John Lea

I wear a wide brimmed Tilley Outback year round. It is no hotter that a baseball cap and gives better shade. Pretty good in the rain and wind.

My hands are a bit arthritic so I started de-barbing flies to make it easier to release a trout. I was lucky and did the same to a large popper when I started fishing for bass. It made it a non event getting the popper out of my forearm after the wind and my poor casting embedded the popper to the shank. I pinch now but I sat down with a dremel and took the barbs off all of my lures and don't mind a bit. Likely I am a half bubble off plumb but I don't care if I catch (land) a bass or not. Strikes are the thing for me. If they get off on the trip to the boat it is OK.

I have trouble hanging on to a rod so I have taken to wrapping the handles with baseball bat wrap or tennis racquet wrap. It gives me a bit more to grip. It seems to work well but I have also added a short length of pipe insulation to the rod just in case I throw it.

I have an old Scadden that I just retired since there is a slow leak in one of the tubes and I don't have the energy to find/fix it. I put a trolling motor on the front since I found it uncomfortabe to have it behind me and only use the oars at launch and recovery. I also raised the seat but that was because I am a poor at casting with a fly rod. I don't know if the added height is actually needed with the casting rods I use now. I see fish but see more from a higher boat. Raising the seat makes it a pain to row though (knees) and I plan to put it back down if I resurrect the thing as a rowboat. I also put a fish finder on it but I did not change my approach of casting to the bank so it made no sense to deal with it. I toyed with adding a removeable keel to deal with the wind but found that by leaving the oars in the water it reduced the effects of the wind. Thinking back I should have done the keel since leaving them in the water means they actually change position and need to be repositionned but if I did not leave them in, I would spin like a top with the motor and wind. It has an anchor system but I never use it. Instead I use one of those orange plastic lip grippers on a cord to latch on to brush or rushes if I want to hold a position