Patagonia continues to impress me

Patagonia stuff is expensive so you'd expect their customer service to be excellent.  Well, I just want to confirm that it is.

Here's my story.

I have two Patagonia flyfishing products, a pair of Gortex waders and a pair of felt-soled wading boots.

[Actually, I have two pairs of Patagonia boots.  A two year old pair and a very old and worn pair that has been resoled once and which is nice to have around for the infrequent times when my younger son fishes with me... thankfully he's a size 12 also.]

Because Patagonia stuff is so expensive (in my opinion a good value), I was fortunate to obtain each of my items at discount prices.  Both pairs of boots were bought by mail-order from Sierra Trading Post.  I believe they were listed as closeout or overstock items.  My guess is that the first pair was bought 12 years ago.  I doubt I paid more than $50 for either pair.

My Gortex waders were bought perhaps 10 years ago from our local Orvis Shop, Concord Outfitters, in the middle of the summer.  I paid $200 for the SST model (I think that was what it was called) that listed for $350 or so.  It was a big chuck of change because until then I fished neoprene waders from Cabelas which cost less than $100.  (Nothing wrong with Cabelas neoprenes, except for how hot all neoprene waders are in the summer... in fact, I still have and use my Cabelas neoprenes when the weather permits/requires it.)

What I liked most about the Patagonia SST waders is that the shoulder straps are attached at the waist inside the waders.  To get full chest height coverage, you then need to attach the top of the waders to snaps on the straps that are positioned at chest height.  99% of the time, however, I didn't bother with the chest height snaps and just rolled the top of the waders down to the waist.  This made for much more comfortable (i.e. cooler) summer attire as it basically meant waist high waders with straps, which in a pinch could be pulled up to cover my chest and back and snapped onto the straps.  Because I am a bit over 6' tall, waist height waders are good enough 99% of the time.

Anyway, I am getting long winded here.  

Back to the point I want to make.

After the first season of use (it was actually just a half season), I had a leak or two in the wader feet.  I called Patagonia and they suggested I mail them in to Arizona for an inspection.  I liked their shipping policy: if I paid for shipping to Arizona, they would return ship them at their cost the same way.  In other words, if I shipped via 2-UPS they would return ship via 2-day UPS. 

So, I mailed them to Arizona from the Boston area on a Monday via 2-day UPS.  I got a call on Wednesday and was told that due to the newness of the waders they were going to ship me a new pair!  Awesome.  But the story gets better.  My pair had been size Large-Regular length.  Because I knew the price was the same for the Long length, I asked if it would be possible to send me a size Large-Long.  The rep. said he'd be happy to.  Again, awesome.  By Friday, I had a nice clean new pair with the added bonus of additional leg length.  That was about 10 years ago.

[I like the Long length because there is no binding on my knees when float tubing.  Unless you are kicking in a float tube, most of the time your legs are at rest and your knees are at 90 degree angles.]

The story continues.

Before going on a two week non-fishing vacation to the Canadian Rockies last month, I mailed the waders back to Phoenix for more repairs.  I completely expected a pair of 10 year old repaired waders to be sitting on my front door step when I returned.  I was  disappointed when they were not.  I waited a few more days and called Patagonia Customer Service.  I was dismayed when I found out that Customer Service had no record of receiving my package.  My UPS confirmation clearly showed that my waders had arrived in Phoenix nearly 3 weeks before.  A little checking and I discovered that their sole repair guy was a bit behind in completing his queue of repair work.  I was told that would call me, and he did... several times.  But because of the time difference, we never seemed to make contact.  Finally, I received a voice mail message that due to my being inconvenienced, and as a courtesy, they were going to send me a new pair of waders.

So now I have a brand new pair of Watermaster model waders.  The list price is $300.  I don't think they are quite the comparable model to what I had, as my old pair had double knees. But the waist level straps are much improved over the old model.

I am more than satisfied with Patagonia.  Wouldn't you be?

Patagonia Chest Waders. Shown in-side-out. 
Note the suspender straps attached inside and at waist level.  The buckles
at chest height have cam levers to tighten waders at chest height.

Patagonia Chest Waders.  Shown in-side-out. 
Top section rolled down to create waist-high waders.

This is the buckle design that allows the waders to be pulled up
to chest height and attached to suspender straps.
This shows the cam designed tightening lever in the "open" position

Cam lever is in "closed" position, thereby locking the top of
the waders to the suspender straps.

