Kayaking, Wild camping and Fishing on Loch Etive 

Thanks for watching - Etive is a magical place when it's flat calm. It's the quietest place I know when the wind dies away, totally silent at times. Great place to escape to.🙂

Thanks - I did have fun making this one, although my arms were protesting a little by the end. I need to do a bit more kayaking, I think!

Thanks - although I definitely lucked out with the weather too. Etive really shines on a calm, sunny day!

Thank you for watching - it's certainly a place I like to escape to, particularly in the cooler months when it's very quiet.

Glad you like them! It's quite hard not to make the west coast look good - assuming you can actually see it through the mist and rain 😀

Cheers - I was dead lucky with that trip I think. Hoping to get out again soon!

Thanks very much and I'm glad you enjoyed watching it. Etive is one of my favourite places for just mooching about - fish or no fish! 😊

Thanks for watching. It's a beautiful place and I'm just the guy who turns on the camera - it largely videos itself!

Thanks Martin - I enjoyed making this one. It's much easier in sunny weather and I also knew I wasn't missing out on much fishing by concentrating more on playing with cameras and campfires🙂

I was so chuffed with hitting the weather just right, as it's easily the biggest variable on trips to the west coast. It was a really good couple of days🙂

I really enjoyed this trip myself - cold but clear, sunny and flat calm. You couldn't ask for better conditions. Sadly, what you describe is more typical as Etive does tend to funnel the prevailing wind and it can get pretty uncomfortable if you hit wind against tide. Someone drowned up the head of the loch a few years ago when their boat capsized, so it shouldn't be underestimated.

I totally agree, that is not a body of water to under estimate. Absolutely beautiful though. please keep doing what you do.

Not so bothered about the fish these days, but completely agree about leaving things as you find them. We share a very small island and it's awful easy to spoil it!

Cheers, although I assume you're referring to the scenery rather than the bloke in orange cagoule 😃😃 I keep saying that Etive is one of my favourite places but it's quite true.

Thanks Tam, it was just a perfect couple of days. Looking forward to the next one 😀

I reckon it's very much a question of location, location, location! A paddle along the Forth and Clyde canal just wouldn't feel the same.🙂 A little bit of snow on the mountains really adds to the feel of the place.

Lovely place to paddle although the fish are smaller up that end. There are plenty of other options in that general area too, including the freshwater side of things👍

Assuming you mean Etive rather than me, then I'm happy to agree! This time of year the highlands look quite tired and washed out after winter, but revive pretty quickly during April. Sunshine really improves things!

Hi Tony - I came in from Glen Nevis and used the car park at the end of the road. That's within 20m or so of the loch so not too difficult to get the kayak to the waters edge. The risk you run, especially from Easter onwards, is that the carpark is small and may be full, especially at weekends and that means you're pretty stuffed trying to launch. In warm weather I'd be tempted to launch near Taynuilt rather than risk finding Glen Etive is full - but that does mean a longer paddle to reach the areas I was playing about in.

@@Corkwing-DougK Thanks Doug keep it going.

Etive is almost on my doorstep by comparison to a few people I was chatting to at Glen Etive - at least two had made an 8 hour drive for their weekend. I think they earned their sunshine more than me!

Hi Liam, It was a lot easier to edit than some too! I wasn't really bothered about the fishing in this video which also helped, I think - getting too clever with multi-tasking sometimes trips you up. If you do make it up then I hope you get weather that even half as nice. You've been amply warned about the quality of fishing in the upper loch though 😊😊

@@Corkwing-DougK You’ve certainly provided enough words of caution! To be honest though, like you, I’m in it for the joy of being out there, the fishings just a sideline. There’s far worse places in the world to blank after all! Looking forward to your next vid/post

Spot on - it's the sort of place that makes you feel small as you paddle along👍 Thanks for watching.

Just don't forget that bug net over the summer😀 plenty of other choices too at that time of year and less danger of frostbite!

Yeah, it's a fantastic location and my goto venue over the winter months. I'm very lucky to live only 2.5 hours away from it so it's easy to reach on a dark winter's day.

Yup, Etive can get pretty cold at times and I've had the loch freeze on me a few times now. I got taught a lesson about sleeping bags and cold weather there a few years ago - everything froze, including me. Have since seriously upgraded my overnight kit! I think I've camped on Etive pretty much every month of the year now except maybe May and June when I'm usually elsewhere or trying to avoid midges.

Thanks! It's pretty hard to blank in these conditions, at least when you're afloat. When the seabed is carpeted with little spurs like that it gets hard to avoid them - my excuse for not trying too hard, anyway🙂

Hi Stuart, I've very little experience with a "proper" sea kayak so don't put too much weight on anything I say about the two! From a fishing perspective the sit on top feels much more stable as it's much beamier despite the higher centre of gravity. I don't think I'd want to fish from a sea kayak as (to me, anyway) it feels that hooking any snags would risk a bath. On the other hand, if you're just paddling along and trying to cover some ground then the sea kayak will easily out perform any sit on top and I don't remember any stability issues when you're moving. One thing I did have problems with on my sit on top was a tendency to weathercock when the wind was astern, although adding a rudder helped greatly. Cheers, Doug

Hi Ash, I'm trying not to get too ambitious with the drone so I'm definitely not treating the kayak as an aircraft carrier! All take offs and landings from terra firma, and I winced every time another drip from the paddle landed on the controller! Not really difficult in such calm conditions but I wouldn't push my luck if it got windy.

I'm sure he has a video of him fishing sunart

I've fished Sunart plenty of times over the years but it can be quite hit or miss. There are some really nice fish caught but it can be hard to locate them reliably. It's more exposed than Etive so pick your time carefully.

I think they're Palm Rock Shoes. Generally they seem OK and are comfortable afloat, but the soles are too thin for any genuine rock hopping ashore. Easy enough to put on and off and they do seem to keep the sand and grit away from dry suit trousers. Not sure I'd pay the £40 being asked for them nowadays though!

The one in this video is a One Tigris Iron Wall and the reason I have it is purely down to the tent stove. The tent and stove are just about back packable for a few miles (with all my other clobber). If you don't need to carry a tent on your back or don't need a stove then there might be better choices. It is quite a large tent but only really has room for one person when you're using the stove which is quite a limitation. I'm not sure I'd buy it again as the quality is so-so, but it wasn't so expensive that I was going to worry if I burned a few holes in it 😊. If I don't need a stove then I use either an old Vango Banshee 300 which I've had for many years (supposedly 3 person, but really only works for 2) or a Force 10 Helium 2 (2 person, but realistically 1 person). The Helium is what I use for lightweight camping by myself, whilst the Vango tends to pop up anytime there's 2 of us out, or I don't need to worry about weight (not that it's a heavy tent). None of these tents are 4 season mountain gear, but I'm generally camping in fairly sheltered locations rather than a hurricane.

@@Corkwing-DougK thanks for the info and good advice ill look into the best new option for me as my last 2 tents were a let down! Thanks again and keep the videos coming we all enjoy them 🙌

So the best camping spots are well up the loch towards Glen Etive, whilst the better fishing is generally further down towards the sea. Most people bottom fish for thornback ray, doggies and spurdog but there are a wide variety of species caught from time to time. You can get huge numbers of small/tiny spurdog at times and most fish are pretty small but there are some decent specimens in there.

You really don't 😀 I waste far too much time playing with camera gear. Ian is far keener and better than me when it comes to fishing!