Reviewed this week
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GRUNDENS
Tourney Pro jacket
Grundens has been outfitting commercial fishermen and anglers since the early 20th century, and the Tourney Pro Jacket is a strong example of why the brand has endured. Sitting a step above the standard Tourney line, the Tourney Pro is built for the die-hard angler who fishes through it all, delivering uncompromised waterproof protection without sacrificing performance or price. After spending time with this jacket across some genuinely miserable weather, here's the full picture.
The headline feature is the shell. The Tourney Pro uses a 100% waterproof PU-coated polyester shell that won't "wet out," meaning water doesn't soak into the fabric even in sideways rain or persistent spray. That matters enormously when you're hours into a run and a cold front rolls in without warning. Many jackets in this price range shed light drizzle just fine but eventually absorb moisture during sustained downpours. The Tourney Pro holds its ground. The 180gsm PU coating feels substantial without turning the jacket into a rigid shell — the PU coating provides flexibility so the jacket moves with you rather than feeling stiff, which is exactly what you need when you're fighting a fish or reaching across a gunwale.
Thoughtful Features for Anglers
What separates a fishing-specific jacket from a generic rain shell is the details, and Grundens gets them right. The jacket includes elasticized neoprene cuffs to keep sleeves watertight — a small but critical feature that prevents that cold trickle of water every angler hates during a wet retrieve. A storm front placket and adjustable hood lock out wind-driven rain, while pit zips offer welcome ventilation when the action heats up or layering gets heavy. The hand-warmer and chest pockets are well-positioned and reliably waterproof, giving you somewhere practical to stash a leader, a pair of pliers, or simply cold hands between bites.
The adjustable hood deserves particular praise. It cinches down snugly without killing peripheral vision, and stays put in a stiff wind rather than flopping around your face - the kind of details that only show up in gear designed by people who actually fish.
The jacket is engineered with an athletic fit that provides ease of movement and protection against the elements. It layers well over a fleece or a midlayer on cold mornings without feeling constricting, and it doesn't balloon out awkwardly when worn alone in mild weather. Sizing runs true, though anglers who plan to layer heavily might consider sizing up.
Breathability: The Trade-Off
No review of a PU-coated jacket should ignore breathability — or the relative lack of it. If you prioritize breathability for long hikes or ultra-lightweight packability for travel, jackets with advanced waterproof membranes like Gore-Tex may be a better fit. The Tourney Pro is built for wet, demanding conditions on the water, not aerobic trail activity. For stationary or moderate-activity fishing, it performs well, but expect some clamminess during high-output moments.
At around US$180, it hits a sweet spot for anglers who don't want to go all-in on premium Gore-Tex gear but still need reliable all-day protection. For that price, you're getting a jacket that will outlast plenty of pricier options when cared for properly.
The Grundens Tourney Pro Jacket delivers exactly what it promises: rugged, no-nonsense waterproof protection built around the specific demands of fishing. It's especially well-suited for coastal anglers, offshore day boats, charter fishermen, and weekend warriors. It won't replace a breathable membrane jacket for every context, but if your priority is keeping dry on the water through sustained nasty weather, this jacket makes a compelling case for itself at a price that won't leave you anchored to the dock.
★★★★
Fly Fishing Guide to Vermont
by Mike Valla
There is a particular kind of angling book that promises more than it can deliver — lyrical about tumbling freestone streams, vague about where exactly to find them, and heroically silent on the hard realities of degraded habitat and overheated water. Mike Valla's Fly Fishing Guide to Vermont is refreshingly not that book. Published in early 2026 by Stackpole Books, it arrives as the work of a serious practitioner who knows Vermont's waters intimately and respects his readers enough to be honest with them.
Valla himself is no newcomer to the genre. He is the author of Fly Fishing Guide to New York State, The Founding Flies, Tying Catskill-Style Dry Flies, and several other titles, and was inducted into the Fly-Fishing Hall of Fame in 2024. He lives just across the New York border from Vermont, and that proximity shows throughout the book. This isn't a travel writer's impression of the Green Mountain State; it's the accumulated knowledge of someone who has spent decades studying its watersheds. The result is a guide that feels authoritative in the way only local knowledge can.
The book's central argument — implicit but sustained — is that Vermont is a more interesting fishing destination than its reputation suggests, precisely because it rewards anglers who look beyond the famous rivers. The Green Mountain State is home to some of the best fly fishing in the country, yet most traveling anglers concentrate their attention on a few of the more famous streams. Valla takes a watershed-by-watershed approach that pulls readers away from the well-worn beats and toward less-pressured water. His coverage of still waters is particularly welcome, as ponds and lakes are often dismissed by fly anglers as secondary options. He details still water treasures like Echo Lake and Jobs Pond in the Northeast Kingdom, which are home to North America's largest mayfly, Hexagenia limbata. That kind of specific, entomological detail elevates the book above the merely functional.
