Before every day out, I methodically check my gear the night before, and recheck it about 10 times before I go to bed
Waders...check. Rods...check. Gearbag...check. So on and so forth
So when I opened up the back of OMR's truck and as we sorted out the equipment to fish the first run of the day, my jaw hit the ground.
No boots, no gear bag.
Oh shit. oh sheeeeeeeet.
The F bombs rattled off the canyon walls as i moved into triage mode to find out if I was going to be able to fish or relegated to the shore to drink beer and take pictures.
Nobody had another reel with a skagit head to fit my Thomas and Thomas 1307, but one item would save the day.
The night before, I told my dad to throw in his old neoprene waders because my breathables were leaking. How prophetic that I then got to experience the joy of feeling like a stuffed burrito
My god how awkward are those things are. I'm thankful that wader technology has advanced but on this day, I would have worn anything that let me fish....and that they did
Second stop on the triage tour was assembling a line combination on a spare reel that would work enough to get the line in the water.
You know how they say that scandi heads aren't fun to cast with sink tips? Well, that is very true. 10ft of T-14 on the head wasn't fun. Truly it was a miracle that we had a spare head at all so I could fish.
Beyond being stuffed into a burrito sack and fishing the wrong gear.....
It was a hell of a day and somewhere, some deity took pity on me and gave me a gift
Moral of the story? You're going to forget key items of gear. It will happen.
But find a way to just keep fishing and good things will happen.
