An Unpleasant Experience with a William Joseph Gea

[Matt Tucker]

I spent this weekend fishing the White River in Arkansas.  It was the maiden voyage of my drift boat, so it was a very pleasurable experience.  But there were some important lessons to be learned after the completion of this trip.  The biggest was that one should never take gear advertised as waterproof as gospel.

It rained a pretty good clip this weekend as we floated the 7 mile trip from the Dam to White Hole access on the White River.  Before the rain, we had pulled over to the bank and McClane and I secured the gear as best we could to keep it as dry as possible.

One of the tools we thought we would use was our William Joseph Gear Bags (honestly it is a VERY SEXY bag), as they are supposed to be waterproof and float with 45lbs of gear.  So we zipped everything up and took off down the river.  After about 4 hours of additional fishing and off and on thunderstorms we reached our take-out.  Upon loading the boat on the trailer and securing everything to be towed, I was surprised to see standing water in the bottom of my WJ Gear Bag.

The bag had sat on the rear deck of the drift boat , behind me and to my left, for the entire trip.  It is an elevated rear deck, so the bag itself wasn’t sitting in any water (just the wet deck).  Everything inside the bag was soaking wet — flyboxes, GPS Unit, FRS Radio, Headlamp, extra reel, fishing license, my wallet, EVERYTHING.

You can see a video of just how wet everything was in my bag by viewing this video I uploaded to YouTube (Click Here For My William Joseph Video).

Even though I didn’t pay for this product (both McClane and I were given these to use during our 2004 Trout Bum trip), I still feel that this product didn’t produce as marketed and wanted to let everyone know about it.

The bag is a sharp looking bag, and I really like the looks and storage capacity and layout.  However it just didn’t keep my gear dry as written about in several reviews (Click Here For an example review), and I wanted to warn everyone before they just assume that something that is marketed as “waterproof” sometimes might not always be.

I sent an email to William Joseph and included the video that I uploaded to YouTube.  I don’t know that I expect a response from them, I just wanted them to know about thier product.

–Matt Tucker

[Cameron Mortenson]

Ha…very to the point video.

[Zach Matthews]

Hahaha.

[Neal Osborn]

Matt,

Interesting comments on WJ!

[Matt Tucker]

Niel, I agree 100% with your comments.

[Steve K.]

Matt….that’s some funny stuff Dooode! Kudos to your setup man as well(McClane?). You have just raised the Itinerant Angler Gear Review bar to a new height.

[Matt Tucker]

I am told that WJ has seen the video and what not, but I have yet to hear from anyone from WJ directly.

[Mike Anderson]

I suspect this is why those bags ended up on Sierra Trading post…

[Bob Riggins]

I read the product description on the gear bag.

[Carter Simcoe]

Yeah, that’s how I understood it too, Bob.

[Zach Matthews]

I have wondered about that from the beginning.

[Matt Tucker]

Sorry guys — I stand by my comments regarding the bag and my disappointment therein.  The bag was zipped up on the back deck of my drift boat.  The waterproof compartment that was marketed and advertised as waterproof did not work.  The bag was marketed as a bag that would keep your gear “dry” as evidenced below by the many retailers — as you can see in my video, my gear was not dry.  Plain and simple the bag did not keep my gear dry and the waterproof compartment was simply not waterproof (and if it claims to be waterproof, I would assume it would keep my gear dry).

–Matt Tucker

Here are a couple more reviews / ads on this bag, and you can see this bag was definitely marketed as something that would keep your gear dry.

http://www.traditionalangler.com/WJ_GearBag.asp
(this retail listing says  “It will not only keep your gear organized, it will keep it dry” and has a “Totally waterproof top compartment for your camera, wallet, and other delicate gear”)

http://www.compleatangler.biz/williamjoseph/gearbagbuy.htm
(This retail listing claims “”Water Tight is Right” and “A bag that will keep all that gear organized and dry, floats with 50 lbs” and “Waterproof lid compartments (all zippers are waterproof)”)

http://www.sierratradingpost.com/p/,72763_William-Joseph-Fishing-Gear-Bag.html
(this retail listing says that it has a “Waterproof zip compartment in lid”)

http://www.flyfishermanforum.com/reviews/showproduct.php?product=26
(This is a review from a by a JW Field Tester, who duplicated my results after seeing the video — notice he claims in his initial review that the bag is “waterproof”)

http://www.landbigfish.com/tacklestore/showcase.cfm?PID=1805
(This retail listing says “A bag that will keep all that gear organized and dry, floats with 50lbs”)

http://secure.saltwaterangler.com/acb/showdetl.cfm?&DID=22&User_ID=85590&st=4497&st2=77485406&st3=37749228&Product_ID=277&CATID=14
(This retail listing says “This bag will keep all your gear organized and dry.”)

http://www.flyfishexpress.com/wjwgbs.html
(This retail listing says “A bag that will keep all that gear organized and dry, floats with 50 lbs.”)

[Zach Matthews]

To Matt’s credit, this is a direct quote:

“The William Joseph Gear Bag is guaranteed to float with up to fifty pounds of equipment inside! And it is waterproof to boot!”

Some of those sites make clear that the top is the only waterproof component (and you may evaluate that claim for yourself based on the video, clearly).

[Mike Anderson]

I saw those ridiculous claims too but come on, one look at it and you know right away it might be many things but waterproof isn’t one of them. Shame on the folks who tried to fool people. It’s buyer beware these days….

[wayne patton]

Any updates Matt?

[Matt Tucker]

Here is the update.

Nothing.

[fshflyboggs]

I gotta chime in here. You southerners are just too polite about this,
Matt-
So let me get this straight- You get this gear GIVEN to you for FREE- it doesn’t work like it is supposed to- and you cry this much about it??
I understand that you got your stuff wet- and I know that sometimes the stuff I use doesn’t quite live up to it’s claims and is disappointing–But sheessh–
I used to do allot of sea kayaking— the only thing that is truly waterproof-is PVC coated bags- with the appropriate closures.
Zippers- will never be completely waterproof–otherwise the new G4’s would zip all the way down to to your calf-

I would really hate to see how much you bellow if you had actually bought it-

I know that if I had DONATED a gift to a worthy cause– and someone who was given said item- becasue of displeasure of the performance of said gear, posted on chat rooms and you tube, I would consider not DONATING to said cause–(although to be fair said cause was promotional– but then on the other hand what donation to any cause from a manufacturer is not promotional?) This someoe would not be high on my list of concerns to call and ‘make right’ either.

So word of advice– if you don’t want something to get wet while it is raining while you are on the water—

put it in a zip lock bag– and even then no gaurentees-

Dan Boggs.

[Matt Tucker]

Dan:

I feel for where you are coming from, I was just giving an update because someone asked (and I have gotten other emails regarding the same).

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