Simms Fishing Packs

For creek and stream fishing, buy the Simms Tributary Sling. It carries a full day of gear, stays clear of your casting arm, and swings to the front to be worked out of without coming off your shoulder. If your water is tight and overgrown, buy the Tributary Chest Pack instead — nothing behind you to snag, nothing below the water line.

Simms is a Bozeman, Montana wader and boot company first, and its packs carry that DNA: they are laid out by people who have stood in moving water needing a third hand. This page compares the four formats on specification and use case. We have not field-tested them and do not claim to have.

What Simms actually makes

Waders, boots, outerwear — and packs as a supporting line. That matters for a buyer, because it means the packs are designed to work with waders rather than as standalone luggage. Straps clear a wader belt, pockets sit above the water line, and the fabrics are chosen for things that live in a river rather than a commute.

Tributary is the accessible line. Simms splits its range by price tier, and Tributary is the entry tier — the same design philosophy as the guide-grade packs, in less exotic fabrics, at a price a weekend angler will actually pay. For most people on small water that is the right place in the range to shop.

One pack, four formats. The sling, chest and hip packs are the same design intent worn three different ways. The Tailwind backpack is a different animal entirely — a gear hauler for getting to the water, not something you fish out of.

Format decides it, not capacity

Ask how deep you wade, then how thick the brush is. Those two answers pick your format, and capacity is a distant third consideration — almost every angler carries too much rather than too little.

Wade deep: chest pack. It is the only format that stays dry when you are in to your waist, which on small streams you regularly are.

Thick brush: chest pack again. A sling across your back is a snag magnet in alders and rhododendron. Nothing behind you means nothing to catch.

Open banks and long walks: sling, or hip if you never wade deep. The sling is the best compromise and the reason it has taken over the sport; the hip pack is more comfortable over distance and wetter the moment you step in.

The range, compared

Is the Simms premium worth it?

For the layout, often yes. For the fabric, only if you fish a lot. What you notice first on a well-designed pack is that you stop looking for things: nippers, tippet and the fly box you are using are where your hand goes without thinking. That is a real daily benefit and it is hard to get at the bottom of the market.

The fabric argument depends on days fished. Premium coated nylon resists abrasion from rock and brush for years. If you fish ten days a season, a $40 pack will also last years. If you fish eighty, the cheap pack's zippers are the thing that goes first.

The warranty argument is weaker here than on waders. Simms' reputation rests on its wader repair program; a pack is a simpler product with less to go wrong and less to repair. If warranty is your deciding factor, Fishpond's lifetime workmanship terms are the clearer promise — the brand-by-brand picture is in the fly fishing brand guide.

Cheaper packs that do the same job

At half the price: the Maxcatch and Kylebooker slings. Both carry the same gear in the same format with plainer hardware, and both are ranked against each other in the sling pack roundup. For a first pack, the honest advice is to start there and upgrade when you know what annoys you.

For chest packs specifically, the budget field is genuinely good — small chest packs are simple products — and the chest pack roundup covers the $25 to $90 range where most anglers should be shopping.

For hauling gear to the water, a standard fishing backpack with rod holders costs a fraction of the Tailwind and does the same hauling job; the fishing backpack roundup has the options. And if the premium pack brand you are actually comparing against is Patagonia, that range is covered in Patagonia fishing packs.

The closest brand comparison is Umpqua. Its ZS2 packs sit at similar prices with a snag-free exterior layout built around stripping line by hand — Umpqua fishing packs has the range.