I’m not big on “repping” products, but I got a new bag for fishing and it’s pretty damn amazing. I ordered a Beast Sling from the folks at Vedavoo and they did a stellar job. This thing far exceeds my expectations and it’s top notch quality. Made in the USA of American products and giving good folks, good jobs. I’d definitely recommend them to anyone. Did I mention that it’s wicked comfortable to carry too? Yesterday I spent three hours fishing and barely knew it was there.
Scott at Vedavoo is very accommodating. I ordered a sling pack from him a couple of years back, he couldn’t ship it to me before I left home for three weeks to go to Pocahontas County. While our house there has an address, there is no mail box. But it was no problem for him to ship the pack to be held for pickup at the Dunmore post office. Nicely made, with good features. But that being said I haven’t used it as much as I thought I would. I usually don’t carry much gear. I use it a little during cooler months.
Yes, i agree @dwalker, Scott was great to work with and willingly accommodated my minor requests. If I just go out for an hour or two, I grab a fly box and some tippet. If I’m out longer than that (which is more common for me), I like to bring water, some food, and weather depending, a rain jacket. Not to mention a couple of fly boxes and different lines.
A friend has convinced me to start carrying a small first aid kit if I’m gone for more than a few hours. Now I’m trying to figure out which one I want to get. This pack will easily accommodate a small kit without much weight or hindrance to my fishing.
I find most “Kits” to be close to useless and too bulky.
Band aids…and ointments…will be useless in a real emergency.
Consider Duct tape or electrical tape, super glue, and a decent amount of pain killers/anti inflammatory pills.
Around the house I am always spliting myself open. I always use duct tape as it never comes loose.and is broad. One could probably wrap some around a small dowel to make a compact roll.
Electrical tape is good too…waterproof…etc.
On either buy top grade…
1 Like
Peder,
This is a really cool pack. I need to follow what you do and stop carrying so much stuff.
I got into this bad habit from fly fishing and it seems I’m doing the same darn thing in tenkara
fishing. Maybe a pack like this would solve my tendency to haul too much stuff. Are there
other sling packs you would also recommend or should I stay with Vedavoo Beast Sling?
Hi Mike. Yes, the pack is really great and far exceeded my expectations. For being a sling pack, this is still plenty big and if you’re not careful you could fit a lot of stuff in it.
I think it’s partially a decision to make, then followed up by practice, lots of practice. I would highly recommend getting one of their packs. Not including the women’s specific model, they have four different sling packs. So you could certainly get a smaller one as a starting point. Regardless of what it is in life, I believe that we each need to figure out what gets is excited to make those decisions we want to make.
Whether that means finding a fun way to get exercise or donating your TV to charity or getting a new pack. While is definitely recommend getting a sling from Scott and his team, think about this first.
Think about your last four or five fishing trips and try to look at just the facts (not what you thought).
- How long did you go out for?
- How far away from home were you?
- Were you away from mobile phone service?
- Of everything you brought with you (including what you left in your vehicle) what did you actually use?
- How many rods did you actually use?
*How many flies/kebari did you actually use/lose?
I find that actually writing these things down helps a lot. Besides, the next time you go fishing you’ll already have a list made. Then when you’re done, you can do they process again. Maybe you really did miss something that you left behind or maybe you need to thin things down some more.
This is my process. Maybe it works for you and maybe it won’t. Either way, I hope you get something from it.
1 Like
Thank you very much for your help and advice Peder. I will try this to see what I can thin out
from the pile that I carry to go fishing. I am sure my back will thank me.
1 Like
I really dig my zimmerbuilt sling lite. Perfect for most outings. The tailwater and sling lite cover the spectrum of day outings.
2 Likes
I use a sling bag by Patagonia called “Atom” I bought at REI for about $60. Lots of capacity, rides nicely on my back, way less expensive than anything “made for fly fishing” because that seems to really invite price gouging IMO.
I’m also a big fan of the Zimmerbuilt Tenkara Sling Lite. More than enough room for a day’s worth of food/water/beer/rainjacket/flyboxes/first aid…
And to Gressak’s point of duct tape as bandages – if you wrap a BiC lighter with duct tape or Gorilla Tape, you’ve got a couple bases covered.
2 Likes
I have just bought a sling bag in the UK. The bag is called ‘The Healthy Back Bag’ and it fits over the left or right shoulder. It is ideal for general use or fishing and is sold in varying sizes and colours (mine is Forrest Green). The bag is marketed in the UK by a UK subsidiary of an American Company, so I am sure many American stores will sell them.
Here is their web address,
https://www.ameribag.com/Men.html
David
I do the gorilla tape and lighter thing. Learned that almost 30 years ago in the boy scouts. Whoever thought of that idea was brilliant.
