News:

The Best Fishing Forum In The UK.
Do You Have What It Takes To Be A Member?

Main Menu
Please consider a donation to help with the running costs of this forum.

Gear review

Started by caorach, November 28, 2021, 02:48:53 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

caorach

Sometimes I do a bit of a "gear review." I'm not really a gear person so it often isn't what you expected but...

The only real "new" gear I added this season was a new waterproof coat. I wear a surplus windproof smock for pretty much all of my fishing as it is shower proof and allows for walking without getting that damp condensation thing going on inside. It also has great pockets. The problem is on a very wet day but then I would wear a waterproof shell INSIDE the smock as that way I keep all my pockets etc. As a result I will sometimes carry a waterproof shell in the rucksack and this season I acquired a Sitka Kodiak jacket. It is made from "Gore Pro" I'm told and as a result the full price was completely scary, I think it was up around £700 at one stage. However, being from the US means that there is a new model every year and so I was able to get last year's model for £240. The jacket is knee length but designed such that you can easily walk in it, the hood is pretty good, it appears to be waterproof, and it is about as breathable as any plastic coat. Design is fairly basic but they have added a few "features" like zips to allow access to inside pockets and so on and these aren't really necessary but I guess they need something to change for next year. The jacket spent about 5 weeks on Lewis with me this Autumn in pretty wet weather so it was in the rucksack most days and it seems to have survived well. As the price was in the order of what you'd pay for a decent jacket I'm currently calling it a good buy.

Some time back I was looking to change tyres on my pickup. Having good tyres really makes a difference to my fishing when going out tracks as it gives a little margin for error plus I'm on forestry tracks all winter so I do get value from a set of All Terrain type tyres. I was running BFGs which get a great reputation but which I found disappointing in almost all conditions so I was looking for something else. I got Pirelli All Terrain Plus tyres fitted in early September and have to say that I've been really pleased with them. They offer much better performance on anything wet than the BFGs did, and that includes in off road situations, and they are also much more well behaved on the road. They are also said to be very good on the snow but I haven't tested that yet and Pirelli also claim that their design makes them much better behaved on wet grass than other ATs and, again, I haven't tested that claim yet. I did have a puncture with them but it was a nail right through the centre of the tyre and I honestly don't think any tyre would have survived that, it was an easy fix however. So if you are looking AT tyres for UK use on wet roads, wet tracks, wet snow etc. then the Pirellis are worth a look, the only down side is that they are not as robust as the BFGs and so there may be some limited situations where they aren't going to work well.

Big lures for Lewis loch trout - I've been trying a selection of big lures including weighted ones on the Lewis lochs this year and really haven't been having much success with them. I'd say my most successful fly this year was a Kate McLaren :-) It has been an interesting experiment and I will probably continue trying them out now and again next year but it might be that traditional loch flies have been used for years for a reason.

arawa

Hello Philip - good to hear from you again.
I used to drive a landrover fitted with AT tyres and while it was unstoppable most of the year it was absolutely deadly on ice. Not so good in snow either as snow/ice seemed to get packed into the treads and you ended up with a slick tyre! That was a few years ago though so technology might have improved.
I have the latest Goodyear Vector All Seasons on my Forester and I was impressed with their performance on icy and white roads over the past few days.

caorach

Quote from: arawa on November 29, 2021, 10:58:23 AM
Hello Philip - good to hear from you again.
I used to drive a landrover fitted with AT tyres and while it was unstoppable most of the year it was absolutely deadly on ice. Not so good in snow either as snow/ice seemed to get packed into the treads and you ended up with a slick tyre! That was a few years ago though so technology might have improved.
I have the latest Goodyear Vector All Seasons on my Forester and I was impressed with their performance on icy and white roads over the past few days.

Hi David,

I've been lying low for a few weeks, nothing at all serious but just work and "stuff" mostly.

Most AT tyres were a disaster on snow or ice as they simply weren't designed for this but recently the manufacturers are catching on. The BFGs that I had sported the "3 peak" snow rating but I suspect this was related to performance in soft, dry, snow and not to hard packed, wet, slushy, UK snow. The Pirellis that I've recently fitted also have the "3 peak" rating and they look much more snow capable with a goodly number of sipes. Going back a while I had Yokohama AT tyres and they looked like some effort had been put into making them work in snow and they were excellent in snow - I had them fitted around the 2009 - 2010 winters when we had lots of snow. So, I'm hopeful that the new Pirellis will do OK on the snow, they will never be a "snow tyre" but they should be much better than a standard "summer" tyre.

When it comes to ice then I think the only thing that really works is a tyre with studs, but I have no experience at all of that. However I believe that modern tyre technology can produce winter tyres that can give big advantages on ice over older tech or the non-winter type tyres.

As you say you really notice the improved performance of a winter or all season tyre once you get the snow. I know that some people say "you don't need a winter tyre in the UK as you only drive on snow 5 days per year" but the corollary to this is that if you put the car into the ditch on one of those 5 days then you are going to wish you had fitted suitable tyres, and they don't stop you using the car on other days. The same thing applies to the AT tyres, I do most of my miles on the road but if it weren't for the AT tyres I simply couldn't do the things I do that are off the road even if that only accounts for a small percentage of my actual mileage.

Philip.

Go To Front Page