Elkton Outdoors Universal Fit Fly Fishing Vest Backpack with Hard Shell Storage Compartments and Rod Holders

After much review and comparison, I settled on this vest/pack combo to use in places where I may need to take some extra gear along for an extended hike /day of fishing. As others have pointed out, it has some great features and is largely of quality construction.Here are a couple of things I'll add based on my ownership so far.Things I liked:-Not only does the pack have a spot for a hydration bladder, it also has a slot to route the drinking tube out to the front in a low profile tangle free way. (Much like a quality hiking pack.) Some others have you route the tube out the zipper. ( see picture_- Internal main pockets have mesh pockets and drain holes within. (see picture)-Vest can be clipped vs zipped on warm days.- Back is padded and has an internal (Mylar?) stiffener to help distribute the load of the pack. This helps the vest and pack stay put.- The pack has over 30 tie in points/D rings/nylon loops. ( More than any other I looked at.) That makes it supper adaptable for rigging it with add on equipment, rod tubes, etc.-Things I didn't like:-The buckles at the shoulders do slip under load (as others have said. It was easily fixed by using a safety pin through the strap (hidden in the slot for the strap. ( see picture). It's clearly a defect in manufacture though.-The clip closure on front of vest uses elastic material vs nylon strap. I'm sure it won't be long before the elastic looses its stretch.- The front of the hard shelled drop open compartments could use a mesh pocket as they are just wasted space now.-Lastly, and this is a deal breaker for me, is that the main pockets WONT FIT a industry standard large (8") fly box. They will only accept box's up to 7 3/8" from my testing. This is a unfortunate design flaw for those of us fishing bigger flies to warm and saltwater species. I've collected a dozen of these box's and am not going to replace them all to fit a poorly designed pocket. See picture.

The media could not be loaded.  My husband has a fishing camp on Lake Erie where he fly fishes for Steelhead through the winter months. We live South of Pittsburgh and camp is a few hours away. In past years Mike (my hubby) would lug all of his fishing gear back as soon as the weather started getting warmer so that he could fish for Trout around home in the Spring. Last year he mentioned that he wanted to get duplicates of some of his gear so that he wasn't forced to tote a lot back and forth between camp and home. I had bought a few Elkton Outdoors products in the past and have been completely thrilled with the quality so when Mike mentioned that he wanted a 'trout' fishing vest, this is the first place that I looked.The Elkton Outdoors Fly Fishing vest is absolutely perfect. I'll post a video of Mike explaining the features. From the top notch quality to the excellent price point, this vest has everything he wants and needs to make the most of his time on the stream. He asked me last night if I would buy him another of the Elkton vests for his birthday so he could replace the vest he keeps at camp - the fact that he would want to replace his Simms Guide Vest should tell you how much he loves this.Excellent quality, tons of room to carry gear, incredibly comfortable, a fair price, and a happy fisherman - this is a total win!

So far, this replacement of my 20 something year old kahki fishing vest is a winner. While it only has about 1/4 of the pockets of my old vest, I can find everything I need much more quickly. The zip out fly boxes on the front are a great boon, especially if standing waist deep in the water. Pop the pole in the handy pole holder straps, unzip one of the fold out fly pockets and there are your flies, ready to go. The hemostat holder is a joke unless you use a zinger to keep the hemostats attached to the vest. Fortunately the vest comes with two, so I used one of those for hemostats. Plenty of D rings and places to attach things. Nice pack in the back for added gear like a rain slicker or a large sub sandwich. Shoulder straps make the vest adjustable, but they do have a tendency to slide. The vest is reasonably light, holds a good amount of gear and has so far been very comfortable. I would buy this again and recommend to friend.

I searched for several weeks for the right combination of features combined for fly-fishing. After looking at several lower costs options I decided on the Elkton vest. This vest has everything you need from a convenient pole holder (a must for me) to many zippered pockets, D-hooks, and two zingers connected to each side of the vest. I purchased the version with a backpack and was happy to see that an existing water bladder was able to fit within the backpack with a build-in pathway for running the drinking tube. I like to look for remote fishing sites and this rig will make it much easier to hike in to remote creeks. Special Note: I returned the initial vest since once of the compression straps on the backpack did not appear to be properly sewn in. Elkton replaced my vest within 24 hours. Amazing. I highly recommend this great looking vest.

Great design and lightweight. Terrible strap quality. Both pack compression straps broke free within first three uses, front strap broke fourth time out. I used a sewing awl to reattach the back straps and I used the awl to sew my own heavy duty straps and buckle in front. There was about a two inch section of seam that was not sewn together on the pack section when I first received it , again, the sewing awl. Like other reviewers commented, the shoulder straps slide out. I found some double sided Velcro and sewed them around the straps to lock them in. If better strap materials were used and shoulder straps didn’t slide, I would rate this vest a 5.