After the last post I was about to head for the shop and had a look around my office at home and realised I had a whole heap of bags, boxes etc lying around getting ready for heading to Southern Oman next week and a few other destinations. I realised 2 things 1) I need to tidy up my office and 2) I might have a bag fetish! But the way I think of it is that i have not found the perfect solution and also I use different bags for different things!
So here a few of the bags I use:
This is my main travel bag I use for taking clothes and all my gear. It is a Sage bag and has a hard zip open bottom section. This is a great bag and I have used it for about 3 years and done many trips. The bag has a an aliminum protection structure in the top "soft" part of the bag which is great. The bag also has a side storage section and two top zips for stoing smaller items and then a mesh sip section in the top of the main compartment. But the very big problem is that the bag weighs about 6kgs before you pack anything into the bag. So there is great protection but it is very heavy and I'm now looking for a lighter travel bag along the same lines. Unfortunately the one I wanted the Shout Roller bag has been taken out of production.
Clem this is the hard pelican style case I was refering to. This is a great piece of kit but quite bulking and sometimes difficult to use on the boat. But I think one of the best solutions if you can make it work. I use this case now for taking my extra lures and kit to Southern Oman when I'm going to be down there for extended periods. It is more a storage case now than anything. I orginally used it to take my reels when flying as I had foam inside and it protected them very well but then I started taking to many reels to fit....
This is my flavour of the month. The Shout Jigger Bag. It is a great bag and I manage to fit in most of my gear for the day. I have watered this thing down both at home and on the boat and has not leaked so far. I think for longer trips I'll try the Shout Expedition Bag next as it does get a bit small. The one issue is when you traveling by plane, do you take it on as hand luggage or check it in. Bit of a problem.
I have found the Shout Water Case is an great pieve of kit and very useful. I use it to take most of my lures and jigs for the day along with my Jigger Bag. So I normally put the "Box" over my shoulder and put all my gear including pliers, jacket, hooks, gloves etc inside and then the water case I put all the lures and jigs and then carry the water case in one hand a rods in the other. Nice and compact and have everything I need.
THis is the Shout Deck Bag which I use for my light spinning gear and if I'm going a short day trip and don;t need much gear or going on someone elses boat when I cannot take everything and the kitchen sink. I like this bag as there is foam protection inside and gives the bag rigidity so the zip does not really lie on the floor. But I have had some water come in through the zip, but not to much.
The Shimano Deck Bag was my favourite for quite a while but then I did a few trips where a lot of water came onto the deck and it leaked quite badly. I still use it a bit mainly as a second bag when I take the family for towels, extra gear etc. Very comfortable bag with great amount of storage for a smallish bag.
This is a great bit of basic kit. I keep my camera in this dry bag when I cannot take my whole camera bag. I normally take a hand towels and wrap the camera in the hand towel and put the camera inside the bag so there is a bit of cushioning plus also to use when I take out the camera to dry my hands and sometimes use the towel to cover the camera a bit when I'm taking pictures with wet gloves if I cannot get my gloves off in time with a fish on the boat etc. You can also attach the dry bag to any of your other cases and boxes for ease of carrying.
I have used this AFTCO bag for many years and works really well for mild weather trips, not 100% waterproof but a great splash proof bag with a good zip and top cover system that covers the zip totally. Mainly use this for smaller boats.
This is a present from my Mom after I was complaining when back in South Africa about bags and waterproof bags etc. She bought this for me to use as a duffel/Backpack that I can carry onto the plane and have heaps of storage space plus waterproof. the bag is made by North Face. I'm going to try it on the next trip but also looking maybe at the Simms backpack after taking a look at Lukes bag.
Well hope this helps a bit and gives a bit of an idea on a better solution for someone. If this is helpful at all, I'll put up a post next week before I leave for Southern Oman on how I pack everything ready for the trip?
Cheers,
Nick
