This past weekend, thermometers around me hit 90 degrees. It was a one-day aberration from an otherwise mild New England Spring. But for that one day it was hot. The weather, always a topic of conversation, was on the forefront of everyone’s mind.
“It’s only May!”
“Got your air conditioner on yet?”
“Time to get the pool ready!”
That evening, sitting as still as I could close to an open window and an oscillating fan, I got online to shop. I wasn’t browsing swimsuits or sunscreen. The stripers have returned to the Massachusetts coast, but I wasn’t looking at tying materials or fly line. I was clicking around hunting and fishing stores, trying to find a good insulated coat with waterproof cuffs.
Obviously.
It isn’t that I’m already pining for late season trout fishing or frozen December mornings in the duck blind. I’m quite content that it is spring and there are months of wet wading in front of me. However, now is the time to get what I need for six months from now. If anything, I’m a little late. (This is a fact, seeing as my remarkably average waist/inseam/foot measurements are getting hard to come by in the clearance pages.)
Here are three reasons why I was searching for as many grams of Thinsulate I as I could find on a sweltering night:
Sales are on
This is perhaps the most prominent of all the reasons. Cold weather gear is marked down. There is plenty of good equipment to be found for up to 50% off retail. It might be because a retailer is clearing out space or a manufacturer is revamping the product. Regardless, the $400 waterfowl jacket can be yours for $200. That takes something that might initially strike you as “not in a million years,” and quickly turns it into “I hope they have it in a medium.”
Stock is in
Supply chain, supply chain, supply chain. Everyone everywhere is tired of that phrase. And while shortages have impacted us in some truly vital aspects of life, outdoors enthusiasts have felt the pinch with everything from rod blanks to ammo. Orders that companies placed back in the fall have come it, albeit a little (or, a lot) late. What was inaccessible in the middle of the season is now available. You’re not going to use it for months, but there is something to be said for being able to shop and get precisely what you need. If you have the space and can afford it? Grab it and squirrel it away.
Seasons are short
Just like I clean hiking boots and tie dry flies in December, I clean shotguns and tie egg flies in June. Again, it isn’t because I’m discontented with the season I am in. I just have been doing outdoor stuff long enough that I am constantly preparing for the next thing while I’m engaged in the current one. Making a purchase in the middle of summer for the fall isn’t that crazy. Not everything is 2-day Prime shipping, and a wrong-size return process turns it all into an month-long ordeal. Don’t stress, but also don’t procrastinate.
The gear might be so last season, but it also might be affordable. Once more: it might be there. And next season will be here before you know it.