Aldi rod holdall and fishing bag – Review
When Aldi told us they were about to go into the fishing tackle business again a few doubt-bombs went off in my head.
Would anglers brought up to buy name-branded, well designed products buy items from Aldi? Hmm. Well, I suppose so; if the quality was right and the products compete then only the price would be a sticking point. Not much chance of that however, Aldi’s unique selling point is that they sell stuff at very, very inexpensive prices indeed.
So price is not going to be much of a shopping barrier then? Okay. So let’s have a look. They have sent me two items so far. There’s a rod holdall and a ‘fishing bag’ which the labels tell me are ‘produced’ in Germany. Does that mean made in Germany though? Hmm.
First the rod holdall.
First impressions. The material its constructed from seems to be as good as any other rod holdall hanging in the shops. It’s 100% thick heavy-duty polyester. Looks to be very waterproof and rather good quality. The stitching seems to be very strong, I can’t tear it, and where it counts, handle joins etc, its been reinforced and double stitched. All the zips look to be at least as good as on any of my other luggage. Not bad. So far, so good.
Open it up.
Inside it has a couple of dividers to separate the rods. These are thinner than they could be and won’t afford much protection from heavy treatment, but it’s better than nothing. There are no straps there to hold the rods in place, the rod sections will be falling and rubbing up against each other. So that’s a minus. A shame, because there are some Velcro straps in there, but in the wrong position to hold rods
On the outside there is a long pocket with a handy mini-pocket underneath it, with it’s own zip. Turn it over and on the other side are two large zipped compartments, handy for taking a compartmentalised end-tackle box and a couple of small reels perhaps? Or, better, some lure boxes.
Because there is a major flaw in this item. It is just too short. It’s only 1.55 metres long. This makes it totally useless for the majority of 11ft two piece rods which so many of us use. It’s probably fine if you use shorter sectioned three-piece rods, or short lure rods or fly rods – though I rarely see guys engaged in these kinds of fishing hauling a rod holdall about.
Even the long pocket on the outside is too short to take an umbrella or a landing net handle though it will do for holding rod rests, though these are not a lot of use in lure or fly fishing. I deduce from this that the rod bag has not been produced with the UK market in mind – a basic design flaw that a short chat with any UK angler could have prevented.
Sorry Aldi. Its a chocolate teapot. I can only give it 3/10 no matter how cheap it is.
Update: Price is £11.99
Fishing Bag
Now this one they got lucky with – because I’m sure the manufacturer never consulted any UK anglers with the design of this item either. However it is a seriously useful piece of kit. Made from the same heavy-duty polyester and with same quality zips as the rod-holdall, the main compartment is padded, about a foot wide, eight inches deep and eight inches wide. That’s 30x20x20 I think, in foreign. Centimetres that is. It also has a largish zipped compartment on the top and another similar one on the front – though the front one contains two more ‘hidden’ pockets. The sides of the bag have mesh stuff-pockets and there’s a handy padded carry-strap as well as ‘normal’ carry handles. The bit that did it for me though is the zipped rigid tray at the bottom of the bag. If you use this item as a day-bag or short-session bag, this tray will be perfect for knocking up small quantities of groundbait or paste as and when needed.
It can also be used for plenty of other things; for session anglers, a bait bag, lunch bag, lure bag etc but I’ll use mine for a short session day-bag. There’s just enough space there to take what you need and not so much that you’ll carry so much gear to stop you being mobile. Plus we know it’s going to cost peanuts! (I think it’s going out at under a tenner) Buy three or four, I bet you’ll use them all. Pike bag, barbel bag, trout bag etc etc
9/10. It’s that good.
I’m told the Aldi stores will start selling these items on Sunday 8th August and “When they are gone, they are gone”.
Update: It’s priced at £8.99
Geoff Maynard
