How is the water?

Joni · Jan 31, 2009

Tried this on another forum and I am loving the visuals/stories.

Did you ever take a spill or miss calculate how deep a pool is. Anyway, I mean :check your waders for leaks from the inside LOL.
Tell me about it and did it scare the crap out of you? Did you feel like an idiot/clutts, etc.

Did that belt work?

Shane Stroud · Jan 31, 2009

Back in late November I tripped over a submerged log and went for a swim in my waders. They filled up surprisingly fast. I don't think I've ever been that cold in my life.

I felt pretty stupid, and my wonderful wife hasn't stopped pointing it out since. When I left for the river today, she told me not to go swimming this time. That's a supportive woman there.

arfishinbear · Jan 31, 2009

OK as you know I am going in for knee surgery the 17th fo Feb, now, anyway my doc dosent want me wadeing in teh river untill my knees are fixed, my wife realy wanted to go fishing one day last week, so we grabed the ultra-lites and mepps and went to the river. I was wearing just a pair of jeans and tennis shoes. I steped on a big flat rock to make a cast and being the rock was wet, I slipped, fell on my a&& and went knee deep in 50 deg water, it was 44 and cloudy out. She was worried I would want to go home, but we stayed about an hour and fished. Right before left I wanted to make a cast into a chute that I couldnt reach, so being wet allready and a true fisherman I waded knee deep and fished the run lol
A car from TX drove up to a parking area right abouve where we was fishing and you should have seen the looks on their faces, they didnt know if the just seen one of the toughest outdoorsmen they had seen or the slowest LOL
I DID catch a fish out of that chute a nice 2lb bow.
Bear :fishing:

MTskibum · Jan 31, 2009

I was fishing the upper gallatin, above big sky, not too far from Yellowstone national park in febuary in a blizzard with a buddy. Within 10 minutes of fishing i slipped and filled my waders up. I ended the fishing trip there. It was 2 and a half hours in a car for around 10 minutes of fishing, terrible experience.

FrankB2 · Jan 31, 2009

I was wearing about 20 pounds of rubber chest wader 30 years ago, and
took a spill at the base of a 10' tall waterfall. It was terrible, and there were
lots of people there to witness my struggle walking to the bank:icon_redf

!

Fast forward to this past summer, and my wife and I were fishing from our
canoe, wearing hippers. I stepped out of the canoe late in the afternoon, and
slipped on a small stone in about 10" of water. It's amazing how fast 10" of water can fill hip boots, and leave the rest of my clothes thoroughly soaked:icon_eek:.

After the spill at the falls, I've been ultra careful, but still perform the occassional jig that keeps me upright after stepping the wrong way. After
wading WAY too deep a few years ago, I limit myself to waist deep water.
For me that means 3 feet deep. If my wife follows, she's up way past her
waist. I bought her a Folstaff last week

.

No real exciting stories on my end......thankfully!

axle27 · Jan 31, 2009

Until recently, I only had hip waders (first mistake, I know). I was walking just above a large riffle and stepped carefully between two rocks. I THOUGHT I had good footing. Evidently, the higher powers did not think so. On the next step, I ended up on my knees in 2 ft of water with my waders rapidly becoming weights.

DAMN that water was cold. I shiver thinking about it....

Rip Tide · Jan 31, 2009

There's an old adage that states...

Hip boots are a good way to measure just how deep the water was when you first got wet

Rip Tide · Jan 31, 2009

I've been for a 'swim' more times than I care to remember.
When I was younger, I counted on going in on Opening Day every year

The last time was in a tidal flow on Cape Cod....Nauset Inlet.
This breachway is about 50 yards wide and drains an estuary of about 5 square miles.... all in 6 hours. During peak flow that water is roaring.
Because the current was so fast, I wasn't getting a good drift, so I waded out onto a high spot in the flow.
Well, it wasn't even seconds until all the sand beneath my feet washed away and I was on a fast track toward France :icon_wink
Fortunately I was using a solid type stripping basket and was able to use as a float and kick my way to terra firma.

There's a lot of discussion on boards like this on why stripping baskets should always have drainage holes.....They'll never convince me :faint:

Joni · Jan 31, 2009

axle27 said:
Until recently, I only had hip waders (first mistake, I know). I was walking just above a large riffle and stepped carefully between two rocks. I THOUGHT I had good footing. Evidently, the higher powers did not think so. On the next step, I ended up on my knees in 2 ft of water with my waders rapidly becoming weights.

DAMN that water was cold. I shiver thinking about it....

I still on occasion, wear my boot foot hippers on the rivers. Heck, they are easy, just slide on and go.

