OK, so I finally decided to "balls up" and go and find an open spot in the ice and hopefully shoot some unsuspecting carp for a field test of the MT1.........
So I loaded up my gear and the dog and headed down to lake; it was a cloudy day with wind gusts up to 35 or so miles per hour sporting a temp of about 45 F, gotta love Wyoming:duh . So I drove around the lake to one of the deeper parts close to shore where I figured I could find some reasonably clear water. I rounded the corner and found that the whole damn bay was frozen over except for a small portion on one side. From my vantage point the water looked clear enough so I parked and hauled my stuff down to the edge and proceeded to dawn my 3mm wetsuit (something Im in the process of replacing with an Omer 6.5mm ) . Of coarse I forgot the soap, so I about froze standing there in my birthday suit trying to pull on the pants that I had to dip in the lake to avoid ripping every hair out of the bottom part of my body. During this whole process the dog just staired at me with a look of wonderment as to what I was about to do.
As I tryed the same tactic to put my top-half on I got stuck and felt like I was going to sufficate, got to wobbling and feel into the damn lake!!! While I was trying to get the top half off and find the surface the dog must of gotten nervous and jumped on me then he tryed to climb on top of me. I jurked the top off and shot out of the water and had a reasonably long though between shivering like hell as to whether this was the right thing to be doing on account of how events had compiled to this point. I dipped the top half into the water again and it slid on as good as it ever had.......was the day about to change?
I finally was ready, speargun in hand with dreams of cutting thoose 3 bands-of-death off into a carp. I stepped onto a rock, looked at the ice around my melted pool-of-hope, closed my eyes awaiting the shock of high 30, low 40 degree water and jumped in......
I wasn't as cold as I was guessing it to feel I remember thinking as I took that first plunge. I openned my eyes only to find that I had about 4 feet of viz :waterwork . I was now experiancing a mix of emotion; saddness, and pure anger. I procceded to load the gun so I could say I at least shot the damn thing and found I could just make out the tip of the spear when I streched my arm out. I didn't kick bad like I was expecting and seemed to be rather quite which I was excited about.
All in all would I have done this again.....well..... I think so:duh, as stories like this are the ones one seems to remember and can laugh about for a long time to come.
I am now awaiting warmer weather and a chance at clearer water, no more ice .
Hope you all enjoyed it from the other side. Other than that just been training in the pool and trying to get the cash rounded up to pick up a suit designed for water colder than 70 degrees .
Hope life is going well for all as summer is coming close.
Until next time,
Justin
(I have a pick or two, if I can get them smaller I'll post them)
So I loaded up my gear and the dog and headed down to lake; it was a cloudy day with wind gusts up to 35 or so miles per hour sporting a temp of about 45 F, gotta love Wyoming:duh . So I drove around the lake to one of the deeper parts close to shore where I figured I could find some reasonably clear water. I rounded the corner and found that the whole damn bay was frozen over except for a small portion on one side. From my vantage point the water looked clear enough so I parked and hauled my stuff down to the edge and proceeded to dawn my 3mm wetsuit (something Im in the process of replacing with an Omer 6.5mm ) . Of coarse I forgot the soap, so I about froze standing there in my birthday suit trying to pull on the pants that I had to dip in the lake to avoid ripping every hair out of the bottom part of my body. During this whole process the dog just staired at me with a look of wonderment as to what I was about to do.
As I tryed the same tactic to put my top-half on I got stuck and felt like I was going to sufficate, got to wobbling and feel into the damn lake!!! While I was trying to get the top half off and find the surface the dog must of gotten nervous and jumped on me then he tryed to climb on top of me. I jurked the top off and shot out of the water and had a reasonably long though between shivering like hell as to whether this was the right thing to be doing on account of how events had compiled to this point. I dipped the top half into the water again and it slid on as good as it ever had.......was the day about to change?
I finally was ready, speargun in hand with dreams of cutting thoose 3 bands-of-death off into a carp. I stepped onto a rock, looked at the ice around my melted pool-of-hope, closed my eyes awaiting the shock of high 30, low 40 degree water and jumped in......
I wasn't as cold as I was guessing it to feel I remember thinking as I took that first plunge. I openned my eyes only to find that I had about 4 feet of viz :waterwork . I was now experiancing a mix of emotion; saddness, and pure anger. I procceded to load the gun so I could say I at least shot the damn thing and found I could just make out the tip of the spear when I streched my arm out. I didn't kick bad like I was expecting and seemed to be rather quite which I was excited about.
All in all would I have done this again.....well..... I think so:duh, as stories like this are the ones one seems to remember and can laugh about for a long time to come.
I am now awaiting warmer weather and a chance at clearer water, no more ice .
Hope you all enjoyed it from the other side. Other than that just been training in the pool and trying to get the cash rounded up to pick up a suit designed for water colder than 70 degrees .
Hope life is going well for all as summer is coming close.
Until next time,
Justin
(I have a pick or two, if I can get them smaller I'll post them)