spurdogs and other bottom feeders!

Thanks Tony - another video this weekend if I remember to press the publish button🙂 I've only had the SIB out once this year, for a little session off Dunbar, but it has indeed held up well for something that's been sorely neglected over the past 25+ years. I got it secondhand so I reckon it must be about 30 years old now! I doubt if many of the more modern inflatables will last that long!

Glad you enjoyed it - I just fancied something a little different this time, and was too lazy to paddle a kayak or tow the bigger boat!

Thank you! I've not tried Etive specifically for trout before but it was good fun and quite a relaxed way to fish.

Glad you like them! The next one is gradually taking shape just now, so hopefully not too long until the next instalment🙂

Glad you enjoyed it - I was quite chuffed with the fishing myself, as I wasn't sure how many trout there are in the loch.

There is another in the pipeline, but I really am way behind at the moment. Longer nights and fewer distractions will probably fix that soon enough!

Thanks 👍 Etive is a definite favourite of mine, and a lovely place to have a quite overnight camps - fish or no fish!

Glad you enjoyed it, as I certainly enjoyed a change from the usual spurdogs and whiting that are staples of winter fishing on Etive! Coming around all too soon, I think🙂

@@Corkwing-DougK I’m ashamed to say that it took me 60 years to finally travel north to the promised land. We stayed in Oban in early June with perfect weather and drove round Loch Etive wishing I’d brought my sib with me 🙄 Will hopefully be back next year with boat in tow 🤞👍

Well Etive is certainly worth exploring, particularly from Taynuilt up to the head of the loch - and it can be a lot more sheltered than the Oban area too. I'm guessing your reference to the promised land means you've been watching Donny Wilcox's videos, but if not then you'll get plenty of ideas from them👍

@@Corkwing-DougK You are correct. He was one of the reasons why I took a long overdue trip to Scotland. I had always planned at some point to come up but I was busy trying to tick off every European country. I certainly wasn’t disappointed. Stunning country and met some great local people. 😀👍

I'd certainly recommend the Oban area as it gives access to many very attractive trips but also is relatively sheltered for those not so perfect days. The other area which offers a degree of weather protection coupled with terrific country would be the area between Loch Nevis and Loch Duich - I've had several trips launching at Dornie on Loch Duich and working down the Sound of Sleat and it is a very beautiful area that is a lot more sheltered than most of Skye - whilst allowing access to Skye if the weather looks good. Loch Hourn is particularly attractive and both it and Nevis are largely uninhabited.

Nothing quite like the sound of bacon hitting the pan - it's my treat for braving the midges, or being out on a cold morning. Washed down with a nice mug of coffee in my case!

Hi Liam, Thanks, and sorry for a delayed reply - just catching up on other things at the moment. I was pleasantly surprised with the trout, as I've not had anything over 8oz before. Mind you, I did see an otter retrieving a very respectable fish a while back, although I wasn't close enough to tell quite what species it was. Made a change from seals laughing at me 😀

Thank you! Cheers! Etive is a lovely place to explore.

I used to pop the inflatable into places like Cove, just south of Aberdeen and you'd get great fishing for codling, just drifting close inshore. You're right about the midge net though - it makes enough of a difference for midge season to be almost tolerable.

Sandwood is wonderful and I'm thoroughly intrigued by the whole area - but the realities of trying to camp and fish there over the winter months mean it will probably be next year before I'm up again. I have fished along the north coast at this time of year, but from rock marks rather than beaches and never later than October. My favourite time for Sandwood is probably mid to late May when you have dry weather, long days and few midges - and there are both sea fishing and trout fishing options.

🙂 the days are definitely getting longer👍👍 Just need to get them drier, warmer and less windy! Cheers, Doug

You're right - I had completely forgotten that the SIB does feature in a very early video on Loch Leven. Maybe this is better billed as it's first feature film! It has had some fairly serious use in years gone by, including a trip to Ireland and numerous hours on the North Sea. I'm not sure if you'll see it snow covered again though, as that was a chilly day out!

Hi Ash, The Avon is certainly a well built SIB, although mine is definitely showing some wear and tear now 😥 I did over 20 miles on this trip, partly because I was hugging the shoreline as I was fishing. Not sure what the internal tank is on the Mariner but it can only be 1.2 - 1.5 litres at best, and I certainly used less than a gallon overall.

@@Corkwing-DougK The red canvas bow cover was a called "dodger", quite effective too.

I've not tried fly fishing on the loch yet, although I'm sure it would work at times. Probably best where the burns empty into Etive.

@@Corkwing-DougK Good Shout cheers Doug. I’m heading up Etive this Saturday with a boat out Airds bay so hoping for a good day 👍

Hi Tom - just use the same place shown in the video, Kelly's pier at Taynuilt. You can just drive to waters edge, even with 2WD, as the beach is hard gravelly sandy and firm shingle. Just take the road signposted to Bonawe Ironworks. There is another pier at the very end of this road but Kelly's pier is a few hundred metres before this. Don't turn off just at the pier itself but maybe 30-40 metres beyond that. It's generally easiest to launch alongside the pier but I doubt it matters much with a SIB.

