In the world of fishing, there is perhaps nothing more totemistic and sacrosanct as the fishing hat. Forget all your other gear. We all know that your lucky hat is truly the one thing responsible for having a successful day on the river. It’s your best friend. It’s familiar. You’ve broken it in just right. Maybe you’ve stuck a few of your favorite flies in it trusting that it will keep your secrets. Maybe it’s saved you from a few concussions while bushwhacking to that next spot. Your hat has been a loyal companion with you on every adventure. Without it, you’d feel naked.
So, to pay homage to the humble (yet venerable) fishing hat, I’d like you to show us yours. Post a pic in this thread of your hat. The one that’s got the most battle scars wins. Mine is in the picture above. Daniel sent it to me along with my first tenkara rod back in 2009. It’s taken a beating since then, but that only makes me treasure it more.
Submit your photos below and if you win, I’ll send you a brand new Tenkara USA trucker hat like this one:
You can either retire your old friend and sport this new cap or just keep it to wear on certain occasions. The contest ends Friday, June 23rd so make sure you get your photos posted by then. And remember, the more battered the better. Let’s see some battle scars! Extra points if you have an interesting, accompanying anecdote about your hat.
Photo by Boel Engkvist, of me and my hat.
My hat and I on Bill Wards private lake.
Pic taken in Mexia on private lake
My Texas Parks and Wildlife hat on a fishing trip on Lake Michigan.
These are my last three lids. I have a large melon, so finding a cap that fits can be difficult. The cheap mesh Carhart (pictured,left) was my fishing cap for the better part of a decade – it is beaten and battered, and has survived many an excursion. A few years back I had a good fishing trip at Hot Creek Ranch in California and decided to purchase a new cap ( I wasn’t thrilled when my buddy saw mine and immediately purchased the same one). Unfortunately, I washed it and it never fit the same again. So last year I made another hat purchase in Estes Park, CO. I hope to get many good years of fishing out if it!
The photo wouldn’t load in my original post. Hopefully the second time is a charm.
Here’s my hat.
Well here’s a pic of my hat.
You asked for a hat with an accompanying interesting anecdote, so here’s my entry. I have a small noggin, so I’d not worn ball caps much growing up – they all just looked too big on my head, like I was wearing my dad’s cap. I got married decades ago, and at that point, still hadn’t found a ball cap that fit and felt right. We paid for our wedding ourselves, and due to budgetary constraints, we didn’t have money for a honeymoon, but I’d promised my bride a real nice honeymoon later.
Well, with my career starting to pick up just after the wedding, it was coming up on ten years before we took a breath and realized that we’d never taken that honeymoon (and I still hadn’t found my ball cap!) With budget constraints no longer a problem, we settled on a two week driving tour of Ireland, staying in bed and breakfasts every evening. On the day before our 10th anniversary, we made a stop at Quill’s Woollen Market in Kenmare to do a bit of touristy shopping. I’m not a shopper, so I wandered over to the outdoor clothing section, and I swear a beam of light shown through a window directly on the hat you see before you (it looked better back then). Naturally, I walked over and put it up top. It felt perfect, and when I walked over to a mirror, I knew that I’d finally found the perfect ball cap – the 30+ year quest was finally over!
Later, my bride caught up with me and saw a baseball cap in my hand as we walked up to the register. She looked at it and said, “I didn’t know you liked baseball caps.” I just smiled and checked out, knowing that I could never explain the situation to her (or anyone else for that matter). A 30-year quest for the perfect baseball cap just isn’t easy to explain…
The postscript to the story is that I wore the heck out of that hat, and three years after returning from Ireland with it, my mother, who’d just lost my father to pulmonary fibrosis, asked if we’d be interested in accompanying her to Ireland to see her ancestral homeland. That was in 2006. We went, all had a great time, and I bought another hat from Quill’s on that trip! It’s still new, with tags, in my closet. I figure the first hat should last about thirty years or so, especially since I now only wear it weekly, instead of daily. Like me, it’s lost its luster over the years, but it’s still a faithful companion (we’re still happily married.)
I’ve had this hat for 20 years of so. It started out as a surf fishing and kayaking hat. About 7 years ago (you would know Jason I purchased my Ayu rod from you) it added Tenkara fishing to it’s resume. I doubt I ever washed it till two months ago. Therefore I must admit it looked a lot more battle-worn before that. But finally the sweat stains half way to the top had to go. It has remained a favorite because it has an extra long bill.
Hello!
Here’s my lucky tenkara cap!
With her always a successful fishing!
Hello!
Here’s my lucky tenkara cap!
This cap is 15 years old
It is a rubbed, but still serves 🙂
With her always a successful fishing!
Hello! It’s me
I wish everyone good luck in fishing
Best regards, Dmitriy
Russia, Perm
I was never good with deadlines. Still i thought it would be fun to share my fishing hat. It’s a sugegasa, it’s got a foam patch for flies on the inside of the brim. It’s great for keeping the rain off, generates a surprising amount of ventilation, and is very effective at blocking the sun ☀️. I bought it at a small shop in Nagano Prefecture, along with a hand carved wooden Iwana pin that is mounted to the front.
There are a lot of hats that still look good with sweat stains, rips and tears but only one that looks this good peppered with bullet holes. This is how we work the bad juju out of a hat after a slow day of fishing 😉
I wonder who won 🙂
Hi Dimitiy, it was announced on Facebook 2 years ago!