Cotswold Aquarius established themselves back in 1993 making angling luggage to cater for the serious angler who demanded a high quality item and was willing to pay that little bit extra for the quality, reliability and the fact that it was completely made in Great Britain. Over the years, Cotswold Aquarius have stuck with angling luggage and also branched out into other country pursuits such as shooting, equestrian, photography, walking/hiking and more recently a range of classic ladies hand and business luggage.
Whilst compiling our “Best of British” reviews, one of the team at UKMA mentioned Cotswold Aquarius as a potential candidate and after correspondence with Cotswold Aquarius, a box containing several items from the angling range was in the office and eagerly unwrapped.
As more and more specimen anglers are lightening the amount of tackle that they carry with them on even long sessions, it was only right that we reviewed some of the products in the Cotswold Aquarius range that were more suited to a mobile approach over long sessions – especially with the winter closing in and only the most hardcore of anglers doing overnight or longer sessions.
Read on to discover our findings.
 Cotswold Roamer Carryall – RRP: £54.99
As the name suggests, the Roamer carryall is designed to carry just enough tackle so that the angler can remain mobile, yet not feel as they have left something at home. The product that UKMA were sent is the largest in the Roamer range but has been made so that it maximises the amount of space the angler has – both internally within the carryall and also within a bivvy or under an umbrella.
The dimensions of the Roamer carryall are 14.5” x 10” x 13.5”, and take it from UKMA, it should be renamed the Tardis Carryall as the capacity by far exceeds other manufacturers luggage of similar dimensions! More on this later. The main body of the Roamer houses 3 internal pockets as well as a couple of elastic loops in one corner. The larger pocket of the Roamer has been designed to house the large size single sided tackle boxes that the major manufacturers produce, with room to spare. Two smaller pockets are situated opposite the large pocket and are ideal for housing smaller items such as Carp Care kits, small pouches of terminal tackle, leads, PVA, etc the world is really your oyster with regards to what can be placed in these. The two elastic straps are designed to hold fuel bottles, thermos flasks or even spod/marker tubes upright to avoid spillage and makes finding them in the dark or without looking, so much easier. The main top flap has a heavy duty double puller zip to secure as well as a skirt to stop rain from entering the inner compartment through the zip.
Externally the Roamer has another 4 padded zipped pockets, and on the rear of the carryall, another large full length pocket with a Velcro flap (which can be used to house a large tackle box again for ease of access without having to open the main bag up to get to a packet of hooks etc). The largest padded pocket will easily house a weigh sling and scales (even in a padded pouch), again for quick access when the fish is in the net or on the unhooking mat. At one end of the carryall, there are two smaller padded pockets that are perfect for placing items such as spare bite alarms, indicators, leads, or other sundry items that may be required quickly. At the opposite end, Cotswold Aquarius have placed a full width ¾ height padded pocket to house anything else that you may require such as a stove, mug, food, etc. Each of the zipped pockets has the same skirt as the main compartment around the zip to stop rain ingress.
Where a lot of carryalls lack nowadays is the padding around carry handles and straps. Cotswold Aquarius have not scrimped at all here on the Roamer, and the amount of padding on both is almost to the extreme of being too much! When the Roamer is fully loaded up and placed on the shoulder, it is almost as if nothing it there as the padding takes all the strain of the weight. The strap also does not slip off the shoulder like some others we have used in the past. One small criticism that we have is with the padding on the carry handle straps. We did find that because of the sheer amount of the padding that it was a lot more difficult to fix the two handles together using the Velcro fastening, but this maybe only a personal point of view rather than an actual issue. When the handles were fastened together, it was extremely comfortable in the hand, which will make loading a heavy bag in and out of the car much easier as well as picking up and moving swims.
The material is fully waterproof and has a hard wearing canvas texture on the exterior; with the stitching being amongst the very best that we have seen. We cannot see the Roamer carryall ever letting an angler down in normal use. The colour of the material is a perfect “carpy” green which is both subdued and very pleasing on the eye.
