Month: January 2010

Avoid back pain and damage from wearing waders

When wrote my post yesterday about my new hip pack which has replaced my fly-fishing vest to help keep back pain under control, I forgot to mention something else my bad back Doctor, (the back is bad, definitely not the Doctor), advised.

He recommends, and remember he is a nutter fisherman like us, that when you are walking to and from the river or or stream, or from pool to pool, or wading in less than waist deep water, unclip your wader straps, and roll the waders down to your wader belt.

He advises that this is especially important if you use neoprene chest waders as the weight can really exert some nasty force on you neck and back muscles and joints. Neoprene waders, wet from wading, even if you are not much more than thigh deep, hold a lot of water and get heavy, bad news for your back as that weight is pulling down on the wader’s straps when you leave the water.

But he also advises unhooking light chest-waders as well as most waders do restrict bending motion and it is this lack of full motion that leads to back pain.

Got to be worth a go – especially if you are a lot younger than this old fart, and before real damage is done.

Posted by Tony Bishop in fly fishing, fly fishing gear

5 More fishing quotes and sayings up now – January 25 2010

Numbers 916 –920 are ready for your perusal as usual.

My pick, and a bit controversial, certainly my comments about it may be…

“The reason that all other kinds of fishermen look up to the dry-fly purist is not that he catches more fish than they; on the contrary, it is because he catches fewer. His is the sport in its purist, most impractical, least material form.”
– William Humphrey

My comment:
What a load of utter rubbish – the only anglers who look up to dry-fly purists are other purists and dogmatists. Most aspects of human endeavour have collected their share of  dogma and cant. Trout fishing is one sport where a short-sighted, blinkered view of how things could and should be done is rife amongst a self appointed ‘elite’.

There are some in this sport of ours, thankfully only a very few, that consider it some kind of duty to mystify and ritualise trout fishing. Most of these seem to be in the purist dry-fly fishing fraternity. They try to imbue trout fishing with an almost religious mysticism, complete with rituals and conventions. These ‘purists’ attach themselves to one form of trout fishing and will brook no deviation from this ‘pure’ practice. Bah and humbug!

If you are new to fly fishing and come across a purist trying to convert you to the ‘one way’, run one way. Away!

Posted by Tony Bishop in fishing quotes

Five new fishing quotes and sayings – Jan 8, 2010

Five new fishing quotations and saying are up now.  Numbers 911 – 915. Enjoy.

My pick of the litter:

“Of course fly-fishing is not proof against craziness. In fact, spending what can easily become serious money and endless time to catch fish you mostly release would by most measures prove craziness.”
– James R Babb – River Music

Comment
You just have to believe that moving around for hours in cold water up to and over your testimonials is not a persuasive definition of sanity – Bish

Posted by Tony Bishop in fishing quotes

Do 10 foot light line-weight fly-rods make you a better angler?

As an ex-tackle-store owner I guess I got to handle and trial way more fly-fishing rods than most. That included all that was touted to be the latest and greatest. Fact was that handling so many rods lead to the perhaps jaded view that all new rods were merely slight advances on a rod building theme, and big advances in the persuasive power of the rod-makers advertising and marketing people.

Maybe this jaded outlook was the reason for the fact that the rod I used most was a 9′ Sage RPL+ 6 weight that I bought around 20 years ago.

So when I was offered a chance to trial a new 10 foot single-handed 6 weight rod, I accepted, but my marketing hype and BS detection systems were on high alert.

Here is what happened.

Posted by Tony Bishop in fly fishing, fly fishing gear