Walter & Group........
I'm back. Started the day by taking Eric Cook (who just passed his MCCI exam at Lakeland, Fl.). Wind blowing hard (about 25 mph) out at the edge of the flat early in the morning...... straight onto his casting side, tide running at almost right angles to the wind. Bob Hansel in the stern, Eric on the bow of the skiff. A most difficult casting situation because any attempt to cast over the opposite shoulder would lead to danger of hitting Bob or me! Impossible to put his back to the wind and use either a Barnegat Bay cast or a Galway. Despite that, Eric caught a tarpon about 90 lb.s in wt.
He'd tried every casting trick in the book and more. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him solve the problem by flipping line low, behind him to the water and then making a roll cast loading it with a D-loop touching the water behind him for a sort of water haul. Then he made some secondary low rolls to get the line a bit farther out with the current which was athwartships. That is an example of thinking your way through an otherwise impossible casting situation. A TRUE MASTER !
Bob had hooked and fought one about 110 lbs (estimated), yesterday, when the Dacron backing was sawn apart as the poon ran beneath a weed patch way out to Kingdom Come on a blistering long run. (Reason for using Spectra backing). Blame goes to me for not changing that backing. As my kids say, "my bad".
Gordy
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From Jim Valle :
Gordy and Group,
I would like to know what the consensus is regarding
our instruction about wader safety.
What to if you fall in with
waders on…!
I heard something the other day about undoing the wader belt
after you are in… don’t think I agree with that…
From experience I have “taken the plunge” so to speak,
in salt with a wading belt and a wading jacket that overlapped the waders
and had tight cuffs … little hard to swim but actually stayed very dry… no water
in the waders….
Have seen pictures and video of basically laying back with
feet downstream paddle to shallow water and crawl out …
So what do we tell our students?
What should they do with that expensive rod and reel?
Look forward to some good advice…
Jim V
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Jim .... A timely topic. We had visited this in detail with these Group messages years ago. Best to review it again. It brings to mind these 10 questions (And one terror question for good measure ):-
1.) (Your question) You have just fallen in with full waders on. The water is deep and the river current swift. WHAT DO YOU DO ?
a. Do you use your rod in any way ? What do you do with it ?
b. What about your wader belt ?
c. Do you try to get the waders off so you can swim ?
2.) I'm thinking of two pieces of equipment which can help a great deal. Can you figure what they might be ?
3.) If you are wearing full boot waders (not, "stocking waders") will they sink and drown you ?
4.) You are crossing a fast moving river. Freestone bottom, a bit slippery. Water is high enough that you feel very uneasy. As you slowly work your way across, what position to you assume with respect to the current ?
a. Always face into the current and walk sideways.
b. Always face downstream.
c. Walk sideways to the current.
5.) There is one piece of equipment which can help a great deal in the scenario, above. What is it ?
6.) You didn't bring it. Now what do you do ?
7.) You went in and, fortunately, floated just a short distance downstream. You grabbed the brush hanging from a cut bank. There is enough water in your waders that you can't possibly pull yourself up onto the bank. Now, how do you get out ?
8.) Return to question # 4. This time, you have gone as far as you dare. You feel that with one more step in any direction, you'll go over into the river..... so you stand still to think. You're afraid to go all the way across. Now what do you do ?
9.) You are fishing a tidal estuary in Alaska. As you wade out, the bottom gets muddy. The river current is going out, but the tide is rising. You can see the salmon, but your cast won't reach them. What do you do ?
10.) While wading for bonefish on a flat with water up to your knees while wearing sneakers and shorts, you see two huge barracuda slowly swimming toward you. Your skiff is 200 feet away. What do you do ?
11.) How do you handle this, "bad dream" situation? You are wading in water up to your mid thigh. A 6 ft lemon shark is swimming right toward you. He's only 10' away and slowly coming right to you.
Gordy