When the Roamer was handed to the member of the UKMA team for the review, his first impression was that it would not be big enough for his needs. Boy was he wrong! The other manufacturer’s carryall that he was using was a little bit larger in size than the Roamer and packed to full capacity, yet the Roamer swallowed everything from the old carryall into it with space remaining for several other items that he had to carry in other bags usually – and still did not manage to fill it! Needless to say that this member of the UKMA team is extremely reluctant to hand it over to anyone else in the team, he is that impressed (and it takes a lot to impress him!).
The Roamer Quiver System – RRP: £44.99
Made to compliment the Roamer carryall, the Roamer Quiver has again been designed for the more mobile of specimen anglers including the river angler after Barbel, through to the Carp and Pike anglers that like a roving approach (or simply to travel light).
The main compartment of the Roamer Quiver is large enough to house a full brolly system with stormsides and front panel as well as some of the more bivvy/umbrella hybrid systems that are becoming more popular with today’s anglers.
On one side of the body, a pocket has been fixed at the base to house made up rods. To fully secure the rods to the Roamer Quiver, two clip fastening straps have been include so everything remains tensioned and nothing can hang down to catch on vegetation or fences. Cotswold Aquarius state that the Roamer Quiver can take a maximum of 3 made up rods, which it will easily do as the reviewer had 3 made up rods with big pit reels in padded full length sleeves affixed firmly to the Quiver with room to spare!
On the opposite side of the body are two more pockets; one open topped for carrying a landing net and pole and a zipped pocket with a buckle down flap designed for carrying banksticks. The bankstick pocket was amongst the largest that we have seen on a quiver of the Roamer’s size and easily housed the reviewer’s metalware and additional bits needed for other reviews! The zip on the bankstick pocket is full length of the pocket and instead of being placed to one side in the traditional manner, Cotswold Aquarius have placed it running centrally so there is less rummaging around trying to find the items that the angler needs.
Again, in the same vein as the Roamer Carryall, the padding on the carry handle and shoulder strap is exceptional and even when fully laden with metalware and rods, the Roamer Quiver can comfortably be carried long distances without discomfort.
Cotswold Aquarius also manufacture a padded hood which is available separately that slips over the tops of the rods and umbrella to offer even greater protection to the equipment as well as against the elements. The Roamer Quiver Hood is affixed in place by several Velcro straps of which the lower strap can be slipped under the shoulder strap of the quiver to hold firmly in place. We did find though that the hood could not be used with 3 rods made up in sleeves with a full length hybrid brolly shelter, although with a normal brolly and sleeves (or with “naked” rods and the full length shelter) the hood fitted snugly and held everything in place. The RRP of the Roamer Quiver Hood is £21.95 and offers the very best insurance against damage to expensive rods in transit for the angler that does not like to use sleeves.
Again, like the Roamer Carryall, the reviewer can not really find fault with the Roamer Quiver at all and is already looking (drooling in reality!) at the other sundry accessories that Cotswold Aquarius manufacture to protect the rods in transit to complement the luggage.
Other Items
Cotswold Aquarius were also kind enough to send a selection of other miscellaneous products from their range, and they are of the exact same quality and design as can be expected from them.
The item of the miscellaneous range that impressed UKMA the most was the DLX Handy Bag. The DLX Handy Bag is essentially a small pouch for storing terminal tackle, but we found that this was probably the best example that we had seen. Constructed from the standard Cordura type fabric, the DLX Handy Bag is hard wearing as well as being waterproof. Supplied with heavily padded dividers, the angler has an almost infinite choice of how it can be arranged. We found that we could fit more than enough packets of terminal tackle and hooklink materials in the 9” x 4.25” x 2.75” bag for even the longest session. The DLX Handy Bag is also well padded so almost anything can be stored in it that can fit, with the utmost protection offered. Priced at an extremely low £15.99, these bags are well within the budget of the angler that fishes a multitude of venues or styles to have one or more bags left packed with the items used so that quick sessions can be made without having to mess around taking bits in & out of other pouches or boxes to make up what is needed.
