Camping and Fishing Gear Reviewed

Many websites feature a wide range of fishing and camping gear reviews. In this article, we will examine some of them in order to find the best reviewed camping and fishing gear.

Camping and Fishing Gear Reviews on GORP.com

GORP.com is an outdoor recreation and adventure travel website with a large selection of product reviews. Their reviews archive goes back four years, which might come in useful when selecting gently used camping gear. Each year features a "Gear of the Year" award and a "Killer Value" Award.

For tents, the 2007 Gear of the Year award went to the Big Agnes Emerald Mountain SL2. The review praised the amount of space available in such a lightweight tent (29 square feet in a tent weighing just over 4lbs). What particularly set it apart was the optional vestibule which almost doubled the size of the tent and weighed in at a mere 14lbs.

The Killer Value award went to the $299 Black Diamond Mesa, a quick assembly tent with a spacious 44 inches of headroom and excellent protection from the elements. The reviewer liked the simple, effective design and the bright orange fly, which "adds a touch of good cheer when you're waiting out nasty weather".

For fishing jackets, there were two joint winners of the 2008 Gear of the Year Award and another four Killer Value award winners. The Gear of the Year award went to the Arc'teryx Hercules Hoody, which won envious looks for its fashionable styling and adaptability to changing weather conditions; and the Cloudveil Koven Plus, which is made from a polymer fabric that adapts to your body temperature, warming or cooling as needed.

2008 Killer Value winners were the Mountain Hardwear Escape, the North Face Flash, the Columbia Wildcard and the Quiksilver J-Turn. All these jackets retail for $250 or less.

Camping and Fishing Gear Reviews on Bass Pro Shops' Website

Bass Pro Shops is a fishing gear store whose website features an extensive library of product reviews. Whilst it does not give awards, the product reviews page gives a capsule comment of each review, allowing you to see at a glance which products were well reviewed.

Among the reviews of camping and fishing gear with positive comments were the Extreme XPS Spinning Combo ("The perfect combination of strength, sensitivity and crisp handling -- and a good price to boot"); the Lowrance X67C Compact Fishfinder ("With a highly detailed 3.5" color LCD screen, the X67C is a fantastic unit and well worth the price"); the MSR Reactor Stove ("Record-breaking boil times -- even in adverse conditions") and the Eureka Timberline Original A-Frame Tent.