wading trick

Purely by accident, I discovered an effective trick for wading in a
strong, deep current over slippery rocks. Actually, I've probably only
rediscovered it, but I've never heard of this trick before.

I was fishing on the opposite side of the river (the Main Fork of the
Salmon in Idaho) and had to wade across to my pickup, having caught my
limit of stockers. I had to cross a section of deep current. It wasn't
truly scary, but was at least tricky.

There were some large emerging mayflies in the air I couldn't identify,
so I took my net out to try to catch one. As I waded into the current I
slipped a bit and reflexively put the net (in my downstream hand) into
the current. It was amazing. The drag on the net stabilized my stance.
It was like holding on to a tree limb. As I would lift a foot to take a
step, the drag force on the net was almost like having a third foot on
the bottom, or using a wading staff.

Try it. It works.

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