 Scales are an item that anglers seem to neglect when carrying them around, but they are an important part of their armoury and are expensive to replace if they get broken. The Deluxe Scales Pouch from Cotswold Aquarius offers protection to the scales like nothing else we have seen short of hiring a specialised Security Team to protect them! The Deluxe Scales Pouch is manufactured from the same heavy duty hard wearing Cordura type material synonymous with the company, and is extremely well padded. The pouch is large enough to hold the large diameter dial scales from manufacturers as well as having space for a soft weigh sling or sack. No expense has been spared with this product and with a RRP of £14.99, baffles us to how something of this quality can be offered at such a low price!
 Spare spools for reels nowadays are exceeding the price of buying a complete mid-range reel when you get to the top end of the market, and are something that anglers like to carry but struggle to find somewhere to put them that is not going to expose them to damage. The Padded Spool Tubes are the perfect answer. Manufactured from the same material as the rest of the luggage, and again having a high quantity of padding, the Spool Tubes will give outstanding protection to those expensive spare spools. The tubes have been designed to house up to 4 spools, and are also provided with 2 high density foam discs that can be placed between the spools to stop them rattling together, or used as end protection should the angler wish to used the tubes to hold spods or marker floats. A truly multi-purpose product that is more than up to the job in hand. The Spool Tubes are available in two sizes suitable for Standard or Big Pit sized spools, with the Standard size having a RRP of £12.99 and the Big Pit version having a RRP of £14.99.
UKMA were also sent a couple of the Specialist Weigh Slings that are aimed at the Barbel angler or those that prefer to fish for the smaller specimen fish that inhabit our waters.
The Specialist Weigh Sling is manufactured using a very soft quick dry olive mesh material and is plenty big enough for all but the most humungous of Barbel! Fitted with two hard wearing handles that also offer the angler a secure grip when returning a fish as well as being more than up to taking the strain when placed on the scales hook, you can be sure that the Specialist Weigh Sling is not going to let you down when required. The dimensions of the sling are 28” long x 14” high, and can be folded up to a very small size to be kept with the scales in a pouch.
 The other sling that we were sent is the Specialist Weigh Sling Retainer. Exactly the same as the standard Specialist Weigh Sling but with increased dimensions of 30” x 20”, and having a zipped top to allow the angler to retain the fish safely for a short period of time whilst sorting out weighing equipment. This product is perfect for the Barbel angler on the rivers where the fish may require some time to recover after a prolonged fight. Also supplied with the Specialist Weigh Sling Retainer is a length of cord for securing the sling to a bankstick. RRP for the Slings are £13.99 for the Specialist Weigh Sling and £16.50 for the Specialist Weigh Sling Retainer.
UKMA were also sent the Universal Utility Belt to review which will be fully reviewed once we have had chance to fully put it through its paces. First impressions of the Universal Utility Belt are that it will make those long walks along the river after the Chub and Barbel much easier, as well as offering superb storage for lures etc when roving after predators or stalking for Carp. UKMA can see this being the future for the angler that likes to travel with the absolute bare minimum of tackle, and is something that all the team at UKMA have their eyes on!
Conclusion
All in all, everything that Cotswold Aquarius sent for review has by far exceeded our review criteria for the “Best of British”. Every angler that we have shown the products too have been highly impressed and expressed interest in purchasing items from the range themselves. The quality of the manufacturing is literally second to none, with reinforced areas being reinforced themselves so that the product should last the angler a lifetime in normal angling situations. During the main testing session for the luggage and sundries, the bivvies got flooded out overnight due to a turn in the wind and drove rain straight in through open doors. The items inside the Roamer Carryall stayed perfectly dry and secure, where as other bags which were next to the carryall, were damp inside. The reviewer actually found it made so much room in his shelter using the Roamer Carryall instead of the other carryall he was using, he actually was sure that he had left vital equipment at home, yet could go into the bag & find items without covering his bedchair with tackle or damp bags.
If you are in the market to purchase new luggage, make sure that Cotswold Aquarius are at the very top of the list to look at. We guarantee that you will not be disappointed!
The team at UKMA thank Cotswold Aquarius wholeheartedly for allowing us to try out and review their products. |