What distinguishes Valla's approach is his willingness to confront environmental reality head-on. He doesn't ignore the challenges facing Vermont's rivers, particularly the cold-water habitats essential for trout. Recent catastrophic floods have done tremendous damage to local streams, particularly in the larger valleys. He notes that the Dog River in central Vermont never fully recovered from Tropical Storm Irene in 2011 and has been battered by subsequent floods. Many streams are damaged by runoff or thermally impaired — they simply get too hot to sustain trout (temperatures over 75°F can be lethal). He even advises anglers to refrain from catch-and-release when rivers warm, since heat stress alone can kill fish. This conservation ethic, woven throughout the text rather than confined to one chapter, feels earned rather than obligatory.
The species coverage is also broader than most Vermont-focused guides attempt. Species covered include trout, landlocked salmon, and smallmouth bass, while Lake Champlain and its tributaries offer world-class warmwater fly fishing opportunities. Valla makes a convincing case for targeting pike, pickerel, and even the spottail bowfin — an ancient, hard-fighting species found in the lake's marshy shallows — as legitimate and exciting quarry on a fly rod. Vermont's native brook trout, technically a char, also receives careful treatment, with Valla noting that the upland brook trout fishery remains healthy and that many high-elevation streams go largely unfished.
The book does have its limits. Readers hoping for a leisurely natural history of Vermont's fishing tradition will find the prose utilitarian rather than literary. This is a guide in the truest sense: maps, hatch charts, fly recommendations, access notes, and insider observations from the guides and fisheries biologists Valla interviews throughout. Style is not the point; utility is. Note that utility, executed this well, is no small thing. Fly Fishing Guide to Vermont is the kind of book that can become heavily dog-eared. For anyone planning a season on Vermont's rivers, ponds, or the big lake, it is an indispensable starting point — and one that will hold up under the honest scrutiny of waders on the water.
★★★★★
YETI
Tundra 35 cooler
There's a moment on day two of a fishing trip — sun high, ice starting to sweat in a lesser cooler — when you start questioning every gear decision you've made. The YETI Tundra 35 is designed to make that moment a non-issue. After time spent hauling it across boat decks, gravel campsites, and a few tailgates, it's clear why YETI has built the cult following it has. This isn't a cooler that coasts on marketing. It earns every dollar through engineering decisions that show up where it counts: in the field, on day three, when cheap coolers have long since surrendered.
At the core of the Tundra's thermal performance is the Fatwall design: extra-thick walls packed with Permafrost insulation that create a deep, continuous thermal barrier. The interlock lid system works in tandem with those walls, forming a seamless seal that stands up to extreme temperatures on either end of the spectrum. It's the primary reason the Tundra outperforms standard coolers by days rather than hours. Reinforcing that seal is the Coldlock gasket — a commercial-grade freezer gasket that circles the entire lid perimeter. The same technology found in professional food storage equipment, it blocks heat from breaching the seal point, locking cold air in and warm air out with serious intent. In testing, packed with a standard bag of cubed ice and a weekend's worth of food and drinks, the Tundra held ice well past the 60-hour mark even through repeated sun exposure. Beverages pulled on day three were still properly cold.
Moving the Tundra 35 is where the Doublehaul handles come in. Thick, UV-resistant rope handles at both ends are built for two-person carries — a smart concession to physics when the Tundra 35 is loaded to capacity. They're more comfortable under real load over distance than molded plastic grips, and they hold up to the kind of abuse that comes with repeated use on rough terrain. Once you've got it where it needs to go, tie-down slots molded directly into the body let you run a strap or bungee cord through and anchor the cooler to a truck bed, boat deck, or ATV rack. In rough water or on dirt roads, a sliding cooler becomes a hazard — these slots eliminate that risk without requiring any add-on hardware, a practical detail that anyone who's watched a cooler migrate across a boat deck will appreciate.
On the ground, Bearfoot non-slip feet keep the Tundra planted on slick surfaces — boat decks, wet dock boards, polished truck liners. They also raise the housing slightly off the ground, protecting the base from hot pavement and rough surfaces while improving airflow underneath. In testing, the cooler held its position even when used as a step, with no shifting or skidding under weight. The lid itself can handle a standing person, and the bear-resistant latch system closes with a satisfying click that signals genuine security.
At 35 quarts, the Tundra hits a practical sweet spot — large enough to provision two to three people for a multi-day outing, compact enough to fit under a boat seat or in a truck cab. Tall interior clearance accommodates a standing wine bottle, and smooth interior walls with rounded corners make cleanup quick even after storing raw meat. Hardware throughout — hinges, drain plug, latches — operates with a solidity that signals longevity rather than showing off. Available in a range of colorways, it also avoids looking like work equipment.
Is it expensive? Yes. But the Tundra 35 operates in a fundamentally different category than the cooler you'd grab at a big-box store. The Fatwall insulation, Coldlock gasket, Doublehaul handles, tie-down slots, and Bearfoot feet aren't a marketing checklist — they're a coherent system, and every piece of it shows up in real-world use. The cost-per-outing math improves every season you use it. For anyone serious about keeping food safe and drinks cold, the YETI Tundra 35 earns its place in the kit without apology — and it's very likely the last cooler you'll need to buy for a long time.
Put simply, the YETI Tundra 35 is a benchmark cooler that others are measured against. Best for multi-day fishing trips, camping, overlanding, and anyone who’s just tired of replacing cheap coolers every other season.
★★★★★
