As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
After wearing, testing, and fishing the Maxcatch Fly Fishing Vest, we bring you this full, hands-on review.
Sometimes as fly anglers we spend the majority of our budget on rods, reels, flies, and accessories, and don’t have a whole lot left over for a vest or pack. There are plenty of budget-friendly vests, like the Maxcatch Fly Fishing Vest, on the market that gives anglers a chance to find something that’s going to work for them.
Table of Contents
- Fly Fishing Vest & Pack Reviews
- About the Maxcatch Fly Fishing Vest
- Build and Construction of the Maxcatch Fly Fishing Vest
- Pockets & Storage
- Features
- Watch the Maxcatch Fly Fishing Vest Review Video
- Price of the Maxcatch Fly Fishing Vest
- The Overall Fit & Adjustability
- Cons of the Maxcatch Fly Fishing Vest
- My Personal Thoughts & Opinions About the Maxcatch Fly Fishing Vest
In this article, we’re going to take a deep dive into the vest, its quality, its features, the price, the overall fit, some of the cons of the vest as well as my overall thoughts.
We purchased the vest ourselves, so there is no bias in this review. Plus, at Into Fly Fishing, we pride ourselves on being honest and accurate regardless of whether or not a company chooses to send us something.
Maxcatch Fly Fishing Vest
Order the Maxcatch Fly Fishing Vest on Amazon.
→ Don’t Miss Our Full List of The Best Fly Fishing Vests in 2023
About the Maxcatch Fly Fishing Vest
The Maxcatch Fly Fishing Vest is available for less than $30 on Amazon. It’s definitely in the budget fly fishing vest category, but it’s made well and anglers are going to get plenty of use out of it.
The reviews on Amazon are high with over 100 people giving it a 4.5+ rating. We chose to order it to see if the vest really lived up to the hype.
Build and Construction of the Maxcatch Fly Fishing Vest
The Maxcatch Fly Fishing Vest is quality. For being under $30, you aren’t going to receive a top-of-the-line vest that won’t ever fail, but it’s good enough to last you for many seasons.
Materials
The vest is made of mesh as well as nylon. The back of the vest is fully meshed, so it’s breathable on those warmer days. The front of the vest is almost completely nylon. Some of the outsides of the pockets are mesh material, but overall, the primary material is mesh.
Zippers
The pockets on the Maxcatch Fly Fishing vest did come with some of the zippered areas separated. It took me opening the pockets, tightening the zipper, and closing them again for the pockets to completely close. Since then, the pockets and zippers have worked fine.
Gear Loops
The gear loops are high quality. Your tippet, net, forceps, nippers, and sunglasses are going to be protected. You won’t find the seams ripping or tearing after a few uses.
Pockets & Storage
There are 15 pockets on the Maxcatch Fly Fishing Vest that can all serve different purposes.
The front panels on each side of the vest have essentially the same number of pockets. At the top, there’s a large zippered pocket that’s large enough to hold your cell phone, keys, and wallet. On the other side, you could place a larger fly box, snacks, or even a hat and gloves.
As you work your way down the vest, you’ll find a larger protruding pocket that’s ideal for a medium-sized fly box standing up. On the front of this pocket, there is a smaller zippered pocket that could easily fit a smaller fly box or any of your tippet or leader you want to keep in a secure place.
They’re not large enough to store a fly line or an extra reel, but they work well for some of your smaller accessories.
On the sides of the vest, anglers have mesh zippered pockets that are perfect for your floatant. You’ll always know it’s in the proper place, and you do not have to worry about digging around for it.
On the back of the vest, there’s only one pocket. It’s on the bottom of the vest, and it’s a good size for a water bottle. Anglers won’t have a larger pocket to store any layers, so keep that in mind. The pocket’s only large enough for a water bottle or an extremely thin piece of clothing.
On the inside of the vest, anglers will find two pockets on either side. The bottom pocket is zippered, so you can store any valuable items here. It’s long and wide, but not overly tall, so it could fit your cell phone, keys, or wallet.
