How to Lose a Walking Stick.

[John Gillio]

For a. fellow who still has a ruler that he used in 5th grade,  over the past 4 yrs I have become an expert at loosing walking sticks. I've gone through about one per yr starting with the nice piece of ash that I carried around with me for about 20 yrs. About 4 yrs back it started a fishing trip with me, but wasn't  with me when I got back to the car. Lord knows where it went. At that point I decided to buy a hooked cane made of a sturdy piece of oak. The hooked end was often used to help pull me up a river bank by hooking a tree root or branch and pulling myself up the slope. It was left on a midstream rock I was fishing from. The water was low and because it wasn't needed to get back to shore, I forgot it there. Irealized it was missing when I got home. No problem, I was to fish the same area in the morning so I figured I would grab it then. Unexpected rains that evening raised the river over the rock and floated my cane away. I liked that cane enough to buy another. I was fishing from the same rock about a yr later. The low water situation was about the same. I decided to stand the cane up against the back of the rock so I would notice it when I was ready to go. I jammed it snuggly between the big rock and some smaller ones there and when I turned to leave, it was gone. ???. Being I liked that hook so much I bought another hooked cane. This was a cheap lightweight model. I doctored it up with straps so I could keep it on my body . I figured it would be hard to loose it if it were stuck to me. WRONG. Yesterday on my 1st wade of the year, it happened again. Almost back to the car I hooked a respectable smallie. It was a pretty fish so I felt a photo was in order. I was mid stream and the cane was in the way as I was trying to keep the fish in the stream while taking the photo. I unhooked it and looped the hook of the cane around my ankle so it dangled downstream as the photo was taken. Pleased with the photo and the catch/release of the fish as well as with the realization that there were bass on beds in the area, I started back downstream forgetting about the cane. I'm sure my first step allowed the cane to float free, but I was too interested in looking at the bass on their beds to even notice the cane floating away. If anyone runs across a hooked cane along a north central Illinois small stream, you can probably guess who once owned it.

[tjtroester]

there is a cord attached to my wading staff with asnap on the other end of the cord which I snap to a ring on the bottom of my vest.  timothy

[John Gillio]

4 hours ago, tjtroester said:

there is a cord attached to my wading staff with asnap on the other end of the cord which I snap to a ring on the bottom of my vest.  timothy

Yes, this last one had many ways I could have attached it to my vest or belt, as well as slinging it over a shoulder. I'm just not bright enough to use them.