There is an awful lot of luggage about and no matter what you want to carry someone, somewhere will make a bag for you to put it in and add to the weight you are carrying to your swim…
There is also an awful lot of luggage about for getting gear to your swim, whether you are doing so by motor, barrow or good old fashioned chuck it over the shoulder and off you go. This particular bag falls very firmly into the latter category and, as the name suggests, it is designed primarily for the day session angler.
Camo gear seems to have fallen out of favour a little these days and after years of being able to buy virtually every bit of kit imaginable (including rods and reels) in some form of camo it is perhaps no wonder; it didn’t help that some of the patterns were truly awful and looked totally out of place in a typical UK river or lakeside environment! Apart from the odd jacket I’ve never owned a camo bit of kit, always opting for the ubiquitous ‘drab green’ variants, so this was a bit of a first for me and I wasn’t at all disappointed when I opened the box as I found the pattern and colours to be excellent, not too OTT at all, and very much at home alongside the river bank in mid June.
To be sure it doesn’t really matter what colour your carryall is it’s how it does the job it’s designed to do but I did have a feeling that if I was tucked away in a sneaky river swim somewhere, as is my habit, no passing anglers would be alerted to my presence by my bag!
So does the carryall do what it is supposed to? Well yes it does – and it does it rather well!
Given the relative size of the market I should imagine this carryall will end up alongside a lot of commercial fisheries rather than be subject to the, perhaps, more extreme environment of the river or carp/specialist angler and I looked at it from my personal point of view as someone who, these days, only tends to fish rivers and who gives their tackle somewhat extreme usage. I figured if I was happy with it for my use then it would cope pretty much anywhere.
First things first and the overall construction was from a tough, tear resistant fabric which, although not described as waterproof, looked to me like it would take one hell of a downpour to get through it. Webbing was in olive green and the EVA base was black, zippable and described as waterproof – It was dry when I took it out but I had a play in the shower (like you do) and I wouldn’t argue. All of the zips were double, appeared sound, were well-stitched and featured cloth pullers. The top-mounted handle was sound and sheathed in a comfortable dense foam grip, the shoulder strap was padded, again solid, adjustable and was detachable via moulded clips. There was no anti-slip coating but that’s being fussy and it was not dissimilar to most similar carryalls in that respect.
The top compartment opened up to reveal a padded interior, offering a degree of insulation, and I had no problem fitting in an ice pack and couple of kilos of boilies and pellets although if you were so minded it would hold enough food and drink for a day session – unless you were positively Bunter-esque in your day session calorie requirements.
Beneath that the zipped main compartment measured 36cm long x 22cm wide x 25cm deep and in it I could easily fit a large Fox Box (on its side), together with a camera, two accessory bags of leads, feeders and bits, a small flask, tubes of PVA, a towel and a few odds and ends.
The front zipped pocket just housed a small Fox Box and two smaller, zipped side pockets took my head torches, a rig pouch, spare spools and a few smaller sundries. I’ve always liked bags with zipped bases as they offer waterproof storage of wet and smelly slings and sacks and the base of the Camo Carryall took my scales, weigh sling, forceps and fish welfare bits with room to spare.
Despite the compact nature of the Camo carryall there was more than enough room to pack in everything you might need for a day session – be it on a commercial, a river or on a roving / stalking carp session; on top of that it looked good and appeared durable and well made.
The Theseus Camo Day Session Carryall retails at £29.99 which, to my mind, is an excellent price but it is currently on offer HERE for £24.99
I’m supposed to be sending this one back after review but Theseus might have to fight me for it – it’s much better than the one (by another manufacturer) I’m currently using!
