My "ultimate" day pack for packrafting and fly fishing

[andrewa]

One of the reasons I make gear is because I have a niche useage, for which nothing "perfect" exists commercially.

Each year I go to NZ, and spend 10 days in a wilderness area bushwalking/"tramping", fly-fishing, and packrafting. We helicopter into a river, then tramp (using NZ terminology) up it; find a useful campsite, dump gear, fly fish upstream, raft back down to camp, and every couple of days we move our camp-site further upstream. At the end of the trip, we raft out to the bottom of the river, and helicopter back to civilisation. For this reason, we need a perfect day-pack that will carry a packraft and paddle, and also the stuff we need during the day.

I made this one over the last few evenings (probably "phase 4 of the perfect daypack", for me. Design has a roll top closure, very tall side pockets that my Aquastealth 4 piece paddle fits in perfectly, goretex back-panel (piece of old bivvy bag), that will hopefully keep my back drier , and attachments for my landing net. For this one, I've used shoulder straps from "Crapmandhu" seconds. Previously I've made my own shoulder straps, but I've often found shoulder straps in their "rejects/seconds" pile for about $5 per pair, and it just isn't worth making them for this. Whilst it has a roll top closure, it is only water-resistant , because of the seams, so I normally use a home made dry bag inside when rafting. Design can be easily be modified for carrying skis, or whatever other uses you have.

Total weight 340g.

Andrew A

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[sailfish]

Well Done Andrew.

Where do you stow your rod, reel and associated fly gear so it's all handy fishing upriver and safe rafting down?
What rod and reel are you using? weight, number of pieces etc?
What is the reinforced olive fabric, pitty it's so shiny?

Regards,
Ken

[andrewa]

Ken,

I carry my fly-fishing stuff (2 foam fly boxes, plus leader material, plus odds and ends) in a small home made shoulder bag about 20x 12 x 7cm. It can either sit to one side, or potentially be attached to the shoulder straps as a small chest pack, although I'd rather it was slung on my side.

Generally I use a 4 piece 9' fly rod. Rather than taking a rod tube to protect it, I have found that a nylon "sock" seems to work nicely to protect it for everything except airports, when a rod-tube is a must. I also use a 6 piece 9' Cabelas fly rod as a spare, and this is perfect. I wish I had 2!

The fabric is some light weight X-pack fabric from Dimension Polyant. They were great to deal with, and sell loads of "end of roll" stuff at good prices. Fabric is very waterproof, but, for me, it seems to wear badly around seams on my home made rucksacks, so, from that point of view the lightweight stuff isn't that durable, but, as I'm always redesigning stuff, it isn't that irritating to upgrade every few years. On dry bags etc, there has been no significant wear. I would use their fabric for rucksacks and dry bags/packliners, but for anyone wanting ultralight stuff, even their lightest fabric is quite heavy.

Their ?1.1oz fabric (plus ?????2oz coating) makes for a waterproof, and durable tarp, but at a weight expense. It depends what you want from your gear. Car camping...perfect. Want to save weight.....use it for rucksacks, but be prepared to keep designing an "ultimate" one every few years if using the lightweight fabrics (the heavier fabrics are used by Kathmandu, and obviously last quite well).

A

[Nuts]

I like it, simple, clean.. well done