| Kleis's Korner Gear Review "William Joseph Flux Pack" |
| Saturday, August 13, 2011 13:16 |
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By JON KLEIS I recently purchased the William Joseph Flux pack and it is by far my favorite pack on the market this year. The Flux waist pack is incredibly light at 2lbs 5 oz. and has a massive 1100 cubic inch storage capacity. Im not a fan of the bright colors such as the blues and reds you see on a lot of todays packs so I love the fact that it is a light sage green and really low key. Stopping short of having a full out back support this pack has good padding behind the main compartment and on the sides and it rest comfortably in any position.
The front pocket is held together by a very strong magnet and doubles as a working tray when open complete with the ability to attach a fly patch with velcro. The compartment behind that is larger and is just a basic storage. The main and largest storage compartment has sufficient space to hold at least 6 large C&F boxes and enough pockets to store a few bells and whistles like tippet and hemostats. The side pockets are almost large enough to hold another large C&F box on either side.
The zippers are basic with one exception which is that they have large grips for guys who have big hands or who are more concerned with catching that next fish than they are trying to find the zipper on there pack. It comes with the standard water bottle holders on both sides. The shoulder strap is padded and very sturdy and has worked great for me up to this point.
If there was nothing else to know about this pack it would be worth the suggested retail of $119.95 so now I am going to tell you my absolute favorite feature and the reason it is worth the purchase. It looks as if the zipper behind the main compartment is for storage until you open it and discover that there is a large stripping basket. Why is that so awesome you ask?
If you fish the places that I fish you will see very soon that it sucks having to deal with untangling your fly line at your feet because it got stuck on a stick or in the bushes. When you go to make your next cast and it only shoots 10 ft. which is 20 feet short of your target because your line is wrapped six ways from sunday around a tree or rock you will be standing there wishing you had a basket to strip your line into.
This feature is also great for streamer fishing. When you're waiding you discover pretty quick that when all of your line is competely stripped in and the current is pulling against it your cast gets disrupted. This especially holds true when you are constantly stripping in line and making long casts like when you're streamer fishing. Dont get me wrong I think I have used the stripping basket 4 times since I picked up the Flux in early June but it is definetly nice to have the option of being able to pull out a decent sized stripping basket that is conveniently located in your waiste pack. Anybody that fishes from the bank in 11mile canyon can vouch for that. The Flux is also a great pack for fishing from a boat for the same reason.
The Willaim Joseph Flux is available at Anglers Covey fly shop along with several other W.J. packs that came out this year. Stop by and give these things a look if you're serious about getting a new pack. Tight Lines!
Here is the link to their website if you want to do more research for yourself... http://www.williamjoseph.net/ The Willaim Joseph Flux is available at Anglers Covey fly shop along with the other W.J. packs that came out this year. Stop by and give these things a look if you're serious about getting a new pack. Tight Lines!
Check out my blogspot for even more gear reviews and educational posts at http://coloradoflyfisher.blogspot.com/
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