A versatile tackle bag from Maxpedition

I've been fishing for years and had all sorts of ways of carrying my fishing lures and accessories. I've bought chest and shoulder packs from Orvis and waistpacks for wading from William Joseph. They either didn't carry enough stuff or they were uncomfortable or inconvenient to wear. Then after being on the Every Day Carry forums web site for a while and purchasing several of Maxpedition's excellent pouches, backpacks and other gear, I ran across a new Maxpedition Fatboy for very cheap on the *-bay and figured "why not?".

Well, the pack arrived and after adjusting the strap to my 6'1" frame, the location for the pack felt very convenient. Unlike my waistpack (a fishing version of a fanny pack), I didn't have to swing it around to take things in and out of it and the Fatboy was easy to access. The strap was also very comfortable.

I started loading up the pack with "stuff".

On the right side, I was able to put a Surefire 6p in the supplied holster without a problem.

On the left side, the pocket was perfect for my handheld GPS that contains waypoints to some favorite spots on some rivers, lakes and bays I go to. The outside MOLLE straps also were useful as a place to holster my clamps that I use to remove fly hooks. This pocket could also be useful to hold your polarized sunglasses.

The cellphone holster held my small slider style phone but I can see where some larger phones may have some issues.

The front flap has a small zippered pocket on the outside that would be useful to store hooks, swivels or anything small that can be kept relatively flat and would be useful to access without opening up the flap.

Under the front flap and front most pocket I placed some fly leaders, tippet, line clipper and in the front zippered compartment a medium size fly box along with a small LED headlamp (such as the Princeton Tec Aurora) for night fishing.

The main compartment can hold a large fly box or several bags of plastic lures or a small Plano box with crankbaits, etc. tucked into the mesh panels on the inside. I was also able to stow a set of compact binoculars in there as well.

Of course, if you are fishing in a really remote area filled with wild pigs, gators, or other predators or bandits and you are able to carry a small pistol, that of course will fit in the CCW pocket located at the rear of the pack accessible by the zipper on the top of the pack. If not for a CCW then this would be a good spot for a small first aid kit in a waterproof plastic baggie.

I also purchased a Maxpedition Three-by-Five pouch to attach to the pack to hold a small digital camera because of course nobody will believe how big that fish you caught and released was without photos, right?

It turned out that the velcro patch area located on the top of the pack had a useful purpose for me in that it was an ideal place for a foam fly patch to put flies to dry after use. It turns out that I have more than a couple of foam fly patches that have the velcro already attached from other packs from Orvis and William Joseph that worked perfectly but they can be obtained from just about any fly shop or you can obviously make your own.

If you use conventional tackle, you can also take a look at the TALS tackle tubes which have a very innovative set of products of which the tubes are the main one that attach to velcro surfaces. The tubes rotate open so that you can remove and safely store something like a crankbait and have it easily accessible on any surface with velcro. To the right is a closeup photo of a TALS tube that I could attach to the velcro patch of the Fatboy if I were so inclined.

Some folks may not like the color scheme I picked but I did say I got it cheap off the *-bay, didn't I?

I think I'm going to like this pack more than the ones I have had in the past that were specifically designed as fishing gear. It certainly seems more versatile.