When we got out to Kerry the other day for the Savage Gear filming we were doing, the lads took one look at my rather battered and well-used waterproof rucksack and asked me if I could please use a brand new Savage Gear Waterproof Rollup Rucksack 40L which they had brought along. I obviously had no problem with this as I was out there for Savage Gear related filming, but when I finally got back home the other day after an extra week or so away at the quite wonderful Thames Hospice as my dad died - thank you so, so much for so many incredibly kind messages - I went to fill my old rucksack up with the gear I always put in there, because why not keep using it? Please note that the photos of my rucksack here are from a month ago.

But I noticed a tiny little spot of light as I went to open the rucksack up and put the gear in there. I had a look around and found a little pinprick of a hole towards the base of the rucksack but not actually where I would expect to find a hole right on the bottom where I have dumped it down on all kinds of surfaces for nearly 2.5 years now without any problems. I said in a follow up review of this £50 Savage Gear Waterproof Rollup Rucksack 40L here that I would expect to get about a year out of this style of rolltop waterproof rucksack before finding any holes in the material (original review of the rucksack here), so the fact that I have got nearly 2.5 years out of this rucksack has really, really impressed me.

For sure there are a few minor changes I would like to make to this rucksack, but in some respects that is me these days because I usually can’t look at or use an item of fishing tackle without thinking about how I would improve something to try and improve it. What I want from an item of fishing tackle isn’t always what you might want, but this Savage Gear Waterproof Rollup Rucksack 40L was in their catalogue way before I ever started working with them, and nobody within the company ever asked me to try it out for my fishing. I noticed it in the catalogue, I asked if I could please get hold of one, and I fully expected it to go the way of any other rolltop waterproof rucksacks I have used and give me about a year of use before leaking around the base.

So nearly 2.5 years is easily a record for me and a rucksack like this. You might not need to carry a rucksack with you, but I very much do, and I can see absolutely no point in that rucksack not being waterproof - not with what we do and the environment in which we do it. As with BCWs (breathable chest waders), I see a waterproof rucksack as one of those things I can’t do without, and I accept that their life is limited with how I use them - but nearly 2.5 years from a £50 waterproof rucksack which I have never yet not been able to carry everything I might need for a fishing session? Bloody fantastic if you ask me, and even if that front see-through pocket on the rucksack is a waste of time because the little zip is pretty crappy.

Now I could probably patch that little hole up and get more use out of this rucksack, but from experience I tend to find that the first little hole either means there might be a few more which I can’t see, or else the material is starting to weaken and it’s time to get a new bag - which I have here ready to go because the filming lads asked me to use that brand new one. It’s not as if I am deep-wading with a waterproof rucksack on because I will always put the bag down somewhere when I am actually fishing, but I can’t see the point of using a battered rucksack which leaks even a tiny bit if the thing is sitting there with a load of camera gear inside and it’s lamping down with rain. Yes I get these rucksacks for free, but think about that for a second. I could have easily used the first one for however long and asked for a new one, but I didn’t. I don’t believe in replacing/wasting something just because I can, and to do a proper test of a waterproof rucksack which I use for my own fishing I need to keep using it until it fails and then compare it to other similar ones I have used before and see where I am at. This £50 Savage Gear Waterproof Rollup Rucksack 40L is a bit bloody brilliant in my opinion, and please believe me that I’d have told you if it wasn’t, and I’d also have raved about an entirely different waterproof rucksack if it had done as well for me as this thing has.

THE FIRST VIDEO FROM OUR FILMING THE OTHER DAY

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