I tipped.

[Swamp Girl]

@PhishLI, I stopped wearing the wetsuit a couple weeks ago, but I was wearing a fast-dying shirt. I wasn't cold and was happy to get back to casting. 

 

Thanks, Murph!

 

@T-Billy, you're so funny! You're also in the canoe whenever I'm casting. I'll look at a snarl of zombie weeds, emerging weeds, and wood that's more solid than liquid and think, "Even there, Tim, even there?" And then I hear your voice: "Cast away, lassie, cast away!"

 

I'm super-excited about tomorrow morning. It will be unseasonably hot through the night and into mid-day. Then the wind turns, the temp drops, and rain comes, but my experience with smallmouth is that they can feel the pressure growing and feed big time before the high pressure clamps their mouths. I'm hoping the largemouth do the same. I just rigged some paddletails and I'm going to go from emerging weeds to emerging weeds, reeling slowly.

 

 

[T-Billy]

4 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

 

@T-Billy, you're so funny! You're also in the canoe whenever I'm casting. I'll look at a snarl of zombie weeds, emerging weeds, and wood that's more solid than liquid and think, "Even there, Tim, even there?" And then I hear your voice: "Cast away, lassie, cast away!"

Lol. Yep, ESPECIALLY in there Lassie!!! It took me time to gain confidence pitching into the stuff I regularly fish now. Experimentation too, in order to find the right rig. Once I wised up and gave the snelled flippin hook a try there was no looking back. 

11 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

. I just rigged some paddletails and I'm going to go from emerging weeds to emerging weeds, reeling slowly.

That slow seductive wag gets 'em. Good luck tomorrow. Keep yer britches dry. 

[Darth-Baiter]

@ol'crickety great storytelling!!

 

and quite the adventure.  that happened to me once, very similar.  i pulled the chute on one rod and immediate clipped the line at the reel.  

[Darth-Baiter]

I don’t think you do much as tipped.  Just garden variety “fell out”.

[Alex from GA]

I used to say to my wife, when I got back from trail riding, well I cheated death again.  You salvaged the day very well, congratulations.  I've been upside down in my kayak several times and sometimes it's a struggle to get everything gathered up, empty the water and get back to fishing.

[BrianMDTX]

@ol'crickety I’m glad you had a great day fishing. But I’m real glad that you are safe. No matter what, that was probably a scary experience. 
 

And I’ve snagged a few rods trying to extricate a few rods meself! ?

[padlin]

I’ve wondered about falling out into heavy weeds, can you swim in them, how about trudging thru muck bottoms? The stuff you think about as you get older.

 

Glad your okay and ended up having a great day.

[gim]

1 hour ago, padlin said:

I’ve wondered about falling out into heavy weeds, can you swim in them, how about trudging thru muck bottoms? The stuff you think about as you get older.

You can get through thick weeds.  Well, at least I can.  Mucky bottom is a different story.  If your legs get sucked in too far, you aint getting out.  Like wearing chest waders and having them fill with water.  You better get out quickly otherwise its just going to get worse and you are finished.  A PFD, as usual, is a life saver in these situations and will at least keep your head above water.

[Swamp Girl]

3 hours ago, padlin said:

I’ve wondered about falling out into heavy weeds, can you swim in them, how about trudging thru muck bottoms? The stuff you think about as you get older.

 

Glad your okay and ended up having a great day.

 

I think about these things too. In the last two years, I've become very aware of strength lost to aging. Once upon a time, I could power through so many situations. Not anymore. I agree with @gimruis that muck could be a death sentence. 

[Fishlegs]

22 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

 

 

 

Glad you're OK, and impressed that you had the fortitude to stick with it. I feel like most people would've given up, but you didn't. These pictures are just...wow. Beautiful spot. 49 fish...wow again.

[Fishingmickey]

2 hours ago, gimruis said:

      Like wearing chest waders and having them fill with water.  You better get out quickly otherwise its just going to get worse and you are finished. 

The above statement about the chest waders just isn't true.  I feel pretty strongly about this.  I speak from personal experience. I've flipped and filled mine up. Once they filled with water it was just pretty much swimming with your clothes on. They didn't drag me down like chained cinder blocks or cement overshoes.  Panic is what kills.

     Now, the hard part was once I got to shore was getting out. I had to roll myself out of the water and lay down on the bank and raise my feet up to drain the chest waders.  It would have made the best of fails video for you tube. 

FM 

[Kirtley Howe]

3 hours ago, gimruis said:

You can get through thick weeds.  Well, at least I can.  Mucky bottom is a different story.  If your legs get sucked in too far, you aint getting out.  Like wearing chest waders and having them fill with water.  You better get out quickly otherwise its just going to get worse and you are finished.  A PFD, as usual, is a life saver in these situations and will at least keep your head above water.

I am confused by part of this. Chest waders when full of water are neutrally buoyant while you are in the water, so in most cases they do not make it harder to move. The problem comes when you try to get OUT of the water, as then the weight of the water becomes evident. But as long as you are in the water, chest waders full of water are not much of a problem unless you are in cold water (which is a problem with or without waders), or heavy current. In heavy current the BULK---rather than the weight---- of waders full of water can make things difficult indeed.

[gim]

1 hour ago, Kirtley Howe said:

chest waders full of water are not much of a problem unless you are in cold water

I wasn't specific enough with my previous post.  That's exactly what occurred.  Duck hunting here in late October.  I would never be wearing neoprene chest waders in July when the water is 80 degrees.  A swimsuit would be much more practical.

[king fisher]

2 hours ago, Fishingmickey said:

The above statement about the chest waders just isn't true.  I feel pretty strongly about this.  I speak from personal experience. I've flipped and filled mine up. Once they filled with water it was just pretty much swimming with your clothes on. They didn't drag me down like chained cinder blocks or cement overshoes.  Panic is what kills.

     Now, the hard part was once I got to shore was getting out. I had to roll myself out of the water and lay down on the bank and raise my feet up to drain the chest waders.  It would have made the best of fails video for you tube. 

FM 

 I agree.  The water inside the waders is not any heavier than the water outside the waders.  You will not sink when you waders fill with water.  Pulling yourself back in a boat can be difficult with waders full of water, but floating down the river they do not pull you down.

      I have filled my waders dozens of times while wading rivers, in both cold and semi warm water.  The only time I almost drown, was the time I was duck hunting, and put a tight belt around my waste in order to keep water out if I fell in.  After all that is what everyone recommends.  I slipped on a rock in an Alberta river with ice all the way across the river below the riffle I had my decoys in.  Air got trapped in the lower part of my waders causing my feet to float, making it impossible for me to get my feet back under me.  The water was only a couple feet deep, but no matter how hard I tried, I could not stand up.  I was able to dog paddle, and pull myself to shore before drifting into the frozen over deep pool below me.  That was the last time I put a belt around my waste wearing waders.  

[ScottW]

Congrats on a great day Katie! Glad you recovered from the spill ok too!

[Blue Raider Bob]

On 6/1/2023 at 3:02 PM, ol'crickety said:

 

Okay, Bob, ^this^ made me laugh and put a lingering smile on my face too. 

Katie, I can just see you with me way,way back in the day, waist deep in a Cypress Swamp, roll casting a short flyrod with a popping bug under the Cypress limbs for big Bull river bream, when someone says, "Hey! You oughtanot be out there in the swamp!". And you look them in the eye and say "We ain't skeered!"

[Swamp Girl]

@Blue Raider Bob, there is one thing that should scare all of us, which is being shrunken and weakened by time and saying, "If only I had...." We all have to get out there to our places of joy, for as long as we can.