Fishing vests

[tharreld]

This last season will mark the end of my 25 year old Columbia fishing vest. It's a green Henry's Fork. When I bought it at Burger Brother's it was a dark green. It has faded quite a bit over the years.

I'm looking for a new vest.

I'm able to spend more time on the stream during my outings now due to less family obligations (kids are grown,wife wants to see me happy). I end up packing a lot more extra "stuff". Raingear, water, food, camera etc. Also carry a lot of fly boxes.

I'm looking at the Fishpond line of vests (Wasatch Tech Pack)

Anybody use Fishpond?

[pgalardy]

Can't say I've ever been a vest fan - but I have been dabbling in the chest pack area. The current one I have is constantly dogged by my ine getting caught on edges. Fr this reason I have been really looking at the WJ magnetic packs - very few edges to catch things on - and no fumbling with zippers!

[Scudly]

Paul welcome to the board. Magnetic packs sound interesting. Would be nice if that feature incorporated into a vest versus Velcro.

Tom I bought a sage green colored vest from Fleet Farm for ~$30 made by Master Sportsman. It has more than enough pockets and places to clip on all kinds of stuff however I think you get what you pay for. Mine is falling apart already. There are bungee style loops to clip on stuff. Those are starting to fray. Plus the Velcro patches on top pockets not sewn on well and coming apart. I've just been stitching it up as it starts to fall apart. What I do like about it though is the whole back side is mesh to keep you cool.

[RiverFly99]

I have a simms g3 vest it has tons of storage pockets and the quality is outstanding...the only negative I can think about is the large price tag

[Dave Anderson]

I had a Simms G3 for a while and gave it to a friend, not because I didn't like it, but because I was tired of carrying so much [PoorWordUsage] around.

I went to a William Joseph waist pack two years ago, and they're fine. I'll probably go with something a little more durable this year - Fishpond or Simms perhaps.

I will say that I doubt I'll go back to a vest after wearing a pack for a few years. The weight distribution from shoulders to hips is something I highly recommend.

D.A.

[tharreld]

Do the waist packs have room for rainjacket, lunch and water storage?

[Dave Anderson]

Water storage, yes. Lunch - minimal (power bars come in pretty handy), rain jacket....probably not. It all depends upon how big of a waist pack you want. There are some pretty small ones, like Filsons, or some pretty big ones like the Wm Joseph, Fishpond, or Simms line. I've never carried a rain jacket, and my only beef is that the waist packs don't have much room for beer .

D.A.

[blackdog1101]

I've been using a Patagonia Reinvest for about a decade now. Durable, light weight, plenty of storage, and a nice large back pocket for lunch and a rain jacket.

[sparetime]

I really liked the Fishpond Wasatech that I tried on. It's on my christmas list. For a Vest/pack that you can carry a few things in I thought it was really a "light" feeling vest. The cost is high, but if you get 30 years from a vest, it's only $5-6 per year.

I tried one on at the Fly Angler in Brooklyn Park, don't know if you've had a chance to stop there and try one out or not. Otherwise, I've contacted Fishpond customer service with a few questions, and they were awsome. The other pack I'm considering is called the Double Haul. Not really a vest.

[so haaad]

John Gierach discusses the vest upgrade dilemma in Still Life with Brook Trout. Kind of funny, he discusses the exact issues that are being discussed here - Having a warn out vest for too many years, zippers and pockets being worn out and re-sewn, new vests today being made with lower quality materials and built to fail ($), etc.

Personally I'm a vest guy and my current one has broken zippers, holes in the pockets and a worn-out nylon neck. But it's kind of become part of me and I just can't part ways with it. I also don't like the added weight, so I try to minimize the load and keep most of the non-essential fly boxes, leaders, lunch, etc back in the car.

Do you hip packs guys wear them inside of your waders? I always find that one pool on every trip that runs deeper than my waist and the vest gives me a little more room before being submerged.