1 Like
Never heard of that one. I will need to follow that tip.
Ductape and fire. Two of the most important primary elements of survival…hahahahahhha
1 Like
That duct/gorilla tape lighter idea is genius! I use a Vedavoo Seam Sling Pack. I thought about the sling, but for me, the more space I have to fill in a pack, the more I will fill it with things I don’t need. The Seam sling works perfectly for me to keep what I carry to a minimum. Scott is one of the nicest dudes, too. I’ll gladly the price, because, I know that the packs are built here in the states and supports his small business.
1 Like
I learned this from Yuzo Sebata years ago. I believe Keiichi Okushi wrote about it in stories of Genryu.
I read about how people struggle with carrying too much. Yes, it is a struggle and it’s ok. We do what we do and it is our evolution.
There are people you can follow to steepen the learning curve but ultimately, it is our own path we create.
I am finding that creating pack lists and comparing those lists later with the experience is what helps me. I see what I thought I needed, then what I used. Then I see what I didn’t have and then amend the list and do it again.
I just removed a lot of equipment from my quiver. Very liberating.
My mantra, “only what I need.”
The comforts of stuff is real.
The reality of our experience is too.
Dive back in to Keiichi’s experiences for a look into experience.
I dig my sling light and I really hate sling bags, it’s the truth, not quite a strap pack, not enough for a small day pack. The guide sling? It doesn’t make sense to me, but that is the beauty of diversity.
I like sling packs because everything is out of the way until I need it. I use this 15 liter 2015-2017 version of the PAS sling pack as a replacement for my 7 liter 2012-2014 PAS; now pretty much relegated to saltwater beaches in the winter where I don’t need to carry a jacket because I’m wearing it!
There are some things I really like, a couple of small issues that I’ve learned how to work with, and one issue on both versions that I am really struggling with.
I absolutely love having a pocket on the strap for keeping my hemo-scissors secured so they don’t foul my fly line and I have unobstructed vision of the streambed at my feet. The hemos are right there when I need to unhook a fish without slinging the pack around to get at the hemo pocket like you do for the 2018 version.
I often log my trip data with an Android fishing app and like the larger “phone pocket” conveniently on the shoulder strap so I can quickly snap a photo of fish in my measure net before releasing and enter catch data without slinging the pack around.
I like the larger size PAS to be able to carry a rain jacket and my Korkers bar soles while I hike in the non-studded Kling-Ons on longer approaches to fish high-remote streams.
I like having the rod straps to carry a Tenkara rod on a long hike in, and even a second Tenkara rod when I think that conditions warrant. However I sewed a small fold over at the free end of both straps so they can’t accidentally slip through the cam buckle and get lost. Also I threaded a neoprene drink bottle koozie with belt loops onto the straps to provide a more secure rod “pouch” and a little protection.
When I sling the pack around to get into the front fly pocket to change flies or rigs, the hemo-scissors are behind me. I found a Walton’s Thumb multi-tool on a short shock cord lanyard fits securely into the little hypalon sleeve next to the water bottle pocket and is convenient when the pack is out front.
The thing that gets me is the position of the net keeper D ring over my right shoulder. I cast right-reel left so I use my left hand to hold the net when landing a fish. The net naturally gravitates to the right and I can’t easily reach back to grab it with my left hand. That’s especially annoying when hand-lining in a big struggling fish on a Tenkara rod. If I stick the handle of my longer handled tamo-net inside my wading belt on my left hip, the net tends to get fouled up on the pack. I like the big tamo but my wife bought me a short folding net to put on my wading belt along with the holster for my folding trekking pole - wading staff. However I like the long handle tamo to easily reach the fish. Thoughts on how to overcome this issue?
1 Like
You need less stuff…hahahaha…thats how you solve it.
If the sling goes from the left shoulder to the right hip…how does it interfere with the tamo on the left hip?
I fish a sling and tamo as noted in the above query and have no issues. I use the zimmerbilt sling lite that might be narrower than the one you have.
The downside of a tamo in the belt is falling on it and breaking it. I have had to do some woodworking on one of my tamos to repair it.
There is a tipping point for me on what I like on my back when I am fishing. Eventually it throws you off balance if it becomes to heavy and starts shifing around.
For surfcasting I am a belt bag guy. The weight is at your center…a far better load distributions.
Utility belt style…never call it a fanny pack…hahahahhaa. Some companies call them lumbar packs.
When I surfcast I probably carry 10 pounds of stuff on my belt. Much easier to fish that way than with it hanging on your shoulders and neck.
The larger bag in the copied post is 12" x 3" x 8"…not including the external pouch.
