On Feb 19, 11:37*pm, rb608 wrote:
The subject of vest weight has come up before and again just recently,
and I thought I'd offer up my Boy Scout "Be Prepared" fishing vest for
discussion. *On the few occasions I hit the rivers, I'm planning to
make a day of it. *I'm usually an inconvenient distance from my car,
and anything I want for 8 hours, I need to take with me.

I'm all for a light vest, and I really don't take too much extra
fishing gear. *Then again, what do a few leaders or spools of tippet
weigh anyway. *No, fishing supplies add virtually nothing to my vest,
yet the last time I was up on the Salmon River, I think my vest must
have weighed ten pounds. *Why? *It's the other stuff.

It's no fun getting hungry when the catching is good, so I stuff a few
granola bars in the back pocket. *Getting dehydrated is worse, so a
couple bottles of water go in there too. *Now the vest is a load.
Stuff a stuffable rain jacket back there too, and now it's bulky *and*
heavy. *Then there's the flask of single malt (optional, I suppose,
for some), a few good cigars, and a small supply of TP, and a small
camera. *In the end, my vest ends up more a backpack than a fishing
aid.

I don't really have a question, except, does everyone else take all
this **** when they go out for a day? *Or, do you plan to be closer to
your vehicle and leave more stuff behind?

Joe F.

Am I the only person who actually uses a *backpack*? I stuff my vest,
reels, water bottles, cigars, a book, GPS, TP, etc into it and wear it
to the river. If I'm fishing a pool and will be returning to the same
spot I hang the pack on a tree and don the vest. If I'm wading up a
river, I put the vest on and put the pack on over it. That way, I
still have all my fishing goodies handy, and can still drop the pack
if I stop for a spell at one spot.

I worry about a heavy vest. Having swum plenty of rapids during my
whitewater days, there's no way I want all that weight and claptrap
rattling around me if I take a fall while crossing at a rapid or slip
into a deep pool.

--riverman