I spent the last couple of days, on the
river guiding group a corporate, for River Ridge Inn. As luck would have it,
the weather has taken a change, for the worse. As I watched the weather
channel, I noted that it was going to be pretty cold, on the days I was going,
to be guiding. The thought kept running through my mind, how am I going to stay
warm under these conditions. To complicate matters, one day I was to fish from
a boat on the White River and the next was to be spent wading on the Norfork.
Each situation calls for completely different clothing.
You would think that it would be colder wading, in a trout
stream, than fishing from a boat. That is not the case. I have found it to be
much colder, to fish from a boat. In a boat, there is no place, to hide, from
the wind and the wind chill is what gets you. Even if the wind is not blowing,
a long run up or down stream can be quite chilly at fifteen miles an hour.
When you see a boat making a long run on a cod day, the
clients are facing the back of the boat, with their hoods up to keep their face
warm and their hands are stuffed in their jacket pocket to keep them toasty.
The guide is facing forward with his non steering hand in his pocket hoping
that his face and tiller hand don’t freeze off, before the day is over.
On the other hand, when you are wading, you have to remember
that the water is a constant fifty five degrees and is probably at least twenty
degrees warmer than the air. There have been several occasions, in my twenty
plus years of guiding, where I waded deeper to get warmer. The fact that you
are moving around more helps to generate a bit more heat. If things get too
bad, you can get on the bank and start a fire. Of course, you could also do
that, if you were fishing from a boat.
On the first day, when fishing from the boat, I wore
polypropylene long under wear, a tightly woven wool sweater, a pair of light
fishing pants, a heavy pair of fleece lined pants, insulated boots, heavy
socks, fingerless gloves, an insulated cap with pull down ear flaps and a heavy
duty down jacket (a Patagonia no less). When we got there, the wind came up,
with a vengeance. My body core was getting cold. The wind was blowing right
through my jacket. I stopped and put my rain jacket on over the down jacket.
That did the trick and I was comfortable for the remainder of the day.
The next day I waded with my clients. It was a bit warmer but
still very windy. I wore the polypropylene long underwear, heavy wool socks,
pile pants; a pile lined fishing shirt, and a short pile jacket with a nylon
shell under my waders. I also had a pair of fingerless gloves and a baseball
cap. I was quite comfortable, when we were fishing below Norfork Dam.
Around ten
o’clock, we drove to the Ackerman access, to try our luck
there. As we got there, the sun came out and it was deliciously warm. I got so
carried away that I put on my polarized sun glasses and traded my baseball cap
for my straw cowboy hat. We walked far upstream into the Catch and Release
section. As soon as we got there, the sun disappeared behind the clouds and the
wind picked up. It blew my straw hat off my head and into the river. I
retrieved it and put it back on my head. The chill set a shiver down my spine
but it dried quickly in the wind and was soon comfortable again but was never
as warm as my baseball cap. I managed to finish the day.
It is getting cold out there. Don’t let the weather keep you
for fishing. Take care in choosing your clothing and enjoy a day on the water.
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