Getting back to fly tying (after two years). Step 2: Sitting down at the tying table and hoping it all comes back to me

After setting up the tools and materials to tie for the first time in two years (see previous post), it is now time to get re-acquainted with the tools and techniques of the trade.

I have several nice vises and the JVice is perhaps my favorite. Designed and built by Jay Smit in South Africa I acquired mine in 2004 and wrote a review of it on my Website. My vise is #43 and was the second one sent to America... pretty cool.

Jay is always tinkering and has come up with many unique accessories. Check out his Web site. In particular he had developed a new jaw design and gooseneck arm which he sent to me perhaps two years ago. I did the retrofit per his instructions, and found the time to tie a bit with the new jaws before my hiatus from the tying table began.

Admiring the jaws today, they look like they'll be able to handle all the freshwater hooks I'm likely to tie with. As I recall, I liked the gooseneck arm because it made it easy to get my left hand behind the hook to hold materials. This is a rotary vise which I much prefer over standard designs.

After setting the vise on the table, I grabbed a couple of pairs of scissors from my tool box. One has straight tips and the other has curved tips. I have no recollection as to which I prefer or when I use one over the other. I will figure that out as I go along. These are Tiemco brand scissors, and therefore of reasonable quality.

My threads are pretty straight forward. Basically two dimensions of Danville: 6/0 and 3/0. I have flat-waxed too. I don't recall if 3/0 is something different from flat-waxed. My tying brain cells feel like they have a sock over them. I hope this all comes back to me.

I believe the black Danville thread I've got in the bobbin is 6/0. I can't remember what the bobbin brand is. I'm surprised that I don't remember, because I went out of my way to buy a couple of them. They are considered a classic, old design. But I think they were cheap. I think the brand disappeared for a while and then was re-introduced in recent years perhaps under a new manufacturer or distributor. The spool doesn't move too smoothly through this bobbin as I remember, and I used to break the thread often. If I start breaking thread again, I'll switch to one of the other bobbins in my kit with "ears". Can someone help me with the name of this brand of bobbin?

I did see in my tool box a bag of blue dental floss threaders. They work very nicely for threading bobbins, though I also remember sucking the end of the tube trying to get the thread through.

I grabbed my little whip finishing tool. I have a longer reaching one, too. They are very nice tools. I think they are something like Martinetti, or some other Italian name that starts with an "M". I never learned to whip finish with my fingers. Probably because it is so much fun to use the tool. I can't recall, however, how to use it. I am hoping that it comes back to me, and it probably will... unless I start thinking too hard about it. I have several brass half-hitch tools. I think I used them more for hackled flies and parachutes. Maybe the half-hitch tool will be better for the Henry's Lake Special. We'll soon see.



It was easy to find my hooks. They are kept in the original boxes inside bank check boxes. I have an entire box labeled R72. These are 2x wet fly hooks made by Mustad. I was pleased the see that this exact model is actually one of the listed hooks for the Henry's Lake Special as described in Terry Hellikson's Fish Flies.

Lead wire. That's another easy one. My lead wire spools are also in a bank check box, and I have a complete collection, starting at .10" and ending with .35". I almost always use 10 wraps of lead of a diameter to match the hook wire diameter.

I often finish my flies with a little nail polish on the head. It looks like I should buy some new bottles, or at least thin them out with _____ (heck, I don't recall what you thin nail polish with, but its the same stuff they make nail polish remover with, perhaps starting with the letter "a" or "e" ??)

The last tool I can think of is a set of magnifiers. I think mine are called Mag-eyes.

Now, let me get started.

Favorite Stuff: The Bugger Barn from Cliff Outdoors

I just wrote a short review about a really nice fly box, the Bugger Barn. This product comes from Cliff Outdoors of Casper, Wyoming. It's a sturdy little bugger, and well worth looking at if you like organized fly boxes with good carrying capacity. The review is indexed on the page called Articles/Favorite Stuff.

Or, you can skip the index and go directly to the review by clicking here.

My Hobie Float Cat

I've just added a page in my Articles/Favorite Stuff section about my Hobie Float Cat. I have had this pontoon boat for nearly 15 years and its been a near constant companion. The build quality is excellent. Only the few scratches on the bottom of the polyethylene pontoons make it obvious that it is not new. Click on the link below for the article and a few pictures:

Click Here For Article and Images