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Glad you enjoyed it - although I wouldn't want to give the impression that fish were just lining up to be caught! We had some quite slow spells and had to work fairly hard to get fish at times. Cheers, Doug

Hi David - just tell them that I'm fibbing and holding the cod right out towards the camera... half the time it's probably true! Or you could try for the proper skrei cod in March/April🙂 - I'm definitely not going to be in Soroya at that time of year! The scenery is amazing and dramatic for a reason and you have to be pretty tough to survive the winter up there. We stayed at Breivik, winter population = 5. Cheers, Doug

Well Tony tested out the Angler's teeth and can confirm they are sharp🤣🤣 Strangely enough, I have only ever seen 2 angler fish before and I literally picked them up (alive) from pools in the Ythan estuary one day in winter. Both small, 10-12" long. Over 40 years ago - I took one home in a bucket to show my parents before releasing it again. The Norwegian specimens were altogether more impressive specimens in the mid-20lb range! Cheers, Doug

@@Corkwing-DougK I'll take a look at the Ythan. Last time I was there the Sea Troot were looping as they say. In my younger days I used to scuba dive out of Plymouth. There were some large Angler fish outside the Sound. Once saw a Sun fish from underwater which was quite something.

The Ythan fish were a one-off, probably getting disorientated in cold water and swimming the wrong direction. I used to dig bait at the Ythan regularly and this was the only time I ever saw them, dead or alive. Mind you, there's more species in that area than you might think, especially up towards Rockend and Hackley Bay - I've seen dead conger and lumpsuckers washed up, plus decent bass in the salmon nets (this was back in the 80s), and caught gurnard in Hackley Bay itself. Nets used to catch small turbot too.

@@Corkwing-DougK Thanks for the information. I had some more Haddock today while out on the boat, All very pale coloured fish.

Hi Charlie - my daughter was horrified when I told her that we were using puffins as bait, so I had to show her proof🤣🤣 As far as I can tell the boat is ballpark £100k so they're definitely not cheaping out (thankfully, given where we were). However, I don't think I could ever get used to the Scandi style of having the cuddy towards the stern rather than the bow - I guess it's because they don't anchor much so there's no benefit in having a nice cabin up front that you can hide behind! Our boat didn't even have an anchor, which prompted some debate amongst the crew, as it's definitely not the sort of place you want to drift ashore! Cheers, Doug

That's actually my first serious angling trip abroad, unless you count a couple of trips to Ireland many years ago! The weather was generally excellent and better than the video suggests - and definitely better than the same week back home🙂 Now to plan the next expedition...

Glad you liked it! It was a bit of a change for me, and my first ever visit to Scandinavia. I'll definitely be back at some point, although maybe on some sort of humungous car camp🙂

Thanks John. Fishlocker was only a few miles south of us and in the same location we fished on our last day. I think he had a similar experience to us, with some very nice individual fish but pretty few and far between. We definitely seemed to get better weather tho - no need for thermals😀😀 Cheers, Doug

Hi Ash - it was a beautiful place, in a very rugged sense. I'd like to visit again but perhaps as a longer expedition with car and sib or kayak. Soroya looks great for hiking, camping and trouting too🙂 Cheers, Doug

Thanks Peter - I'll no doubt adapt to UK averages quickly enough☹ Just hold the fish closer to the camera 😀 Tony had been to Norway before and he noticed the drop in numbers quite clearly. The guides were open enough about fishing being poor in recent weeks, especially for halibut. With luck it's just a blip! Cheers, Doug

Hi Ray, I'm over at Etive fishing and camping a few times a year but I've no connection to Dougie Bannatyne who does the boat hire on Etive. I uploaded this one at the end of July but the trip itself was two or three weeks before that - this year it's just been a case of grab any break you can in the wind, as there ain't been many. It depends on how complicated the editing is but I usually find it takes me a while to sort out the footage and upload a video - I've got another 2 or 3 that are "almost" ready to go. SIBs are good fun and pretty versatile, although I don't use mine all that much these days - have you ever bumped into Donny Wilcox when you're out on Etive? Cheers, Doug

