So, i felt inspired to go to Loch Park yesterday as it had been a few years. Turns out I should have stayed in bed....
Its a lovely loch with lovely trout so worth the > 1 hr drive for me.
I arrived at the loch where the boats are and there was literally nowhere to fish due to the weed. I spoke to James who sorts out the permits who said not to worry - there was plenty of space up the far end and I could walk there. As i had the float tube and there was a rough road i said " can i drive up ? " Initially he said no, then said " you probably can if you have a 4x4.."
The first few hundred meters were fine, but then the road narrowed - so i had to reverse back with no harm done.
After a walk with my tube in the heat I was in the water, which was lovely.
I quickly missed a couple of takes then I got a tangle. So I went to cut off my old leader using the scissors on my small leatherman tool. As im getting older i had to put glasses on to see what i am doing but this seemed to impair my sense of perspective. I'm thinking 'this leader material is tougher than i thought....."
That's because not only am I cutting the leader, but at the same time I'm trying to cut through my fly line.....
Luckily i caught myself having only done limited damage and after a quick strength test it was still fishable....I was raging with myself as that would have been day over.
I then tie my flies on having put the leatherman in my side pouch of the tube. I go to retrieve it to cut off the 'tags' and hear a hissing noise.....
Must be the valve come loose thinks me ....no - i had punctured my tube by not folding my leatherman up properly due to being in a bad mood due to trying to destroy my #4 small stream !
Honest to......
So in the middle of the loch having holed my tube !!!! I think " great, that's me going for a swim then........."
Luckily the Vision Drifter has a tube inside a tube and i had only gotten the outside one. So, even when it deflated the left side was OK ( as its a separate tube inside a tube ) while only the outside bladder on the RHS went down - and i was still afloat perfectly well !
So, a few lessons:
- don't get in a rage as you just do more stupid things
- don't carry pointy scissors in a float tube
- when you buy a tube make sure they have a 'bladder inside a bladder' as it will save you a soaking !
Oh, and amongst the chaos i caught about 6 fish, nothing big but really great casting and catching rising fish ! ( despite my best efforts to ruin the day !)
