JRB tarp, UCR Suspension, WIND and Crappie fishing...

[Rat]

Headed out to my favorite lip ripping lake this weekend for some Crappie fishing. It was a good weekend, I learned some things:

This was my first time using the JRB 11 x 10 tarp for real, and it was thoroughly tested. Pitching it was a no-brainer as I have practiced many times in the front yard; what I hadn't counted on was the WIND! We had 15-20 MPH winds with 30 MPH gusts according to Weather Underground. I pitched it normal A-frame like and when the winds started it pulled the stakes on the windward side pretty quickly. I added a grip-clip and a tie out and it still pulled the stakes when it gusted. I ended up staking the windward side down to the ground with stakes in each of the 9 tie-out loops creating a nice angle to shed the wind. I also kept the center panel tie out which helped a ton. The Leeward side was also flapping like crazy, it was only staked at the corners and not at the ground. I left it up off the ground but added three more guyouts. Staked out this way we weathered the worst of the wind/gusts in comfort. 13 stakes total. I could have pitched it in winter mode to create a smaller profile, but the temp was nice and I didn't want it enclosed all the way. The windward panel was taking the direct wind, the angle of approach was close to 90° and that panel was fully loaded. Everything held, no blown stitches or stretch places I can find.

UCR: I have been using UCR suspension for some time now but I recently added a ridgeline to my ENO hammock; now the UCR's don't hold, they creep, ever so slightly, until I am resting on the ground. I found I could adjust it back up and then wrap a figure eight around my toggle to keep me from slipping. This worked well for a field expedient fix, but the fiddle factor is too high, I think I am going to try a webbing/cinch buckle suspension. The thing I dislike about the UCR/Whoopie Sling is too many parts to keep up with (tree huggers, toggles, etc). I need to simplify it and keep everything all in one and attached.

Thankfully the wind stayed down during the night and we caught quite a few crappie. We ended up with almost 50 keepers and prol'y caught 150-175 in all. Not bad for middle of January when crappie are supposed to be un-catchable! The best part is the wind and cool weather kept other people off of the lake and we had the run of the place to ourselves!

All in all it was a nice weekend with mild temperatures, few people and good fishing; and I learned a few things as well.

[pgibson]

Good report! I am a bit jealous though, I want to get up to the lakes and do some fishing bad. My wife picked me up a new rod and reel for my birthday last week and the cabin fever is setting in.

[HappyCamper]

Nice report. I'm a big fan of the JRB tarp size. I find that it's big enough for me to hang low to stay warmer and to tie the foot end closed so I don't have the additional weight of adding doors. I have one grip clip centered on each side for side pullouts. I usually only stake the side pullout that is the same side as my hammock zipper. I don't need the extra space on backside of hammock, which actually allows me to pullout more space on sitting side. I know some people use 2 pullouts per side on these larger tarps but since I'm mainly sitting in center of hammock doing things until I lie down, I find one center pull out is good enough for me to add some extra space inside.

This weekend I hung with scouts at winter campout and I hung the tarp higher than I normally do and I left both ends open so the scouts could check out my rig. The young scouts were all excited to see the hammock setup again.

It got down to freezing and no real wind, but boy was I colder than usual. Good thing I brought enough down to keep me warm, but it's a reminder how well these tarps do when you batten down the hatches.