Over the summer I discovered a few equipment items that might be handy to help with your fishing travels.
Wading Staff
First off I strongly recommend using a wading staff. Mine has saved me more than once. The problem with wading staff cases is there is no way to attach them to your wading belt. Most new belt packs do not have D rings to attach the staff to either.
Wading Staff Clip Adapter
I discovered many of the belt packs do have MOLLE Straps. There are D ring adapters available on eBay, Amazon, and military surplus stores that fit the MOLLE straps on the belt. This provides a D ring to attach your wading staff to. I have also used these on my Orvis sling pack to attach items that I don’t want to search for such as floatant or tippet material. Here is an example found on Amazon.
Cell Phone Wading Staff Adapter
Next I discovered an adapter to use on a monopod or wading staff with a removable top. The adapter screws onto the staff so you can put your camera into the holder to avoid shaky scenery pictures. This is what I bought. There is a plastic version; I selected the metal version.
Binoculars Wading Staff Adapter
After finding the phone adapter, I did some further searching. I found an item that takes the phone holder to a whole new level — an adapter that screws onto my wading staff to hold a pair of binoculars. This device works conjunction with the phone adapter so your binoculars can be used as a telephoto lens to catch those distant shots. Here is the adapter I bought on Amazon to connect my phone and binoculars.
Wading Staff with Camera Screw
The original Fishpond wading staff had the camera screw on it. There are two less expensive staffs with this bolt on the top. One is from Adventik – model T7075. The other is The Creative Angler staff available on Amazon. Mountain Smith makes a nice trekking staff that can be used with the aforementioned devices as well.
If you have an iPhone, Apple offers some photography classes that cover how to use the different filters and shutter speeds. The shutter speed is what gives you the ability to get the foamy moving water affect. I admit I am not the person to ask about these settings. So far I have been only been able to successfully find them by mistake.
Silicone Cloth
Another problem solver I found is wiping down the reel seat on my fly rods, as well as the reel foot, with a Hoppes silicone cloth marketed to wipe down your gun when hunting. I have suffered the frustration of getting my reels stuck on a couple of fly rods – I was afraid I was going break the rod removing it. Putting the piece of the rod with the reel into ice to cause the seat to shrink so that it would slide off. I have also sprayed a little WD-40 into the bind to help the band slide. ( Do not spray the cork, only the seat.) Trust me, it is much easier to use a silicone cloth.
The cloth is also good for wiping down the rod and ferrules as well. It reduces the ferrules sticking when separating the rod.
