Choosing A New Fishing Shelter

By Author: Elton Murphy
Total Articles: 4
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All wrapped up…

Never before has there been such a wide range of bivvies, shelters, brollies and domes available to the specimen angler, all of which seem to come with a dazzling array of wraps, sheets and fronts as optional extras. Before you even get around to asking whether they are needed or not, half the problem is working out what the difference is between different products available for the same bivvy!

I guess half the problem is that manufacturers aren’t simply content with putting us all in boxes and coming up with products designed to suit us, they then offer each product with a shed load of extras to try and make it all things to all men, be they short, medium or long stay anglers – enough already! It’s overkill in my own humble opinion, and having seen all the options available for some of these products, you could be forgiven for thinking that it’s sometimes a blatant attempt to get hold of our hard earned rather than trying to address the needs of a particular type of angler. I fully appreciate choice can be a good thing, but it’s also possible to have too much of a good thing!

The ...
... result is that many end up shelling out for products they simply don’t need, just because they think they have to have the full monty set up with every conceivable optional extra. I have quite a few friends who have bought various wraps and extras for bivvies that they’ve still never used or have used once, found it did not suit their style of fishing and that’s it, offloaded for a fraction of what it cost them!

They key for me is to start with the basics; get the right bivvy or shelter in the first place, and it’s highly likely you won’t need all the optional extras, get it wrong, and you could well end up buying various bits and pieces to try and make it suit. It’s never easy buying bivvies as there’s nowhere you can go and see all models set up side by side with all the bits and pieces you can get to go with it, as most shops tend to deal with a few brands and stick to them, so you’re left to do your spotting on the banks – but this is no bad thing.

It’s often the case that when I’ve spotted a piece of tackle on the bank that I’m considering getting hold of, I’ll go and talk to the owner to first see if their style of fishing is similar to mine, and get their thoughts on the product in question. I don’t mind saying this up front manner has saved me an absolute fortune over the years, and likewise I’ll happily help others who ask similar questions. Don’t be shy either, sometimes it’s a great idea to try and borrow kit to see if it suits. A mate of mine thought he liked my Ultralite and was in the market for a new shelter, so I let him use mine for a few sessions to see exactly how it suited him, shortly after he got one of his own and he could not be happier with it.

My brother is well into mountain biking, and for the last year has been pondering exactly which model to upgrade to. It was down to about six bikes all between £1,000.00 and £1,500.00. Not cheap, and a decision you really don’t want to get wrong, but what I thought was fantastic was that there’s a cycle shop at one of the tracks he goes to on Cannock Chase where you can take out any model of bike from their shop, and go and get it truly mucked up on the tracks to see exactly how it suits you. For my brother this has been a godsend, and over the course of the last six months he’s tried out all the bikes on his list until he finally narrowed it down to the one that suited him best – which begs the question, wouldn’t it be great if you could do the same with high priced angling equipment?

Although the logistics would need some thought, wouldn’t it be great if you could just make a call or book online to hire out the latest £600.00 bivvy to put it through its paces before committing to purchase?

There’s got to be some mileage. Now, where did I put that application form for Dragon’s Den!

Julian Grattidge - http://www.bivvies.co.uk/