Sunart Spurdog | Wild camp | Hot Tent

It's been quite a while since I last fished Loch Sunart, so Trev and I headed over for a couple of days fishing and camping at the end of October. We launched at Salen and fished for a few hours in Laga Bay, catching plenty of spurdog but nothing of great size. As the short daylight hours faded we headed round into Loch na Droma Buidhe to get the tent set up before darkness fell. We were armed with my big Robens tent, a tent stove and plenty of wood to keep it fired up during the evening, so had a pretty decent night!
Next morning we fired up the wood burner again for coffee, bacon rolls and just to ease the morning chill. Before we packed everything away, I sent the drone up to capture a few shots of the spectacular autumn colours and a flat calm sea. Back round in Laga Bay we tried a couple of different marks but with much the same result - lots of smallish spurdogs and a couple of sniffs from a skate.
We launched and recovered at Salen Jetty, which is an easy launch from hard packed stone and gravel. You can also moor your boat on the pontoons overnight if you need to. Parking can be limited so best to contact Mark or Jan beforehand - www.salenjetty...
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.... 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!!
Music:
'Growing Up' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au

[@richyiotp1]

Good stuff again doug always a good watch

[@Corkwing-DougK]

Glad you enjoyed it - we'd a few good laughs on this trip, mainly at my expense🙂 Cheers, Doug

[@Lavraki]

The Sunart spurries certainly kept you busy on this trip Doug. Peppered Mackie eh? We might need a workshop video on that🤔 Yet another splendidly presented video of our beautiful country for us to enjoy even without any coverage of your dook in the burn🤭 Many thanks for making the effort to shoot, edit and post your trip and best wishes for Christmas and tight lines for 2025.

[@Corkwing-DougK]

Hi Charlie, I got off lightly with my wild swimming - normally I'd have a camera recording us struggling to put up the big tent, and would feel obliged to broadcast my humiliation. This time we were in a hurry 'cos the rain came on quite hard and everything was getting soaked, so I didn't have time to sort out a tripod. Mind you, if I'd been Trev I'd have whipped out my phone and started recording asap 🤣🤣 Have a good Christmas yourself and maybe we'll bump into you down in Galloway sometime nearer the summer solstice! Cheers, Doug

[@Lavraki]

@@Corkwing-DougK Thanks Doug. I've always hoped to bump into you again but I think I only managed three brief stays down SW this year due to the poor weather. Let's hope 2025 is a lot calmer....

[@Corkwing-DougK]

Same here - I think we managed a 3 day trip in early June, but even then the weather was only good on one day. Horrible NW winds for weeks on end! Fingers crossed for 2025!

[@tamlyon4435]

Brilliant vid Doug 👍 though too manu druggies 😁

[@anotherangleUK]

Nice video, plenty of Spurs on that trip. Thanks for sharing. Phil

[@Corkwing-DougK]

No shortage of numbers, although a few larger ones would be a bonus! Although, given that Sunart can be terribly dour at times, I really shouldn't complain🙂 Cheers, Doug

[@Johnpir8978]

Another fine video Doug plenty fish and flat seas what more could you ask for

[@Corkwing-DougK]

Definitely a fine couple of days - and with some great autumn colours chucked in for free👍 Cheers, Doug

[@williamconnor7249]

excellent mate , sunnart has produced some nice fish oer the years

[@Corkwing-DougK]

I used to fish Sunart for a few days over the winter most years but kind of fell out the habit around covid time. You're right - it holds some very nice skate, spurs and conger, but it can also be a very hard place to track 'em down. It's a beautiful place to try though🙂 Cheers, Doug

[@williamconnor7249]

@Corkwing-DougK 👊 have a great xmas dougie 😎

[@mboutdoors_uk]

Ahhhhhh lovely stuff Doug! What a place to live, absolutely beautiful ❤❤

[@Corkwing-DougK]

Some pretty amazing properties along the shoreline too. Quite a contrast to the remnants of the old townships that are scattered along the coast! Cheers, Doug

[@Carrera-gp9od]

I remember driving up the side of Sunart a few years ago , I couldn’t find anywhere to fish from the shore , I ended up away out at the lighthouse at Ardnamurchan !

[@Corkwing-DougK]

There are a few places you can access the shore from the road but it's years since I last tried and I've nearly always fished from a boat. Some decent spurdog do get caught from the shore though. Cheers, Doug

[@tattoedmat]

Agreed I've done the same looking for deep water in close

[@ashleyhoward8926]

Well done on catching so many fish both of you, it must have been the special bait that did the trick. Try & get the acrobatics on camera next time though. Thanks for posting.

[@Corkwing-DougK]

🙂Just remember, next time it might be you doing the acrobatics...The cameras will definitely be rolling in that case! Cheers, Doug

[@davymaclean8481]

Do you ever burn coal on your tent stove? Wonder if you got a bag of brickets from a shop and smashed them down a bit it would g8ve you heat for longer? I've been picking up bits of washed up coal on a local beach that still burns and saving it for a camp fire, also got a couple of coleman/Tilley lamps for the same thing and planning to see if will keep the midges away. Bit theÿ would be good for a source of warmth in the winter as well plus I've just got an adaptor to turn the coleman stove into a heater so hopefully that works well. Anyway looks like your getting more success than me with fishing!

[@Corkwing-DougK]

Hi Davy, I've never tried coal on the stove although we did plonk some peat on earlier this year. It did keep going for several hours but didn't give off much heat. I can also vaguely remember someone else wrote about coal and finding that it could work but you needed a grate inside the stove in order to get better airflow under the fuel. The only thing to watch with sea coal is that it can be a bit sparky, so I'd be wary using it near a tent. I used to have a Chinese knock-off of a Tilley lamp and it was both bright and warm, but also pretty temperamental - not sure it would do much for midges though, as I think it's the wood smoke they dislike. Good fun experimenting though! Cheers, Doug

[@davymaclean8481]

@@Corkwing-DougK some of the wick based lanterns can burn citronella so going to try that as well I think, was hoping that the flame from the lanterns would attract the critters and burn them when they got too close