Hi Charlie - even this trip was a bit curtailed from my original plan! The weather has certainly been pretty dismal this year and it's a struggle to get out beyond the sheltered sea lochs. By way of contrast, I'm just back from a week 300 miles north of the Arctic Circle (in Soroya, Norway) and it was warmer, sunnier, calmer and generally much better than back home every day we were there! Cheers, Doug

@@Corkwing-DougK So can we expect a fish-filled video report of your trip😉?

Fish-filled would definitely be exaggerating! Some interesting catches however😁 The real star of the show is really Soroya itself, which is a little like Scotland on steroids with its dramatic and very rugged cliffs.

Quite probably true - but these lochs lie right alongside the main Glencoe road and have to be amongst the most photographed in Scotland, so they're beautiful but perhaps not quite as peaceful as they seem.

Many thanks - although I think my cooking is best enjoyed under the cover of darkness🤣 It hides many sins!

The Meldon is maybe 30-35 miles from Taynuilt, so I wouldn't recommend the trip just for the fishing - I did it partly just because I like exploring that part of Mull. It'd take a bit under 2 hours travelling. You also need to factor in the tide times at Connel, as the Falls of Lora can be dangerous on a large tide Cheers, Doug

I don't really eat many trout myself - it might be sacrilege but I prefer haddock and cod myself😀

Many thanks - glad you enjoyed it👍

No midges is a very big plus for winter fishing👍 It wasn't even very cold, given it was flat calm and sunny. I really couldn't ask for a better winter camp. Cheers, Doug

Thanks 👍 Etive is definitely a favourite place to escape for a night or two, and there's a surprising variety of fish to catch - even if they're mainly small! Cheers, Doug

I'm gradually getting better at such things, although there's always more to learn. Good luck with the sib - I find them a better/easier platform to fish from and they can cover a fair distance too. On the other hand, there's nothing quite like gliding along silently on a flat calm sea👍 I find myself eyeing up packrafts, although I'd probably just kill myself if I tried to use one🤣

Thanks 👍 Sorry for the late reply but I've been a tad busy just lately - not actually fishing sadly, although managing some prep work for an upcoming trip🙂

Thanks👍 It's one of my favourite places for an overnighter, for all the reasons you give. Mull itself has some stunning and very remote locations for a camp along the southern coasts, especially the little beaches hidden on the Ross of Mull. Cheers, Doug

Thanks 👍 The south coast of Mull is virtually uninhabited and almost inaccessible from the land along much of its length, so boat is your own real option. And it's certainly a beautiful piece of coastline - the cliffs in the video might not look that big but are actually a little under 900 feet high. Cheers, Doug

I get asked this quite a bit so I've put some info and a link in the video description - corkwing.co.uk/boat-fishing/setting-an-overnight-mooring/

Thanks I will check out

Thanks for watching - you'll get both browns and sea trout, and even rainbows when they stage a break out from the fish farms🙂 Nothing very big but I do get a kick out of catching them! Cheers, Doug

🙂 Minefield! 🙂 If it's an Atlantic Pollock then Europeans call it a Coalfish (or Saithe to us Scots). We have no equivalent to an Alaskan Pollock as far as I know. Either way, we're talking about different species - except when Pollock is used when you really mean the European Pollack (or Lythe, to many Scots). You're probably right about the hits though - although I'll just get slagged off by all my UK viewers for spelling pollack wrong. Sometimes you can't win...🤣

I've been asked about my overnight mooring setup a few times and wrote up some notes on how I do it, which you can find at corkwing.co.uk/boat-fishing/setting-an-overnight-mooring/. I haven't done any YT videos specifically on mooring but my notes link to one video with more info and I think there are one or two others where I also show the technique. It works pretty well but I'd definitely recommend a bit of practice before relying on it overnight. All at your own risk of course, so only do something you're comfortable with!!

