Meditations on Fishing...

I got a catalog from LL Bean this week with all their Fishing gear. I can't imagine what I bought from them that prompted them to send me this catalog. But I can always use more reading material in the loo, so I kept it around.

I had no appreciation for the gadgets that fishing requires. No idea how many varieties of hip waders there are. And they're expensive! $399 for the new Helix Wader. Though you can get the Breathable Emerger Waders for $99.

Next are your wading boots, specially designed to reduce the transfer of invasives by 80%. You can pick up a pair of those for $109.

And of course, all the other gadgets necessary for the fisherman, not just rods and reels (though there are pages of them, too). A hand-held GPS (handy for finding your car, says the blurb.) A headlamp (for fishing in the dark?). A little light / magnifier that you clip to your ball cap bill. A lighted ball cap or lighted reading glasses (actually, all three of those sound handy for many things, not just fishing...). Forceps. Never know when you're going to have to deliver a baby while you're fishing, I reckon...

A couple of types of stream thermometers. Might be handy for my afternoons in the pool... A Mosquito Annoyer to repel the pesky female ones that bite. Would that work on employees, I wonder?

But I did linger for a bit on the fishing vests. Eighteen gear specific pockets, including two front pockets with removable foam fly patches! The back pocket is designed to hold a hydration bladder. Something like that could be handy for bike riding! And the all-in-one altimeter, barometer, thermometer , clock and digital compass. Get your money's worth with that little doodad.

You can buy your own canoe at LLBean, $1,399 or $1,699 with the complete package that inlcudes oars and a motor. There's the Allagash Bug-Net Hat with a fine mesh netting that stores in a pocket in the crown. Now, where was THAT when we lived in Alice Springs?

I might end up buying some of these gadgets after all.