Being on the water all day is a constant battle for hydration. I don’t remember worrying about it much when I was younger and, let’s say, not so wise. In the past couple of years I’ve found two really great things to help out.
I carry a Camelback on my skiff now. It makes it much easier to just keep sipping water all day rather than the inconvenient and infrequent and potentially noisy dig into the ice chest. I can also wear it while poling or even on the bow. This has been my best recent addition to my “must have” skiff gear.
I like this one. It’s a bit smaller than most, but still holds enough to drink all day even in the tropics. It’s also lighter and smaller when I’m wearing it, and it has a shut off valve to prevent leaking.
Secondly, I really love this Katadyn filter, especially when fishing in the mountains. It has a very soft, squeezable bag and packs down to nothing. I never carry water with me when near a stream. Just scoop in some cold mountain river water, put the cap/filter on it and drink away. It’s a real game changer and would also work well for filtering tap water when traveling to dodgier places.
I’ve switched to a one gallon jug made by RTIC (no longer made, but can find on Ebay). No more bottles etc. I use to have a Camelback back in my biking days until one day I poured Turkey and Coke in it to sneak into an FSU game…forgot to wash it…OMG that was nasty…tossed the bladder out.
Depending on who’s on my boat, I will typically pack as mentioned above a 1 gallon rtic and aluminum cups or yeti tumblers for guest. And then for myself, I have a half gallon yeti. This frees up cooler space that would otherwise be used just for water. I’m doing my best to keep disposable/one time use, plastics off the boat and out of the water.
Timely post as it is really starting to heat up here. I truly struggle staying hydrated in the summer. Even if I start drinking water on the way to the launch in the morning, I might not pee for hours and hours which is never a good sign. The one thing I like about bottles is that I can keep up, by counting, how much water I have had. I like your approach though.
As the saying goes “hydrate or die.” I always have the half gallon Rtic with me and then I have two Nalgene style yeti bottles I keep in the cooler. I try to have some kind of electrolytes for mid day, especially when it’s summer time in Florida.
Most of my trips are 1/2 to long 1/2 days. I bring 10 oz coffee, 24 oz green tee, 32 oz chilled water with 1/2 lemon in it. All in artic containers. Additional 3 16 oz bottled are in dry storage, snack is frozen tangelos, or some in season fruit, some peanut butter pretzels, and some sort of bar. Emergency backup is fish bag has 5, 20oz frozen water bottles.
In the heat of summer I like to have a gallon of water for each person on board. I try to avoid plastic bottles as much as possible so I have a personal 20oz thermos for each person on board and this for refills. I can strap it between the rings of my platform or slide it under the side console.
[quote=“Redchaser, post:13, topic:203, full:true”]
In the heat of summer I like to have a gallon of water for each person on board. I try to avoid plastic bottles as much as possible so I have a personal 20oz thermos for each person on board and this for refills. I can strap it between the rings of my platform or slide it under the side console. [/quote]
I’m a germaphobe. That would never work for me unless I had the full chain of custody and quality control sign-offs at each point.
Each evening the individual thermoses get sanitized according to NSF 3 standards with a chlorine solution. Same for the Rtic water cooler between fillings.
I have an off brand stainless insulated gallon jug that I will use or depending I have a Kleen Kanteen stainless non insulated bottle that I will fill most of the way with ice, water and LMNT electrolytes. It also acts to cool the rest of the stuff down in the cooler.
In the summer I try to get off the water before it gets cooking. I bring a 64oz stainless jug and am not the best about drinking water if we’re getting shots. I do always drink a gatorlyte or something similar on the way to the ramp.
I start my morning off with an electrolytes drink. I also bring a 64oz stainless jug for myself and that usually suffices as I’m not typically out too long in the summer.
