I realize that this thread has been dormant for awhile, but why not revive it instead of create something new. Besides, this fits in completely. Lest I digress any further, I will get to my point.
Earlier this year, I went fishing with some friends. I exclusively used my Vedavoo Beast sling, that I have written about previously. That had been my only pack for fishing, whether my days were short or long. After almost a year and a half of use (best guess is about 110 days of fishing), my enthusiasm has waned quite a bit for the pack.
I still feel it is durable and very well made, so in that there are no faults. I feel it works relatively well for shorter trips, on warmer days. On longer days, like earlier this year (and fairly regular days I have during the season), I have been very frustrated.
This all lead me to ordering a customized Zimmerbuilt Tailwater. As have others before me, I cannot say enough good about this pack. I really like it and feel that it will likely fit my needs quite a bit better. I’ll see how I feel in a year and a half, but somehow I suspect that I will likely enjoy it even more.
As you can see, one of the big customizations that I had don was for it to no longer be a top-load pack. I had the upper zipper eliminated and one put in down the middle. I liken it to being opened like a baked potato and others liken it to a duffel bag. Either way, you get the idea. There were a number of reasons for this, but I won’t get into them. At each end of the zipper, I also had pull tabs with D-rings. One of the reasons for this is to attach my net. After some use, this works perfectly. I’m very happy with how this turned out. I also omitted the compression cord from the daisy chain. It’s something I don’t personally use and it would obviously get in the way of the zipper. I also had the internal bladder hook omitted (I don’t use water bladders).
Here I added the padded shoulder straps, a recommendation from several people I have spoken with who have Zimmerbuilt packs. As I am 6’5" (197cm), I also took advantage that this was being custom made for me and I lengthened the pack to better fit my torso. The standard Tailwater is 18" (~45.75cm) long, but I had it lengthened to 22" (~56cm). Obviously, this also increased the internal volume of the pack as well. Because of this, Chris recommended that I add a hip belt so it doesn’t slide around, which I had done.
Last, but not least, I asked Chris if he could make the entire top panel into a pocket. He suggested the zipper where it is and it turned out great.