Never without drinking water

Have you ever been without water hours away from your car? Imagine the idea of hours walking back to your car in the hot sun. The fishing was great, but you could really appreciate a nice cold drink...

I always carry a bottle of water with me (in a bottle holder attached to my wader belt), but it's usually not enough to last a whole days worth of fishing. My worst story so far was that I 'buried' several cans of pop (Coke, 7 Up, etc.) in a stream with a couple of rocks to keep them cold. After a hot day of fishing we came back for a nice cold drink, but the cans were gone. My best guess is that they came loose due to the flow of the water and are probably still floating in the pacific ocean now.

There are several options to assure yourself of having enough water to drink. Carrying several bottles of water is a lot of weight you have to haul. Other option is a hydration system like Camelbak or water reservoirs which you can put in a backpack or the back pocket of your vest. I've tried them too but again, you will have to cope with a lot of extra load in your back. The thing I don't like is that the water tastes bad out of these rubber reservoirs. Because you're carrying it in your back, the water warms up. Finally these reservoirs are hard to clean, so after a while I'm not really looking forward to drink water out of a fuzzy looking reservoir. Platypus also makes hydration systems. Their reservoir doesn't have the bad rubbery taste, but their reservoir is also very difficult to clean.

It's funny that this cold and clear water you're fishing in looks like drinkable water from the tap. But with exception of very clear and clean springs, it is advised not to drink. Contamination like Giardia, sediments and other nasty little debris can make you real sick.

On my recent trip to the US my buddy Doug had this empty bottle with a (replaceable) filter. Although I had my usual bottle filled with bottled water, half way through the day it was empty. I watched Doug fill up his bottle with cold water from the Coeur d'Alene river and drink it with a big smile. I was a bit reserved on drinking water from the stream, but Doug assured that the filter takes care of 99.9% of the bad stuff in the water. Instant cold and clean water!

Doug sent me a new bottle with a filter as a gift (thanks Doug!). I was surprised that the bottle is the same bottle I already own, except for the removable filter. This company Aquamira makes a lot of outdoors equipment, so I guess they know what they are making. The filter works up to 200 refills, so that should easily make 75 - 100 days worth of fishing. For me that's probably at least 4 years. A replacement costs about 20 Euro's (or 20 US Dollars), so that's pretty good value. Check out your local outdoors shop for similar products.


So, my hydration system is: a bottle filled with bottled water and the seperate filter in a zip-lock bag to use when my bottle is empty. This way, I will never be without water and still 'travel light'!