A Good Fishing Flask by John Forret

If there is one thing I like when I’m fishing its hot food, it cheers you up, giving you that little bit extra staying power on a miserable day. The only way in my opinion to get hot food to the fishing is in a flask. I hate stoves, they stink of petrol and are bloody dangerous, I nearly sunk the boat on Esthwaite one day when one spat burning petrol onto the inside of the boat, turns out fiberglass is flammable, not just that, trying to cook in a wave is just to dangerous for someone as clumsy as me.

The first serious flask I ever bought was what I thought at the time was the flask that would last me a life time. It had everything I wanted it was robust and sleek. That flask was perfect it was the right height, width and had all the things in the right places. Everything was right about us, we worked well together, looking back I still have some great memories of some fun times we had. I was convinced at the time we were so well suited that that was it for me and that flask would never be separated. But I was young and still relatively inexperienced in life.

My second flask happened by accident, as I mentioned me and my first flask were rock solid, we went everywhere together. But one day I was in a hi-tec camping shop and another flask caught my eye. This thing was tall, slim and sophisticated, it has a fancy pouring spout that was so flash, I knew when I seen it, that’s the type of flask you like to be seen out with, the type of flask you know other people would admire, if you never paid it much attention your pals would be off with it as soon as your back was turned. But as I said me and my old flask were rock solid this new flask was just to high maintenance for me with that sophisticated pouring spout. The thing is though, life with my old flask was just so effortless, everything was perfect, sometimes just to perfect, nothing ever went wrong, life was easy, no excitement no drama, it would never leak out in your bag, things would never get cold it was just right, it was dependable. The tall slim flask was always in the back of my mind but life was so perfect why change things.

Then one day it happened I dropped that old flask, there was no serious damage done, there was a small dent in the side. But I guess that was the thin end of the wedge, it didn’t seem as perfect as it had done; there was something not right about it, a chink in its armour. Don’t get me wrong functionally there was nothing wrong with the flask, life was just as normal and things went on as normal for months. It wasn’t until one night I was out late night shopping, I’ve got to admit in hindsight it was late, I was tired, my judgment was impaired. I happened across that tall slim flask, things just happened before I even knew where I was I was caught in the moment; the sophisticatedness of this new flask just suckered me in. Needless to say we went home together. I felt a bit rotten for the old flask after all the time we spent together but my life had changed I needed a little excitement, the old flask got put in the cupboard with my tuperware.

Well exciting times we had, a flask like that needs care and attention, its not the type of flask that would put up with the old bit Bovril or Tea, it needed that little bit extra, Thai style chicken noodle soup or something expensive like consume. We had some special times, it was lightweight so it meant we could have some really special times, we ended up hiking up to some remote hill lochs, it packed well to so we could get out high speed lure fishing, running and gunning the big lochs. These are the kinda times you get real experience from, bragging rights to your pals. In fact I think I took a couple of movies on my phone of me and that flask, the boys at work were very interested. Great times only have a short life expectancy and needless to say things had to come to an end, that flask was just to expensive to maintain, and I can’t be yomping up hills and running and gunning lure fishing all my life, I was kinda burn’t out, I spent a short while away from fishing after that flask.
Eventually I got the notion for getting back into fishing, I decided to take it easier than I had done. I decided to do a bit of bait fishing, chilling out behind the rods seemed to be what the doctor ordered, the thing was I did’t have a flask for the job. So I put myself on the market and went out looking for a new flask. I found a flask that wasn’t perfect but would do. It was a wide mouth flask, it was small and dumpy, not the best looking by any manner of means but I guessed it would do, there were plenty left on the shelf so it didn’t cost me much. In all honesty It wasn’t the best flask I had been with but I guessed that the small dumpy ones need to try a little harder so it would do for now, I’ll not be shouting from the roof tops about it but at least I was fishing again, as they say its like riding a bike, you never forget how. Things were fine for a while with that flask, it was comfortable, it had a sort of glow about it, the thing about it was it was like riding a moped, it was fine till my friends found out. I started to get a bit of a slagging about that flask, I could put up with it but then its wide mouth started getting me in trouble and that was the end for that flask. It turned out because of the wide mouth it was letting heat escape through the top end, I guess that’s what the glow was about, it was the heat escaping from my chips and curry sauce, as I said it ended up more hassle than it was worth, turning up to the fishing and my chips were cold.

Things haven’t been too bad since then, I have been without a serious flask for a while. I kept the tall slim flask, we were still fishing buddies. Anytime I needed a good hard serious fishing it was always there.

Well I can’t go on in life without a flask, now I’m older and wiser and have a bit of cash I would like something like my first flask but more elegant, something that could give me long term commitment, something like a Stanley Aladdin flask. I know they are expensive, but they look the part and I guess it could go the distance. The thing is if I go for a flask like that it will need real commitment, I’ll need to clean out the cupboard to give it space, there would be no room for quickies with the tall slim flask. I guess that’s what I need at this stage in my life, monogamy.