I think that the biggest impulse that a surfcaster should resist
is…carrying too many plugs. It is something I continue to struggle
with even though I know better.As a new surfcaster, the sooner one learns to control the urge the
better. I would heavily suggest going with a 2 tube belt mount and
balance it with a good bucktail pouch. This will make you think about
the conditions and the spot you are fishing. Try not to over pack that
2 tube, and carry a number of profiles, follow the general rules of
dark and light, and pick plugs that fish the appropriate depth for the
spot. Test access to the lures in the tube and make sure you do not
end up with a barrel full of monkeys…where pulling one plug
removes them all. If this happens, you really have too many and it
will be counter productive when you are out in the surf. I have lost
more lures this way than snagging structure. Like, quietly one of the
monkies jumps off and floats away when I am not looking.I suggest belt mount, because even on a sand beach I find that
having anything hanging from my shoulders shortens my outing.
Not just the weight but also the shifting of weight on a cast. Even
the shifting weight of a camera, annoys me. Some guys fish with 3
and even 4 tube bags hanging on their shoulders. I have no idea how
they can do this.I like ballancing the belt with a bucktail pouch…its a counter weight
to the plug bag. I have owned aquaSkinz, Mak, and GearUp. For me
the GearUp pouch is the best. I use the pouch for bucktails, riggies,
softplastics, and sp minnows. If you find Toby’s tutiorial on how to
modify sp minnows to a single hook rig…it will enable you to also
use bucktail slots to store them as they will have no tail hook. No
more digging to the bottom of a plug tube for shorter profile
swimmers. Storing them in a bucktail pouch both frees up space and
extends the functionality of the bucktail pouch.this is a pic of a Commando 3 tube belt mount.
Last year, I was fortunate enough to get a Commando 3 tube slim
bag. Awesome bag. The bag is just boarderline small enough to
wear on a belt. The reason I like this bag is that some larger profile
plugs like GRS nearly consume a whole 3" tube on their own. GRS
slims you have a little more wiggle room. In general, The most you
can fit is 2-3 plugs in a tube…so having the extra room is a plus.
Most 3 tube bags would be way to big to do a belt mount. If you
want to a 3 tube belt mount, you should work with a bag builder and
have a custom one made.
The only downside with a 3 tube for my setup is its mobility. It can
be a little bit of a handicap when climbing onto rocks. Mostly because
there is no where to slide it on the belt. It has a big footprint.I hope the info helps…
I do resemble that remark 
.
Here’s a pic
Both the 7 and 15 liter versions of the pack are not ambidextrous and present this issue for me. They are designed so the strap goes over the right shoulder. I’m right handed, cast right (& reel left with a western rod). I want to use my left hand to net fish.
To bring the pack around to the front, it is slung to the left.
If the net is hung from the D ring on the strap it hangs down on my right. I hold the rod with my right hand. I have to reach across my back and over the pack with my left hand to get to the net.
When I put a net with a 12" diameter net bag in my belt on the left, the net and the pack are competing for the same space.
If the net is in the belt on my left, it doesn’t work for the net to be over the pack, because if I sling the pack left around to the front it pulls the net out of my belt.
The pack is strapped down to hold it snug against me. If the pack is on top of the net, I’d have to use my left hand to unstrap the pack then reach back around to the left to pull the net out from under the pack and out of the belt. And when I sling the pack left around to the front it still pulls the net out of my belt.
So I use the folding net
Does anyone else use this pack?
1 Like
I really wanted to like it, but don’t. I have lots of stuff from Patagonia and have been using their products since the early 1990’s. I’ve tried this pack on in the store so many times I can barely count, but there were just too many things that I didn’t like about it.
There were a few minor issues with the pockets and the huge foam fly patch is a waste of space IMO. The exterior straps were too short and too close together. Maybe it’s how I’m physically built (6’5"/195cm & 240#/109kg) but it never sat comfortably across my shoulder. The weight balance was also off and even walking through the shop with weight in it, it would creep around my side.
I’ve posted elsewhere here, but I ended up get a Vedavoo Beast sling and love it.
One thing is I now clip my hemostats to the front shoulder strap for easier access.
1 Like
Thanks for the response. I actually use the fly foam for my flies in my 15 liter freshwater PAS and I’d like to source a silicone fly sheet to replace the foam.
As for my 7 liter PAS I use separate fly boxes for saltwater tube flies and flies on standard hooks. The zippered fly bench compartment is too small for both boxes.
Woah, yes that would be a problem for you. I’m 5-11 185 and the fit is pretty good.
I see it can be ordered right or left handed. Is it large enough to carry a jacket and lunch along with fly boxes? I’ve also thought about a Fp Delta Sling
or DIY something from a military surplus shoulder bag.