On top of the zippered pocket is an open-topped pocket that could store an extra hat or gloves or amenable items. It can’t close, so make sure you don’t store anything overly valuable in here.
Maxcatch Fly Fishing Vest
Order the Maxcatch Fly Fishing Vest on Amazon.
Features
One of the best features of the vest is the removable foam fly patch that comes with the vest. You can store up to 10 flies on the patch, so you have plenty of room to store the majority of flies you’re going to use throughout the day.
The other features worth highlighting are the number of gear loops for anglers. On the front, there are eight gear loops anglers can use. All of them are capable of storing tippet, nippers, forceps as well as sunglasses. You won’t have any issues carrying all the gear you would want on the exterior.
Also, the D-ring on the back of the vest is ideal. You can easily store your net on a retractable leash and magnet setup.
Watch the Maxcatch Fly Fishing Vest Review Video
Price of the Maxcatch Fly Fishing Vest
The Maxcatch Fly Fishing Vest is one of the most affordable vests on the market. At around $25, anglers are getting a solid deal. It has many of the features that most fly anglers want, so for the low price, anglers cannot go wrong.
The Overall Fit & Adjustability
The Maxcatch Fly Fishing Vest has shoulder straps as well as hip straps. The straps are plenty long, so the vast majority of anglers can adjust them to fit as snugly or as loosely as they would like. I’m around 6′ and 170 pounds, and I could make the vest as slimming as I needed.
The straps hold in place even if the vest is fully loaded with gear. There were no issues with how well the vest fit.
Cons of the Maxcatch Fly Fishing Vest
There are two primary cons of the Maxcatch Fly Fishing Vest. The first con is the lack of large pockets on this vest. For many anglers, carrying an extra layer of clothing or having a place to store a layer we want to remove is important.
There is no place on the Maxcatch fishing vest for anglers to place any extra layers of clothing or larger items we want to bring to the water. As a result, anglers have to be smart about clothing and understand what they would want to wear or what they wouldn’t.
One of the other cons of this vest is the zippers. When received, the zipped portions of the vest were beginning to open. I had to use pliers and tighten the zipper itself. This solved the issue, but it was a bit concerning when I first took it out of the box.
Some of the stitching looked as if it was coming apart when I first received the vest, but it’s held together in the few weeks I’ve owned it, so it’s not a true concern just yet.
My Personal Thoughts & Opinions About the Maxcatch Fly Fishing Vest
Overall, I like the Maxcatch Fly Fishing Vest and think it does the job for a day of fishing. Many of the features were quite similar to the BASSDASH Fishing Vest we reviewed previously which I think is a quality vest. There were a few differences in these vests that I wanted to highlight.
The first thing I noticed about this vest was the removable foam fly patch. I am the type of angler who wants to work my way through a fair amount of flies throughout the day and I want them to be accessible. This removable foam fly patch allows me to use flies, take them off and easily go back to them without having to go back into my fly box.
Maxcatch Fly Fishing Vest
Order the Maxcatch Fly Fishing Vest on Amazon.
I don’t like spending too much time selecting flies, so if I can put a few on the patch at the beginning of the day and get going, I will. The velcro on the back of the patch keeps everything in place. When cutting through heavy brush, I had to be careful about it getting hung up on bushes or trees. If it did, it would easily rip off, so I made sure to keep track of it.
I like the number of gear loops, pockets, and comfort of this vest. I have plenty of room to bring all of the fly fishing-specific gear I would want to the water. Plus, I could pack a few snacks as well as other personal items in the inside pockets.
It doesn’t have a massive amount of storage, but it has enough to keep me comfortable for a day. Plus, the gear loops were good options for hanging sunglasses, tippet rings as well as my other accessories like forceps and nippers.
Finally, the D-ring is proving to be solid. It holds my net well, so I don’t have to worry about it tearing after a few uses. I know I can get many, many trips out of it with no worry.
The Maxcatch Fly Fishing Vest is a good vest overall, and I have no doubt it’s going to last me as long as I would want to use it.
Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc, or its affiliates.
As a part of the Amazon Associates Program and other affiliate programs, Into Fly Fishing® may receive a comission if you order products through links on this website.
