An Unpleasant Experience With A William Joseph Gear Bag

[Matt Tucker]

I spent this weekend fishing the White River in Arkansas. It was the maiden voyage of my drift boat, so it was a very pleasurable experience. But there were some important lessons to be learned after the completion of this trip. The biggest was that one should never take gear advertised as waterproof as gospel.

It rained a pretty good clip this weekend as we floated the 7 mile trip from the Dam to White Hole access on the White River. Before the rain, we had pulled over to the bank and McClane and I secured the gear as best we could to keep it as dry as possible.

One of the tools we thought we would use was our William Joseph Gear Bags (honestly it is a VERY SEXY bag), as they are supposed to be waterproof and float with 45lbs of gear. So we zipped everything up and took off down the river. After about 4 hours of additional fishing and off and on thunderstorms we reached our take-out. Upon loading the boat on the trailer and securing everything to be towed, I was surprised to see standing water in the bottom of my WJ Gear Bag.

The bag had sat on the rear deck of the drift boat , behind me and to my left, for the entire trip. It is an elevated rear deck, so the bag itself wasn't sitting in any water (just the wet deck). Everything inside the bag was soaking wet -- flyboxes, GPS Unit, FRS Radio, Headlamp, extra reel, fishing license, my wallet, EVERYTHING.

You can see a video of just how wet everything was in my bag by viewing this video I uploaded to YouTube (

).

Even though I didn't pay for this product (both McClane and I were given these to use during our 2004 Trout Bum trip), I still feel that this product didn't produce as marketed and wanted to let everyone know about it. I also will admit that the bag truly is only supposed to have one waterproof compartment.....that one didn't work either.

The bag is a sharp looking bag, and I really like the looks and storage capacity and layout. However it just didn't keep my gear dry as written about in several reviews (Click Here For an example review), and I wanted to warn everyone before they just assume that something that is marketed as "waterproof" sometimes might not always be.

I sent an email to William Joseph and included the video that I uploaded to YouTube. I don't know that I expect a response from them, I just wanted them to know about thier product.

--Matt Tucker

[Rusty]

I just about fell out of my chair laughing at your sarcastic overtones...I am still laughing. Man, that really bites. Do you think they (WJ) will use your video on their website...NOT!

Here is a great way to look at this Matt, remember the price you paid for the boat. That alone should put a smile on your face.

[patfish]

Sounds like you would have been better off using a good old fashioned pickle bucket. LMAO!!! Guess that's the last "free stuff" you'll be getting from them.

[Kansas Fly Fisher]

Wow! The video says it all. I'd be interested in knowing what WJ thinks about it.

John

[Project Healing Waters]

Matt, I'm sorry if you felt misled by my review on F3, but I never tested it in a driving rainstorm. I've had mine out all day in light rains and never has anything gotten wet. As I said in the review, I floated it with quite a bit of weight in it and it didn't leak.

After reading this and watching your video today, I decided to put mine in the shower for 5 minutes and see what happened. I got the same results you demonstrated: the "waterproof" compartment was full of water, the main interior compartment had about 1/4" of water in the bottom.

WJ did, indeed, market the bag as 100% protection for your gear...including from water. And as we see, that just isn't so. If it won't keep your stuff dry in a driving rainstorm, it isn't much of a "boat bag." I've been in contact with WJ executives about this today. As of now, they are not ready to comment. I do know they have looked at your video and read the feedback from my hasty shower test today. And I plan to follow up on this.

I sort of feel like an idiot for not thinking to test it in the shower before I wrote that review a couple of years back. But I was focused on the "float with 50 lbs of gear in it" claim. And that it actually does.

Ken Morrow

[brownieman]

I always used an ammo box with whatever needed to be kept dry inside in a couple of ziplock baggies tied in my boat...like pat said, a bucket works good, along with bags in it just more bulky...the ammo boxes lid snaps down very secure.

Companies that have products that do not work in the fashion described should imo have no problem extending both an apopogy and make good for any damage and expense incured from their products failure...post up the response you receive from them...since you have proof I will be curious as to their response. Glad you have proof...bet they are not so glad, lol.

bm

[Matt Tucker]

Ken:

I didn't look closely at the review of the bag, I probably could have found a different one if I did, and not thrown you into the fire. Definitely wasn't misled by your review. The bag is sexy and has worked flawlessly since i have had it until Saturday, but never really tested out the waterproof function.

The thing that really bothers me about this is I have taken countless trips with this bag on the back of my pontoon boat and in the bottom of other boats. It was my primary protection for my Nikon D70, Nikon 80-200 2.8 lens, and SB600 flash as well as other essential fishing gear. For some reason, I didn't bring my photo gear with me on this trip (probably becasue of the call for storms they were making) but if I had it would have definitely gotten wet for sure.

The only thing I know for sure is I will most probably be looking to purchase a new boat bag before my next trip.

--Matt Tucker

[Project Healing Waters]

I didn't take it as you "throwing me in the fire." You posted the truth of your experience and you cited my review as being misleading. In retrospect, it WAS misleading due to an oversight on my part when field testing the bag prior to writing the review. I learned something from this: ALWAYS think carefully through the WHOLE list of usage requirements and design the field test to test them ALL. Not that I haven't TRIED to do that, but I got sloppy that time. Your report and citation of my review will make me more thorough in the future. And that's a good thing.

Yes, I am glad that you didn't lose any gear over this (assuming your GPS unit is OK). The greatest concern to me is that the "waterproof compartment" that forms the lid failed so miserably in ALL THREE cases. While one might argue that if you don't put your valuables/electronics in a dry bag before sticking it in the main compartment of such a bag that that's "on you," this compartment was marketed specifically AS a waterproof compartment, ie. dry bag. If I stuck my sensitive electronics in there and they got ruined, I would definitely expect them to replace them.

Hey, if anyone is looking, I know where you can get 3 great WJ Gear Bags...lightly used...dirt cheap!

[crappiefisherman]

I always found that the best quality stuff is given away for free.

[Terrapin Station]

Matt,

you may want to post it over here as well...

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