@@Corkwing-DougK Hi Doug, thank you for the info and advice, really looking forward to giving Loch Etive a go, it looks beautiful.

Hi Thomas - Kelly's pier at Taynuilt (not the jetty at the end of the road but the old stone pier halfway along). There's no slipway and you just launch off the hard shingle/gravel beach. Gets very shallow at low water although still manageable, so best at HW +/- 2 hours. Access isn't the turnoff marked for Loch Etive cruises but maybe 40-50 yards further on. In summer take midge repellant and a midge net or you might die from blood loss! OK on the boat, but it can be brutal onshore on a calm evening 😀

@@Corkwing-DougK thanks doug.

Hi Steve, the reels you see in this video are Shimano 4000 size, which are overkill. You'd get away with much smaller reels quite easily. However I'll use the same reel with a different spool to bottom fish in 100+ feet of water. One reel with a couple of spools is much easier to fit in a backpack - especially somewhere remote where you might be beach fishing, sea spinning, and loch/River fishing. I'm doing more freshwater fishing now, so will probably get a much smaller reel for this.

I tend to use a shimano 4000 but I have never tried braid. You say 20lb braid. What's a good brand. 👍

@@stevesdaysoff2759 I think my 20lb braid is 4 strand Spiderwire, but I can't remember for sure (I'm 2000 miles from home at the moment so çan't check). Any decent brand should do but I wouldn't drop lower than 20lb if rock fishing is involved. I do use 8 strand daiwa J-braid for light freshwater but am not sure it's robust enough for rock spinning. I normally use a mono or fluorocarbon leader but also happy to use braid direct to the lure.

Thank you. I just got myself some Berkley whiplash 8 in 23lb. Busy putting in on my reel now lol 👍

What breaking strain braid do you use for fresh water spinning. Got the 23lb braid for sea spinning. Thank you for the information and hope im not being a pain asking. Great channel and well done 👍

Hi - the camera I use most is a GoPro 9 as it works pretty well for the close quarters shots on board a boat/kayak/sib and is robust and waterproof. Any GoPro from the Hero 7 onwards should be good as they all have image stabilisation. The other camera in this video is a DJI Mini 2 which works well for me and is still light enough to fit in a rucksack - the only thing I miss on it is the "follow me" feature you get on the higher spec drones. On the boat I'm generally using Railblaza mounts to handle both rod holders and as camera mount points. I also have a gooseneck flexible mount from GoPro which can clamp onto quite a range of rails, branches, rod tripod, etc. - it's extremely useful and almost always comes along. Also a lightweight camera tripod, although this is mainly when I'm ashore. Not used in this video, but one that comes on quite a few trips, is the Sony ZV-E10. I don't use this much on the boat and it's more for shore fishing or when camping. I've got 2 lenses for this - a Sigma16mm f1.4 and an 18-200mm Sony zoom. The Sigma is excellent in low light, way better than the GoPro, whilst the zoom lens just gives me the sort of shots that a wide angle GoPro can't do. Image stabilisation is nothing like as good as the GoPro so you really need a tripod. I'd say that the Sony is a luxury item for this sort of video - way more expensive than the GoPro and used far less, although it can capture some shots that are beyond the GoPro's capabilities. Sometimes I still use my phone, although it's getting long in the tooth by recent standards - a Galaxy S9. This works fine in many circumstances, especially with a tripod. For doing a lot of handheld shots you'd really want a gimbal unless your phone has very good stabilisation. A more modern phone will probably cover a lot of what you need, although a very wide angle shot might be difficult, and they're not as robust as a GoPro. Virtually all my video is shot in 4k 30 frames/second as all my gear can handle that and it allows for some cropping and zooming when I'm editing. Just make sure you get a decent SD card able to handle this much data. Cheers, Doug

@@Corkwing-DougK fantastic advice, thanks so much

I've met the man himself 🎉

I do watch Donny's videos but I've never met him despite being in roughly the same location at similar times. Funnily enough I do feature in one of his trips, but only as a small blob on the shoreline as he runs up Loch Etive - I was shore fishing and he was out on his inflatable at the time. Doubtless we'll fall over each other some day at Taynuilt!

🙂 Actually it's the other way round - I rather sidelined my old SIB in favour of the kayak, but it is a nice little boat in the right conditions. Especially if you're feeling too lazy to use a paddle... The SIB itself must be 30 years old now, but I bought a new auxiliary engine for the Orkney and it works pretty well on the inflatable too. The kayak definitely hasn't been dumped!

being serious keep up the good vids mate they are brilliant, worth the watch

Funnily enough, I've never fished in Lomond or in Loch Awe for that matter. Just a question of time though!