Another Wee Disappointment

To follow up on the disappointing Opening Day of 2007, another wee disappointment. Late last season, I obtained a William Joseph chest pack after having found their waders to be terrific.  The descriptions I had read about the Chest Pack were all impressive, so I went ahead and got one.

By the time it arrived, I was too busy to switch over from using my bag and/or vest – and although I inspected it, and really liked the features – I didn’t use it much at all on the water. Along with the construction and design, I really looked forward to the ability of having a high volume water bladder, carried in a rear pocket on the back.

Last night, I decided to get ready for today’s Opening Day, and see if I could fully make the switch to the William Joseph chest pack.  I filled up the water bladder, put in the rear back panel, and then put the Chest Pack on.

Well, with a full water bladder, this chest pack is unusable for me. The weight of the water pulls the back portion down so the weight is sitting too low.

There are adjusting straps – but this particular model comes with this sort of “snap” plastic thing, over the straps under the front pockets that provide the adjustment for the tightness of the shoulder straps.

But this “snap” gizmo is so weak, that any pressure on the loop that is formed causes the snap gizmo to fail – and the chest pockets slide down. I had thought that perhaps if I were to put my wading belt through the loops formed by pulling downward on the adjusting straps, that would provide enough tension to keep the weight of the back panel higher on m back, rather than sagging.

In principle it would work – if the snap “gizmo” thing wasn’t so weak.  Any downward pressure below that snap thing causes it to open up – and all the adjustments become unadjusted.

Without the weight of the water filled bladder, everything is fine.  But that feature of having a water bladder, stored in a panel on the back, with a long tube that the water can be drawn from when thirsty was a big selling point for me as well as the rest of the design.  I find it awkward and annoying to keep bottles of water in vest pockets or even in my bag – all extra weight on the fronts or tops of my shoulders and more bulk in front that I don’t want.  And I can be a thirsty guy while out on the river – with despising the thought of leaving the river to head to my auto for more water if all I’ve carried are bottles of small volume.

I’m going to send a note to the good folk at William Joseph and ask them if maybe I’m missing something here that is not obvious to me to make this work better.  Overall, I really like the idea of the built in “fly stations” in the chest pack which negates the need to carry fly boxes as well as the tippet dispensing system built into one of the front pockets.  I tend to lose flies at times, when changing them – holding my rod, opening a fly box, putting the fly just taken from my line, and rushing to find another fly that matches the hatch going on. Sometimes, I’ll even drop my fly boxes in the river… which is a real pain. The built in fly stations in the William Joseph pack that I have should eliminate some of that.  If I can get the thing to be comfortable while having a filled water bladder.

I’ll write a more full review of the pack after any response from William Joseph.