Tracy&James | Wednesday, 8 April 2026
We've had a two consecutive days off from fishing this week, both due to a weather system that brought 40kph winds, thunderstorms, torrential tropical rain and wall to wall heavy cloud cover. It must be tough for people who are on a week long fishing break knowing that a third of their fishing time has been lost due to the conditions, however Tracy and I can be a bit more relaxed about it given the length of our stay. In fact, I think it's fair to say that we both needed a rest as we'd been hitting the flats pretty hard, spurred on by some great fishing.
Unfortunately yesterday we probably over did things, and although the weather, as I write this, is perfect we're having another day off because I've got a really bad back – i.e. I'm barely able to get myself up out of a chair. This was caused by my spare rod holder!
Before travelling out I was gifted an O'Pro rod holder. Since we introduced roll-up back packs I've been looking for a solution for carrying a second rod (for predators). Previously when we used to wade with bum-bags (fanny packs for US readers) we could just rest our spare outfits across the top of the zipped compartments and secure it with a small loop of bungee cord at one end. This offered a really quick change over when required. The only obvious place for a rod with the roll-up back pack is by pushing it through the shoulder straps where they join the bag at about waist height. This proved to be ok apart from a couple of down sides – removing the rod and replacing with the other was clumsy, often I'd catch the handle of the reel on the straps on the way out or hit the the reel into the straps on the way back in, both resulting in a slower than ideal swap over. It was also the case that the rod and reel would 'bounce' against the small of my back as I waded – you can imagine how uncomfortable that would get after a couple of weeks.
When I saw the O'pro I thought it was ideal, so much so that I bought a second one for Tracy to use. The one that arrived for Tracy is a subtly different design which I will come on to. Anyway, how is is that I'm sat in glorious sunshine writing a FP rather than fishing? Well, yesterday we'd waded out to where we intended starting fishing and I clipped the #10 weight into the O'Pro that was on my belt. After just a few minutes wading I noticed that the rod tip was pointing dangerously low, the O'Pro allows for the hold angle to be adjusted so I reached round to my back to make a change only to find the O'Pro hanging off my belt. One of the clips that holds the device to the belt had failed thus the whole lot was pivoting on the one remaining clip. I was a little frustrated as I thought I had a really good solution for the second rod only to find that the rigours of two weeks of flats fishing was too much for it. I therefore removed my belt, adjusted the straps on the back-pack and went back to my old method of pushing the rod through the straps for the remainder of the day.
Incidentally, the O'Pro that we ordered for Tracy to use is different in that it doesn't have clips – it has belt loops instead, meaning the belt has to be threaded before use. Whether this is because the manufacturer has identified a weak point in the design of the original and has replaced the clips (which allow it to be hung from a belt or waistband), I don't know – I'll see if Tracy's survives the trip.
After a pretty exhausting 8 hours plus of wading I got back into our car (ready to enjoy watching the music videos on the drive home) and realised instantly that my back was not good. I suspect the change in the weight distribution of the back pack had meant different muscles were being stressed as I waded, and now they were complaining big time. I had a poor nights sleep, waking with spasms of pain every time I moved, and then this morning I can't get anywhere near my feet in order to put my socks on and getting out of a chair requires a lot of sighing. As such I'm forced into an 'old man's' day off.
I hope your body holds itself together for whatever you're doing this week.
James