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Didn't think this through.....

D

Dan Whitelock

Senior Member
Ok then chaps and chappesses, need some advice here, I'll start with a brief background......

My usual fishing routine used to consist of leaving work on a Friday afternoon, heading down to the river, fishing until around 11pm then retiring to the campervan for a quick mouthful of food and some shut eye until starting again on the river at dawn. It was a wonderful routine that is now slightly hampered for the new season in that my campervan is no more and I get to the bank on my 125cc motorbike!

So in order to keep my happy routine going in the new season do I: invest in one of them brollys with sides to go in my quiver that I can kip under.... bearing in mind I'm a roving angler who sits out showers in my waterproofs, get a hammock and hang it up between some trees for some sleep - although lightweight and easy to carry in the panniers I'm leaving myself exposed to the elements, or get one of them little 1 man mountain tents I can pitch next to my bike in the car park? I know I could simply return home late Friday night and come back the next morning but I'm all for avoiding unnecessary journeys.

I'm edging towards the oval brolly (tfg one looks ok?) idea, though I'm not keen on the thought of carrying it between swims every hour through the day and there's the danger I could end up under it in a rain storm and getting too comfy......

Any ideas/suggestions/recommendations/sarcastic/amusing/abusing/humorous/thoughts are warmly welcome! Only a couple more months to go......
 
Course your still going to want an early morning cuppa and bacon sandwich so that means you have stove, kettle, frying pan, water, food etc to lug around all day as well :) but better than a bloody bedchair and bivvy that weighs a ton and for overnighters you can easily do without.
 
I'm afraid I'll be having to sacrifice my morning brew and sammich as there's no way I can carry it all on the bike..... I'm happy with a can of monster to get me up and going!
It's strange how little food I bother taking fishing nowadays, normally just a bottle of water or energy drink, maybe a couple of cans of coke and a pasty or two will last me for most trips.
 
Hahaha you make a fine point! I do miss my van already, all the creature comforts for my weekly trip made it such a nice little escape...... I sometimes used to pack up a little earlier and wander round to the fine curry establishment and enjoy the consumption of whilst watching a bit of telly on a Friday night.
This season coming though I'm going to be on a different bit of river: much more wild, rural and away from such luxuries!

In an ideal world I'll win a few grand and be able to afford another Transit - hell I'd even settle for a Connect! Not going to happen anytime soon though.
 
Quick anecdote related to the above. Years ago I used to take groups of adolescents on outdoor pursuits weeks and one night in June had a group in bivvy bags in the Lake District. One of the lads had obviously had a too many curries, to the point that he couldn't fit in the bivvy bag! We managed to squeeze him in but couldn't zip him up completely and at 0200hrs with two inches of SNOW having fallen, enough was enough and we retreated back to the Centre where we were staying. I got some stick from a colleague about our early return, but he soon shut up when he looked out of the window!
 
Dan, grab yourself an ex army poncho mate, these will keep you dry and shelter you fom wind and frost mate, when not used for this make a fairly comfy cushion when rolled up and also an unhooking mat when spread out, only around the £12 mark, other thing is you can buy ex services stove consisting of a small round or square tin that will burn with fire gel and or twigs and stuff, shove your packets of fire gel in the cooker when carrying it, it,ll all go into your coat pocket, also a useful thing is a square groundsheet, some of these roll up really small, with a few cheap tent pegsand some strong thin cord can make do as a wind break, rain shelter, or folded over the stretched out cord to form an open ended tent once you tie your cord to suitable trees ect, all of this lot will roll up into the poncho using little space or load;)
 
Great idea John, I just found some of the Dutch bivi bags but they're rather pricey...... 12 nuggets sounds a bit better! I'll do a bit of googling around this evening and see what's about.
I always used to take them hexy stoves to the festivals, they could do the job for fishing, especially in the winter! There's that great little surplus store in Bedford I can explore.
But now thinking about it I work on a US base..... I'll see what I our colonial cousins have to offer!
 
If you do go down the hammock route then rig a small tarp over the top to keep you dry like in this image.

Actually you could rig a pretty nifty tarp arrangement on the ground using a landing net handle as a single pole a bit like this image
 
Dan Whitelock said:
Ok then chaps and chappesses, need some advice here, I'll start with a brief background......

My usual fishing routine used to consist of leaving work on a Friday afternoon, heading down to the river, fishing until around 11pm then retiring to the campervan for a quick mouthful of food and some shut eye until starting again on the river at dawn. It was a wonderful routine that is now slightly hampered for the new season in that my campervan is no more and I get to the bank on my 125cc motorbike!

So in order to keep my happy routine going in the new season do I: invest in one of them brollys with sides to go in my quiver that I can kip under.... bearing in mind I'm a roving angler who sits out showers in my waterproofs, get a hammock and hang it up between some trees for some sleep - although lightweight and easy to carry in the panniers I'm leaving myself exposed to the elements, or get one of them little 1 man mountain tents I can pitch next to my bike in the car park? I know I could simply return home late Friday night and come back the next morning but I'm all for avoiding unnecessary journeys.

I'm edging towards the oval brolly (tfg one looks ok?) idea, though I'm not keen on the thought of carrying it between swims every hour through the day and there's the danger I could end up under it in a rain storm and getting too comfy......

Any ideas/suggestions/recommendations/sarcastic/amusing/abusing/humorous/thoughts are warmly welcome! Only a couple more months to go......
Click to expand...

Dan , just do what me and my mates did when we went night fishing as youngsters : bike torch , extra pair of socks , school gaberdine,wooly balaclava , bottle of ribena and cheese and marmite sandwiches we just sat it out on our wicker baskets . Never did us any harm , and minimal extra weight ,All transported on push bikes . Sorted :D
 
I don't know where you got those images from Ian, but that second image, the one with the single pole, would be your worst nightmare if it rained. Not only would the rain hack in through the open front, but the groundsheet is larger than the tent. That would mean that the water running down the makeshift tent would pool onto the groundsheet, so in ten minutes flat you would be sleeping in a pond :rolleyes:

And you thought YOU hadn't 'thought it through' Dan :D

Cheers, Dave.
 
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