Hey, Bachelor! Get some wading belts on those women

Babbs in the Woods

Note to Bachelor Ben Flajnik. If you’re going to take a bunch of novice fly fishers out to Park City, Utah, to fish on a group date, make sure you get them the proper fishing attire. Including wading belts.

I don’t get cable TV. I decided that was one thing we could live without a year ago and frankly, that decision freed me to read more books and uh, to set up Timeline on my Facebook page. But, occasionally, something from modern culture and TV news floats across my view in Google Alerts and this one piqued my interest. I checked out the fly-fishing date that the current Bachelor took with the women he’s courting in the popular reality TV show on ABC.

What jumped out at me, like a mad brown who missed another midge hatch, was the lack of wading belts on any of the cast in the river. At least in the photograph I saw online they weren’t wearing belts. Now, granted … they were standing in ankle-deep water and it looks like they’re holding adult beverages in the stream. So, strike two. I watched a snippet or two of the show online and saw no belts anywhere.

It’s like this in the gun world. If you’re going to photograph shooters, make sure they’re wearing eyes and ears. If you’re photographing fly-fishers, for goodness sake, make sure they’re wearing wading belts.

Why? Let’s let Orvis give us the run-down on why we should never enter a stream in waders without our belts on … and guess what? It’s not because the belt keeps the water inside your waders from dragging you down. According to Dan Gracia, over at Orvis:

The water inside your fishing waders weighs no more than the water outside your waders and does not affect your buoyancy while in the water. The danger comes from the fishing waders ballooning out when they fill with water, and all waders will balloon out (including neoprene waders, though less so than other types). The ballooned-out waders act like a sail in the currents, which immediately steals all control from you and tends to bounce you off of rocks – not healthy. Hard to swim when you’ve been knocked unconscious, easy to drown. A wader belt prevents the problem.

 

Also, I checked the show online, and gasp, there they were … paddling a canoe. With no PFDs on their bodies. Add this to the list. Hey, ABC, call me. I am available for consult, and I’m a mom of four kids that I took to the river — safely.

 

• 

  About Barbara Baird

  Publisher/Editor Barbara Baird is a freelance writer in hunting, shooting and outdoor markets. Her bylines are found at several top hunting and shooting publications. She also is a travel writer, and you can follow her at https://www.ozarkian.com. View all posts by Barbara Baird →

   

The Conversation

One Comment

• 

  Gretchen Steele says: January 26, 2012 at 8:32 am

  AMEN AMEN AMEN!!!!! Great post Babbs! And just to throw in my two cents.. the same rule applies to waterfowl waders!