Nice one Kev, could not agree with you more...keeping it simple will result in more fish on the bank.
Things have become "complicated" these days, and I am sure many of the things sold to help anglers actually hinders them in the long run.
Same as "tactics. I saw a DVD the other week that showed an "expert" fishing a small stillwater where fish were clearly taking flies off the top. His parting comment was along the lines, "Well, it was a hard day today, with the fish not being in a taking mood". His method? The Bung with two blobs, cast into rising fish!
I think we can become blinded sometimes, into using methods because so and so in a magazine or on a DVD said it was a good method.
You also touched on water craft a little in that the fish spooked very easily as you approcahed the loch. I have found that quite a few trout anglers have no concept of watercraft, and stomp up to the waters edge and start thrashing the water to a foam
. I wonder if this is the reason quite a few trout anglers do not river fish, with the wild trout being less tolerant of this approach?
