Fishing Vest

One often overlooked item for fishing is the fly fishing vest. Wearing a good quality vest will help you get to your fishing tackle quicker and easier, while feeling like you haven’t got a fishing vest on at all.

Wearing a bad vest, can rub and cut into your shoulders and neck and be a nightmare, especially if you have a lot of fly boxes.

There is a wide range of brands and designs of fly fishing vests and it’s important that your fishing vest meets your angling needs.

All fly fishing vests come with a variety of different size pockets and shapes. It seems like you can never have enough pockets as your tackle and fly boxes seem to get more each year. So a vest with allot of pockets is a must.

Also consider what type of fasteners do the pockets have? Does it have buttons, zips, Velcro or press studs? Some cheaper fishing vests have low quality zippers and studs that jam and rust easy, other low quality ones have a small amount of Velcro that hardly fastens the pocket.

There is nothing more demoralizing then bending over in the water and your prized fly box splashes into the cold water. Even worse, is when you get back to the vehicle after a long walk and you find a vest pocket undone and your favourite fly box is gone! So avoid the cheaper fishing vests.

The weight of the jacket should be evenly spread across the shoulders; the vest should be padded so the fabric doesn’t chaff your neck or shoulders. If you have a tendency to put eight fly boxes, extra fly fishing lines, a rain jacket, camera, drink and snacks in, the vest can get extremely heavy, especially after several hours of fly fishing.

When selecting the fit of your vest, consider if you will be fishing in warmer climates or colder temperatures. If you do a lot of cold water fishing, make sure that the vest has enough room for several layers of clothing, so your arms can be free to cast properly.

If you fish in humid conditions, than a mesh fishing vest will keep you cool. The cheap ones tend to tear on bushes and rot easy.

Some vests have a lot of extra features, that hold this and hold that, however as much as you want one that can carry a tackle shop, try to choose one that hasn’t got too many bits and pieces hanging off them as the fly line can get tangled in your vest.

Some vests even come with a built-in life preserver; this is great if you fish dangerous holes or strong currents. Vests come in a variety of colours, but try to choose a neutral colour that won’t scare of that trophy trout.

One important item of the vest is the length, if you do a lot of wading then a shorter length one is good. You don’t want your fishing gear to get soaking wet when you wade.

A fly fishing vests can be a central part of your fly fishing experience. When selecting a vest, think about what conditions you are fishing in and explore your options. Like most things though, you get what you pay for and a fishing vest is no different.