The Tarp Hat

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Shaun Harrison
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Re: The Tarp Hat

Post by Shaun Harrison »

Better not go down that route here :whistle:

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Shaun Harrison
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Re: The Tarp Hat

Post by Shaun Harrison »

Image

Well it has proven more than lucky for me with some more lovely fish wanting to pay me a visit this last week-end, so I think my Tarp hat can come along on its first French adventure with me later this week. It might not be travelling as it has before from the south of Brazil right up to the Amazon basin along thousands of miles of red dust track, but it will travel along hundreds of miles of tarmac and then the adventure begins properly for the final 2 mile off the road through thick forest before opening out into what looks a lovely 29 acres of watery bliss.

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The Old Buffer
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Re: The Tarp Hat

Post by The Old Buffer »

Is that a leather band around the outside of the hat? Haven't seen one like that before, did you put it on yourself?
The coiled line travels from the reel, it brings up at last, the hook goes home, and then begins the test of skill. "BB"

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Shaun Harrison
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Re: The Tarp Hat

Post by Shaun Harrison »

The Old Buffer wrote:Is that a leather band around the outside of the hat? Haven't seen one like that before, did you put it on yourself?
I did actually, it was a leather band from a wide brimmed Barbour waxed cotton hat that I no longer wear. I removed it and offered it against the tarp hat and liked the look of the dark brown band against the lighter material.

The picture posted on page 2 of this/your thread Mon Sep 15, 2014 11:31 am shows it before I added the hat band.

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The Old Buffer
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Re: The Tarp Hat

Post by The Old Buffer »

Shaun Harrison wrote:
The Old Buffer wrote:Is that a leather band around the outside of the hat? Haven't seen one like that before, did you put it on yourself?
I did actually, it was a leather band from a wide brimmed Barbour waxed cotton hat that I no longer wear. I removed it and offered it against the tarp hat and liked the look of the dark brown band against the lighter material.

The picture posted on page 2 of this/your thread Mon Sep 15, 2014 11:31 am shows it before I added the hat band.
Very impressive and it certainly adds to the character of the hat. :Hat:
The coiled line travels from the reel, it brings up at last, the hook goes home, and then begins the test of skill. "BB"

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Shaun Harrison
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Re: The Tarp Hat

Post by Shaun Harrison »

Always think a hat looks more 'finished' with a separate band.

I simply hand stitched it to keep it in line with the rest of the hat figuring no real harm done if I didn't like it afterwards.

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Re: The Tarp Hat

Post by Buller »

Shaun, two questions please. Can the crown be crushed flat? I'm referring to packing the hat in a suitcase. How did you know what size is correct for you?
Tks, Bull

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LuckyLuca
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Re: The Tarp Hat

Post by LuckyLuca »

Buller, I recieved on of these recently. Yes they can be packed in a case, mine arrived in a pretty flat box and is none the worse for wear. There is a size chart on the website. Just need to measure your head.
I walked across an empty land
I knew the pathway like the back of my hand
I felt the earth beneath my feet
Sat by the river and it made me complete.

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Shaun Harrison
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Re: The Tarp Hat

Post by Shaun Harrison »

Buller wrote:Shaun, two questions please. Can the crown be crushed flat? I'm referring to packing the hat in a suitcase. How did you know what size is correct for you?
Tks, Bull

Here you go Buller a simple head measuring chart http://www.tarphat.co.uk/hatsizing/info.aspx on the site I ordered mine from. Excellent service from them.

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Shaun Harrison
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Re: The Tarp Hat

Post by Shaun Harrison »

I must admit having been so fortunate to land so many large barbel last season I have very much left them alone this season. I hadn't meant to but with the rivers running so low for most of the summer I just didn't have the urge to go sticking hooks in them.

But, as the rains have come this Autumn and the rivers running a much more healthy pace I have once again been venturing down my 3 local rivers. I have not had it my own way this year though and bites have been a little thin on the ground. I have been worrying about the otters, have they really made the massive indent on my quarry as it was starting to seem. I had one last trick up my sleeve though. I hadn't tried my lucky Tarp hat having chosen various tweed flat caps for my various river outings. After all I usually river fish in a tweed cap rather than a brimmed hat.

It was a lovely late afternoon autumn scene that entertained me at the start of this last week-end. I was treated to the evening dance of the starlings like one huge cloak performing in the air making many spectacular and elaborate moves, before finally coming to roost in the trees, over the river. How blessed was I? For there was no-one else around to view this spectacle that had been performed in front of me.

The crows turned up next as the sky turned from orange to red before fading to grey. All I could hear were the geese in the field I crossed who spooked and took off for the field on the far side of the river. As darkness envelopes all, the odd crow caw and some late singing songbirds were saying goodbye to another Autumn sun.

Far in the distance was the faint hum of tyres on tarmac in that other world I so love to escape. They were far away from where I sat, contentedly watching my rod tip.

Then it happened, suddenly the rod was in its full curve and line was stripped from my reel as I held onto a fish pulling hard deep down in the swollen river. The fight was nothing short of biblical but I won't go into every last move. I really was starting to feel a tad nervous, nervous of the new hooks I had decided to try and nervous that I really thought I was playing an absolute monster. Eventually though the fish was in the upper layers and after 3 big last minute surges which moved an impressive amount of water the barbel was finally beat.

So after a few weeks of struggling, all I needed to do was don the lucky Tarp hat. It had worked so well with the carp of the summer and now I had finally used some of its luck for the barbel of the Autumn.

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