Gear Review: Glacier Gloves - Ascencion Bay Gloves

Lady Luck was generous with me recently, I was lucky enough to again score and be randomly selected by the Outdoor Blooger Network to review some cool gear from Glacier Gloves, the Ascencion Bay Glove of the Dr. Shade/Sun Gear line.

These gloves are designed not for the cold Winter months but for the Summer to protect you from the harsh sun rays and are a very smart proposition for anybody who spends time on the water but in particular if you fish the ocean or at high altitude in the mountains. I don't know about you, but if you are like me, I have been burned by the sun too many times on my rod hand, mostly between thumb and the back of the hand so sun gloves have become part of my standard equipment when heading to the stream or lake (as is a light weight long sleeve fishing shirt, a hat and most of the time one of those tubular bandana thingy's - more on that in another review post).

The Gloves:

The gloves are made of ultralight lycra that provides 50+ UPF protection and feature a polyutherane palm. They are very comfortable to wear and even if the palm, due to the coating, feels a bit awkward for the first few minutes you will soon forget that you wear them. They dry quickly, actually sometimes too quickly since they cool down your hands nicely in the heat of the day if they are wet. One of the features I really like about them is that the cuff extends beyond the wrist. In combination with a long sleeve fishing shirt, the cuff extends below (or above) the sleeve and provides continous protection. This became apparent to me since I own another pair of sun gloves from another manufacturer that do not have long cuffs and I have a gap when extending my arm (which I do a lot when Tenkara fishing) which has been annoying me since I bought them (the other gloves). As I mentioned, the polyutherane palm is a bit awkward at first and I do not see a real benefit of it for my type of fishing, but I would imagine that if you spend time on a boat and have to handle other stuff than just a rod and a fish, the additional grip that is provided by the coating will come certainly handy. Unfortunately I do not own a boat so I couldn't really test this feature.

The gloves retail for $22.99 at Glacier Outdoor.

Disclaimer:

I received the Ascension Bay Gloves at no cost from Glacier Gloves (ww.glacieroutdoor.com). I am not affiliated with the company and I did not receive any compensation to review the system. This post represent my personal and honest opinion.

Gear Review: Ti Net by TrailLite Designs (angled version)

You may remember how excited I was early August to get so many packages with gear the same day and my comment that the angled version of the Ti Net of TrailLite Designs is WAY COOL.

In the meantime, I had a few opportunities to test and put the Ti Net to good use, including a trip to New York and fishing the Ken Lockwood Gorge in New Jersey, my first trip to Rocky Mountain National Park this year, hunting grayling (without success unfortunately), a trip to Creede on the Rio Grande and a short outing last Saturday on the South Platte.

The Ti Net in action:

In less than a month, have netted with the Ti Net well over 100 trout as well as some bluegills and a smallmouth bass and I have to say it is not just WAY COOL, it is AWESOME!

The design is sleek and simple (just like Tenkara), a simple carbon fiber handle with a titanium hoop and net. It appeals to me because of it's simplicity and high tech look, light weight and it is very well made. Don't be fooled by the hoop's "thin" construction, it is titanium and it has already withstood in this short period a lot of abuse - bushwhacking, slipping and falling on my behind,  climbing over rocks and a few not so gracious looking instances loosing traction while wading and trying to avoid complete submersion. In fact, the net still looks as new were it not for the net's slight discoloration of being dirty of landing all the fish :-). It is me who got all the bruises and scratches.

If you haven't read my initial post, here are the specs again:

Handle: carbon fiber, 12"
Hoop: titanium, 9.5" diameter
Mesh: 2mm,
Weight: 2.7 oz.

I think the only improvement I could think of is maybe a slightly longer handle, maybe 1", tops 2" to improve reach and balance a bit.

As previously mentioned, I reviewed the angled version, which looks like a like high tech Japanese Tamo. The angled version is available for purchase at TenkaraBum. There is also a straight version which is available directly at TrailLite Designs. Both go for $115.

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with TrailLite Designs nor did I receive any compensation to review the Ti Net, however, I received the Ti Net free of charge for testing & reviewing from TrailLite Designs.

ONE

Well, it's not the big one, the one that got away. It is the number one, the first anniversary of this blog which I started as a diary of my Tenkara exploits thinking that it would be fun to share those with like-minded folks like you.

I would like to thank all my readers and followers for being interested in what I write about, ponder and experience. The growth of readership and total clicks has been, to me, unbelievable. I would have never imagined this many visitors would stop by, read and drop some comments and suggestions.

As of this morning, I had a total clicks of over 39,000, wow.

Looking forward though, I was wondering if I have been leaving anything out that would be of interest to you. Are there any topics or types of posts that I haven't covered or what would you like to see more in the future? More fishing stories, gear review, instructional post, hands-on experience, fly tying....?

I encourage you to leave comments or drop me a note by email (see contact page), I am very curious to see what could grow out of such feedback and make this blog better.

With that, again, I would like to thank you for reading and following my blog and wish you a lot of success on-stream with your Tenkara rod and may our paths cross soon!

Tight Lines,
Karel