But then...One year at Island Park BAND CAMP (just kidding) I was fishing the river. Now the river was flowing but no real force coming from it and the water was close to the top of my hippers. My problem was, I was side stepping across the river fishing as I went, but I guess I took to big of a step and just a little water went up over the top. Not going to say what my first thought was as I slowly felt water go down my leg LOL.

IT TAKES FOREVER to dry boot foot hippers out!

fyshstykr · Feb 1, 2009

Yes I have, and more times than I care to admit. I can only say that most of them were when I was much younger and not as respectful of the water as I should have been.

Times that come to mind are trying to tip-toe through that last 15' of water on the other side of the river without water coming over the top of the waders. I didn't make it and that water was certainly cold. It still takes my breath away thinking about that.

Another time, well I would rather not let the story out, so let's just say that I made the local paper in Island Park, Idaho and became a charter member of the Henry's Fork diving club. Thanks for that Brad Smith. lol

arfishinbear · Feb 1, 2009

Here is one for ya, scared the hell out of me. We use to have a duck club, and in the club were a couple of older guys, on the lease we had there was an old sunkin goose pit that no knew about, one of the older guys steped off into it with chest waders on, went in over his head, the only other person there was the other older man, now I am not picking on older folks, but I know that by the time your pushing 65 most folks aint as strong as they use to be, hell I am pushing 40 and not as strong as I was when I was 18, anyway, they played hell getting him out of the goose pit, they said back at the lodge that they both about drowned. What scared me about it, it was like 2 foot from the path that I walked mnay times woth no one else around.
I thought if I had steped off in it by my self and neopren chest waders on, teh big hunting kind, a shoulder bag with 50 lbs of shells and other crap that gear junkies JUST have to have, and everything else I use to pack, I would have been toast with out someone there to help me, maybe.

Jimmie · Feb 1, 2009

Did the one legged tip toe bounce many times in the past. Never any more than a little water over the top. The old rubber wadders back then already had you wet anyway. It sure was easy to get behind the power curve with the depth and current. Don't know what I'll do now. I guess fight the temptation to get "just over there".

Greenwood · Feb 1, 2009

Funny you should ask! .....This past October I was fishing the Little J, in central Pa, with a friend. It was a section I had never fished before. He headed upstream and I down. After about two hours, I headed up towards him. I was walking the edge but came to an inlet that was about 30 feet across. It had a gradual slope that looked like it might go 3 feet deep in the center; the bottom was full of dead leaves.

Well, about the time I stepped into those leaves I suddenly realized this was about a 10 or 15 foot hole filled with leaves...but I realized way too late. As I began to sink, I thought "Oh ----; hopefully they'll find my hat floating here!" I sank completely under, never touching bottom, while my hat floated somewhere, up there, on the surface. The best I could do in chestwaders and wading boots with a flyrod in hand, was an anemic breast stroke under water. About 5 strokes brought me to a point where I could regain my footing, and wade the rest of the way out. I collected my hat and stayed on dry ground the rest of the way; briars and banks be damned.

Thankfully, my waist belt kept my waders from filling up with water. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't have completed my previous fly swap obligation!

I finally reached my friend; he took one look at me and said, "What the hell happened to you"! I told him, "Well, I'm still alive so let's just go home!" And we did, and yes the fishing was pretty good.

At least I can laugh about it now! But whew! Chalk up another, near fatal, learning experience!

FlyDog · Feb 1, 2009

If I wasn't so computer challenged I post up a pic my wife took last Thanksgiving weekend of me peeling off clothes at the car after over topping my hippers up to my man boobs.
I was on the N. Fork Yuba in N. Ca.. Got to the other side no problem but when returning I started back across a bit further upstream at a point that was closer to the run out on a riffle I was working. I soon realized that even though the water was Gin clear and bottom appeared to be an even depth, it was about a foot deeper and in about a step and a half I went from Oh Oh to Oh S###.

Glad I only had a short walk back to the car. Made my wife's day once she realized what I'd done.

pdq 5oh · Feb 1, 2009

A long, long time ago I was checking traps on a big, deep lake. Our sets were in a shallow inlet on the far side. We decided to walk across on the ice as this saved 30-40 min of walking. Everything went fine on the way in. On the way out we both fell through the ice. Luckily I caught myself on the edges of the hole. The ice kept breaking, and I was in for about........ever. We emptied our hip boots and started the long walk............around the edge to the car. The goose down coat I had on soaked up quite a bit of water, too. I thought I'd never get warm again.
So far I haven't fallen in while wading but................

How is the water?

Joni

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Shane Stroud

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arfishinbear

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MTskibum

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FrankB2

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axle27

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Rip Tide

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Rip Tide

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Joni

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fyshstykr

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arfishinbear

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Jimmie

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Greenwood

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FlyDog

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pdq 5oh

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