Essential fly fishing gear for a trip which you don’t think you will need.

Ray got me on to this one and its been used ever since.  Not always for mosquitos.  And mesh is never a bad thing to have around water.

An obvious one.  BUT- get one with a USB port on board.  Makes a hell of a difference.

SO.  This little bugger has saved me twice in two trips.  My bag got lost in LAX on the way to Kiribati and I was notified by a Tile community member, and then during our first mess of the Socotra trip, we were separated from our baggage on the wrong side of an immigration desk that we didnt need to transfer through.  Eventually I was allowed to go and fetch everyones bags.  They were all there, except mine and two others.  Queue absolute panic.  The Tile app showed it in range (using bluetooth).  I searched all luggage areas with no joy, eventually after pacing back and forth I hit the “ring my bag” button and found my bag and the others in a small unlocked locker room for lost luggage.  I now also have them in my wallet and car keys.  Whats cool is you can also call your phone from the Tile by pressing the button on it.  But get the replaceable battery version.  Its better for everything.

I put mine inside a duct tape roll so it can go close to the top of my bag with clear area around for best signal attenuation (yes I’m involved in RF networks).  You can often see when your bags on the plane too.  Oh and the Duct tape itself.  Never forget duct tape.

Headphones – I like the Bose QC35, makes zoning out that bit easier.

Spare camera body (another CXI lesson – more on that in The Mission piece on CXI here).   Its a long way to go to have average pics.  And a GoPro as a last resort.

Dry bags and gear bags – I always put my electronics inside a dry bag, inside my Patagonia waterproof back.  Redundancy is good.

Laptop – This is a Macbook Air, and although its gone for the ride with no use other than photo backups before, it saved my sanity on my world quarantine tour that ran March to May.

Gear Ties!  I use them for everything.  On this trip alone – Net attachment point for carabiner on my bag, to hold up a dodgy shower head, curtain tie back, gear hooks to keep everything off the sand.

Reel repair kit – In case what should never happen… happens

Sewing kit and kevlar thread – boots, stitches, who knows.  Its been used every trip though

Hook Sharpeners – obvious

Markers – Used to make tan flies red flies for Parrots this time.

So I’ve use paracord every trip.  For washing line, gear loops, a lead and harness for Gareth Reid etc, but these straps saved my boots (along with my sewing kit this time).  I caught my boot toe on a sharp rock before falling over a small ledge that ended up destroying my knees and shins, but also tore my boot in half.  This guy plus some rubber cement and they were back in action.

Always have a backup.

Line Winder / Recycler – probably my most borrowed piece of kit by other anglers when I travel.

Epirb – Spot is usually the weapon of choice, but as luck would have it, Socotra is one of the few uncovered areas for messenging, although SOS was still available.  Garmins inreach service was available.  Some other uses of paracord pictured.   That swivel box is perfect for SD cards.

GPS – A life saver on Kiribaiti

I actually used this along with ExpertGPS on my laptop to plan our routes and spots and to cross reference to figure out exactly where we were on a high res Satellite map (ExpertGPS allows overlays).

I picked this guy up used for pretty cheap before I left, and, unlike all my attempts at Goalzero gear, it impressed.  Good rate of charge, a simple battery pack for storage and 2amp output.

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