@@Corkwing-DougK that’s great thanks for the info, yea I’ve wanted to do an overnight camp for a while but have never really anchored before and I’m a bit nervous about it! Thanks.

No matter what you do, you'll be unzipping the tent door at 2 in the morning to check🙂 I really recommend practicing the technique in daylight (e.g. for a long lunch!) as it's far harder when you're cold and tired and darkness is falling. Cheers, Doug

@@Corkwing-DougK yea I plan to head out one day and do exactly that probably in a couple of locations too to see how it goes and get used to it👍 thanks again and maybe see you out on the water sometime.

A bit of sunshine has a magical impact on the west of Scotland🙂 Rarity value, I suppose🤣 (especially this year!)

Etive salinity is quite low compared to the open sea especially further up, with increased rain lately even more so. So there seems to be a resident population of brownies who pop up the streams to spawn. The low salinity is why the Etive mussel fishery closed although you still see Etive Mussels being punted in local restourants - which is BS as no mussels have been grown on Etive ropes for years now.

As said, Etive has low salinity in its surface waters so you get loads of confused brown trout in the margins - sometimes mixed in with equally confused mackerel, and with spurdog lurking in the depths. It's a strange place...🙂 Sometimes, especially in winter, salinity is so low you can drink from the loch directly.

I could make them not so gentle!🤣🤣 I much prefer my trips to be on the warm, calm and wimpish side, and they're much easier to video too🙂 However, there are quite a few tales sitting on the cutting room floor, where trips nosedived into a hard landing!

@@Corkwing-DougK I am sure there are Doug if my fishing moments are anything to go by! You set a wonderful tone and unlike so many CZcamsrs have not fallen into the trap of saying 'you guys'!! Tight lines 🎣

If you're camping well up the loch, north of Bonawe, then the tides aren't much of a problem, except at the Bonawe Narrows itself where the tiderun can be quite strong if you're in a kayak. You can find the tide times at easytide.admiralty.co.uk/?PortID=0371C (they are significantly different to those at Oban). From the shore, or using a kayak, then tides shouldn't cause any difficulty for camping - just drag any gear above the high water mark. If you're using a boat then you'll need to set a temporary mooring below low water, or else let the boat dry out as the water drops. If you are kayaking then wind is more of a problem than tide, as Etive can be quite blustery. For a kayak or SIB then launching at the very head of the loch is easiest and closest to decent camping spots, but the car park will often be full over the summer (and it's a long detour to find that out!). You can't launch a boat at the head of the loch so your only realistic option is to put in at Taynuilt, using the same place I did at Kelly's Pier. Pick decent weather and a small tidal range and you should be OK - just avoid getting anywhere near the Falls of Lora under Connel Bridge, as that is a dangerous stretch of water. Cheers, Doug

Hi Ash, I'm sure you recognise some of these places! With a little luck there's still enough summer left to get a trip out to some of the islands for an overnight camp. The Etive trout were going nuts, at least until the sun rose high in the sky. It was certainly good fun👍

Well, I released a beautifully coloured and large (for me🤣) brownie back into a very small loch right at the end of June - and realised that this was the first time I'd fished freshwater in 2024. I'm gradually getting back into it as I have more time, but I need to reacquire a load of skills I've forgotten since my teenage years. Etive's a bit of a playground in that respect, as you can try quite a mix of things on the one venue - and there's rarely anyone about to see you screw it up🤣

Not in this video, although I'm edging more in that direction. Most of my non-edible fishing (skate, rays, spurs, etc.) is barbless or crushed barbs and in most cases I've swapped out trebles for barbed singles on lures. The wee Mepps and Droppen blade spinners is really the only area where I'm still using trebles supplied with the lures, and I do want to figure out how swap these out for singles if I can, without losing too many more fish. Two trout in this video were badly hooked on the trebles (out of 30+ that came to the boat) but I'd rather be able to return them all safely if I choose. Cheers, Doug

