Say GoodbyePhone – A Burial Fitting a Fine Phone

| March 1, 2018

Ever Notice How Important Phones Have Become to Fly Fishers?

NOTE: If you ever get into a conversation with a fly fisher, get ready for them to flash out their phone and put you through a slideshow that may only be topped by your parent’s annual home grown Kodachrome Expo.

I usually skip at least a couple generations when it comes to phones, and when the time comes, I hand over the old phone grudgingly – to have all the data (images / video) transplanted into the new device. It didn’t quite go that way this time, so I won’t be one of those fly fishers flashing my phone in your face anytime soon. This phone departed with all its information encapsulated … for some alien to find a thousand years from now …

HERE’S WHAT HAPPENED

I had stopped to check out the dam release below Lake Ray Roberts, and it was going strong with the major indicator giving me the green light that it was time to fish for those mean H-Bombs (hybrids for those of you newbies).

I didn’t know how long the dam had been open, but I decided that a shortage of combat fishers could work in my favor. So instead of going all the way around to the west side riprap, I came down the near side steps and started casting. There was a raving fisherman above me, hollering down in another language mixed with english. The only word I understood was, “fish!” but I wasn’t having luck until I changed over to a bright white Clouser (on a dark and rainy day), and accidentally let it dangle by the concrete dam.

As I went to release the energetic male, I leaned over to unbutton him and my phone flew out of one of my pockets, deflected off my knee, and went into the river at such an angle that had no splash, and sent the phone diving, on a shallow trajectory, straight out into the deep darkened swirls. Gone, dead and gone.

Even as I write this, I marvel at my continuing good luck. The first time out in weeks and weeks, a single fish, and goodbye-phone … all that was in it – photographs, videos all those things that should have been backed up? Gone forever. Needless to say, it ruined my day and certainly severely damages my outlook on the week about to end. Yes, it was a glorious and great way to go, but to say it was gone “too soon” is a bit of an understatement. 

Now, I try and recall the software (yeah, I know, “apps”) that was on the phone, and especially the folder marked “FISHING.”

As I recall these are some of the APPS:

  • Navionics
  • Hi-Def Radar
  • Wunderground
  • TideGraphPro
  • TPWD Outdoor Annual

Now, all I have to do is keep the phone safe, and away from Finn who is eating our house down from the inside out, and maybe I can extend the luck of this fine phone as long as that last one, maybe.

 

Tags: ,

Category: Body-Mind-Soul, Complimentary Reading

About the Author ()

https://www.shannondrawe.com is where to find my other day job. I write and photograph fish stories professionally, and for free here! Journalist by training. This site is for telling true fishing news stories, unless otherwise noted.

Comments are closed.

Discover more from Flyfishing Texas

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading