About the only drawback that fishing for different species brings is the amount of different tackle that you require to do it properly. I tend to have two rucksacks, and two quivers permanently set up at home so that I haven’t got to keep on chopping and changing my gear to go fishing. The only things I have to move are my flask and camera.

My ‘river’ rucksack had just about seen it’s final days so I decided to buy a new one for the start of the river season.

Looking through loads of different rucksacks the one I decided on was the Gardner Barbel / Specialist Rucksack.

This has proved to be a cracking piece of kit. It isn’t to big, and because of the way it sits on your back you hardly know you are wearing it even on fairly long walks.

The bag has a fairly large main compartment which will take my flask and a water bottle along with a sandwich box, camera and bulb release in a hard case, camera tripod, over trousers and 2 spare spools of line.

There is an insulated top compartment which is a nice touch for keeping freezer baits etc fresh.

There are two side pockets which comfortably take my Avon scales and a weigh sling.

There is also a large front pocket which again is a really nice touch has it comes complete with a mini tackle box which sits inside a mesh inner pocket. I also put another bits box and my polaroids in this front pocket.

Because of the way the bag is constructed it always stays upright and doesn’t collapse in on itself, meaning that you can have all of your tackle to hand in seconds. I always try and make things as easy as possible and this rucksack certainly helps.

I would say that looking at the build quality it will last a good while, as the material is nice and thick and the zips are heavy duty all the way through.

My only slight gripe is that it would be better if you could remove the top compartment (zip it off) altogether has it is quite large, being designed to hold up to 5Kg of freezer baits. This would just make the bag even smaller to carry.

So if you are after a new rucksack, for your river fishing have a look at this one. For about £40 I think it will be hard to beat.

Cheers,
Pat Gillett

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