@@Corkwing-DougK thanks for an honest answer. I'm in the process of going barbless / single hooks too. We'll lose a few more fish no doubt, but my thinking is if we're releasing fish anyway it doesn't really matter too much 👍

Thanks very much. I've actually been doing quite a bit more fishing this year but very little has made it's way to YT. Maybe I'll do a Xmas special with the highlights that didn't quite made a standalone video🙂

@@Corkwing-DougK Would love to meet up for a duet for my channel! Iv got a SIB which is handy, maybe one day eh!

Indeed! Etive especially is a favourite, and even the midges were reasonably well behaved on this trip🙂

My pleasure 😊 Summer's not over yet either, so time for a few more before the gales return!

​@@Corkwing-DougKI'm hoping for an Indian summer,long long one,back down mog end of august 😊

Yup, I definitely prefer the sheet of glass approach🙂 Sometimes it works against you, if you're drift fishing a sluggish tide as were at Dunbar a few weeks back, but too much wind is usually a much bigger problem than too little.

Thanks - Etive's not really a red hot venue for fishing these days, but it is brilliant for just chilling out with a tent and catching a few fish on the side. Stunning place which can be uncannily quiet on a calm day. Cheers, Doug

Glad you enjoyed it. Sometimes it really is that easy🤣 Lining up the nice calm conditions is the difficult part, especially this year!

Just watched your Cruden Bay video too - I started out on the Aberdeenshire coastline but it's not a place that features much on YT, at least for boat fishing. Nice to see it on a sunny day🤣

@@Corkwing-DougK Hopefully you'll get to see more as I pick up knowledge of the area from 'Skipper Gordon" 😉

Etive is a favourite of mine and great for combining camping with a bit of fishing. Just make sure to pick a decent spell of weather!

Thanks a lot - there should be another video soon, also with Etive in a starring role🙂

It's effectively a form of pulley rigged against an anchor dropped below the low water mark. I don't think a bungee arrangement would work well enough in a tidal environment although I've not tried it. I've been asked about my overnight mooring setup a few times and wrote up some notes on how I do it, which you can find at corkwing.co.uk/boat-fishing/setting-an-overnight-mooring/. I haven't done any YT videos specifically on mooring but my notes link to one video with more info and I think there are one or two others where I also show the technique. It works pretty well but I'd definitely recommend a bit of practice before relying on it overnight. All at your own risk of course, so only do something you're comfortable with!! Cheers, Doug

@@Corkwing-DougK thank you sir great work on the videos👍🏻

Early August last year. Good luck with the midges if you give it a go🤣

@@Corkwing-DougK cheers. Haha yeah they’re the trouble aren’t they!! Tight lines 🙋‍♂️

Hi Gordon - it took a chunk of mackerel fished on the bottom. I've only ever had three, so less than one per decade! All of them took bait (and all the others I've seen, perhaps another three in total). This is the only one I've seen come to fish bait, the rest taking mussel or lug. Cheers, Doug

Hi Tommy, One was a Penn Spinfisher VI 4500 Liveliner and the other a Penn Slammer 560 Liveliner. Both cope OK with the shallow water in Luce Bay although I think the 560 is better suited to the tope. If I was fishing deeper water such as the banks west of Burrow Head then I'd go for a multiplier in preference, although the 560 might just manage. The Liveliner versions of these reels are much better than a standard fixed spool for handling fish like tope that grab and run with the bait. Cheers, Doug

Same for me on the slip - but you can guarantee an eager audience when you least want one😀 We were over at Port William earlier this month but it was cold, windy and pretty hard going - campsite was almost completely empty. You're bound to do better over on "our" side😂😂

@@Corkwing-DougK I'm back over on the other side of Luce Bay at New England Bay this year. I've only been out once there and once from Port Logan. Weather has been shocking. I'll be back down as soon as the wind allows at least a few days out.