William Joseph Confluence Pack Review "The Confluence literally renders all things before it obsolete"

We have talked about this before, but I am so passionate about this product, I thought we should revisit the topic. I have used this pack exclusively for the past year, and love it so much that yesterday I bought a second one. I am worried it might disappear, since it appears that WJ has completely shifted their focus to new smaller packs. There are many on-line reviews, and one of them says it best "The Confluence literally renders all things before it obsolete." It's true!

Many of the newer packs are simply too small to be practical, or so large they are better suited to a weekend fishing/hiking trip rather than day to day fishing. The best feature of the Confluence is its fit and suspension system. It fits you like a T-shirt with generous padded ventilated straps, thicker than most backpacks but very light. There are no silly straps pulling on your neck or in need of complicated adjustment, you just drop this thing on and go-it's that easy. It is cut shorter than any "shorty" vest so you can wade to the top of your waders. On me, it sits just above the bulk of the interior pocket on my Simms waders.

The detailed pocket arrangements are beautifully engineered. The fabric in the pockets is a rigid rubberized cloth, so you can zip and unzip with one hand. In the front, there is a small pocket for tippets that contains their "tippet control system." The control system is just a small cord to stack your spools on. That pocket can hold about 6 tippet spools. The main compartment in the front comes with a big foam insert that flips down to reveal a work surface/fly storage area. Inside the same pocket, there is room for two large C&F fly boxes. There are mesh dividers in the main pocket that are really functional.

The very front of the vest has two built-in zingers of good quality.

The back of the pack contains three pockets, a large, medium and small. The large pocket can easily hold a Paclite rain jacket, bottle of water and a camera. The medium pocket can hold a medium C&F fly box and/or a dozen tippet spools. The small pocket is perfect for storage of your fishing licenses in a waterproof bag and other flat items. The large pocket has a nice clip to hold on to your key ring.

The pack has other technical features related to a hydration storage bladder (40 oz capacity). It is not included, and I have not used that feature, but I will say that these technical features provide other small storage areas for little accessories. In these small areas I keep ice off paste, sinkets, floatants and so on.

Give this pack a try and I doubt you will ever use a conventional vest again. It is also priced at about half of a high end vest. If you like this review, you might consider getting one fast, as they are becoming harder to find.