Top Foul Weather Gear | Michael's Favorites

Michael Cheser

Content Marketing Supervisor

Traveling the North American continent over the last 12 or so years, while venturing on fishing and hunting trips, camping, backpacking, photographing and filming TV shows, wildlife and more has all taught me a lot. I am not here to share what my favorite camera gear has been over the years as an outdoor TV producer or wildlife and landscape photographer. Nor am I here to guide you down the road of my favorite hunting methods, fishing gear or camping locations, instead I am here to share my favorite foul weather gear. It’s a topic I wouldn’t have thought to cover if it hadn’t been for a joke in the office. While sitting inside working listening to 50+ mph winds howl and hearing the buckets of rain hit the roof we joked that we should be making a video on using foul weather gear in this weather. While I am not going to step out in that mess, especially holding onto a $20,000 camera I can write up a quick blog post that might just help you stay dry and handle the elements mother nature throws at you on your next outdoor adventure.

I will be discussing bibs and jackets in this post. It’s a mix of a lot of different brands I have used and still use today, while others are brands that my colleagues use daily as well. These may not be the most affordable options but if I have learned one thing over the years, when you buy the cheap product, you’ll replace it so many times you’ll wish you had just spent the money on the quality product. Now the guys around the office here give me a lot of grief about being branded but there’s a few brands out there that I 100% rely on and it’s because they produce a high-quality product that will last and do its job.

The Sportsman Experience Shoot on the Open 262

I will be sharing my two favorite rain jackets and then another very nice and quality rain jacket that was gifted to me by our company for us to use on photoshoots and in company related scenarios. Additionally, I will list a few brands that those around me use that are also very popular in the marine industry. My two favorites are by far the First Lite – Omen Stormshelter Jacket and Free Fly’s – Cloudshield Rain Jacket.

Starting with more of the industry favorites, these are products that those who are on a boat, more often than not, use daily. While these are more geared to the angler the products you will hear me mention later are geared toward a more outdoor centric lifestyle, I use these products camping, fishing and hunting so take that into consideration when looking at what you want to purchase, where are you going to use it and how often. To start a few of the top brands you’ll see when walking into a store such as West Marine will be, GILL, Grundens, Aftco and HUK. Each of these manufactures makes a great product and our guys wear them all.

Gill Navigator Jacket

Gill makes the Gill Navigator , an insulated, form fitting and watertight jacket with a roll away hood so when you’re on the boat and underway you don’t have it flapping around and smacking you in the face. The thermal insulation makes this a great product for cold weather and keeps you extra dry with its sealed zippers. I do not have any particular use with this product but it has come highly recommended among the industry professionals and is a great option for those concerned about spending too much on a jacket.

Grundens Charter GORE-TEX Jacket

Next, we can take a look at the Grundens Charter GORE-TEX Jacket, this jacket lines up with a pair of bibs that I actively use, the Charter GORE-TEX Bibs. It’s in the mid-range price point but is designed to last. The use of GORE-TEX makes this product extra resilient to water intrusion and it’s light weight design make it a great external layer over warm clothing for winter fishing or use it on rainy summer days to stay dry without overheating. This is a great all-around product that can be used in all conditions on and off the boat. The slimmer design also gives this a good look for around town wear.

First Lite Omen Stormshelter Jacket

Now, taking a look at some of the gear I use on a regular basis. The First Lite – Omen Stormshelter Jacket design is really made for western big game hunting however it works great on the boat as well. It’s in my opinion the best jacket I have used for staying dry in the wettest of conditions. A common term you may hear is “wetting out” this is referring to a jacket getting so wet that it comes through the outside layer and the inside membrane and now it’s no longer doing its job. This happens to cheaper gear designed for light rain or even higher quality gear that gets too dirty and the membrane’s pores fill with dirt and can no longer repel water the way it was designed to. The Omen Stormshelter in the wettest of conditions has never wetted out on me but do remember I take really good care of my gear to ensure it lasts for a long time. This jacket also cuts down on wind and its thicker design is perfect for cooler or even winter conditions with good layers underneath. I do not use this jacket much for summer conditions because of how warm I tend to get in it, I mentioned its thicker design and while that’s great for winter and keeping you dry it’s not very conducive to summer months. Again, this jacket was designed for western hunting so use between the months of September to January in a colder part of the country than South Carolina. A few additional features to point out are, the large dump pockets on each side of the torso with magnetic release, these large pockets have a folding magnetic design to keep water out and provide easy access without pesky zippers. Along with these there are heat dump zippers around the arm pits that allow you to quickly dump that internal heat but still provide good protection from water.

Free Fly Cloudshield Rain Jacket

Now for those summer months I 100% choose the Free Fly’s – Cloudshield Rain Jacket. Like all of Free Fly’s products it’s buttery soft and is nice and form fitted. Its design is geared toward the watermen as Free Fly was founded on gear for the water. It’s a great option for having on the boat and light enough that in the summer you’re not going to get too hot. The downfall is because it’s light and form fitted it’s hard to layer for those cooler temps. The tight cuffs around the wrist keep your arms dry when reaching into a livewell but hinder the ability to fit a hoodie or jacket under it for added warmth. Overall, this jacket will keep you very dry during those summer pop up showers on the boat, and I have yet to see this jacket wet out, though I do feel it’s come close due to how light weight it is. Another benefit I find in the jacket is more about the aesthetics, it’s a nice casual jacket that you can wear as a wind breaker without looking like you’re just wearing your rain jacket around while it’s sunny.

Aftco Barricade Jacket

a For those who don’t want more than one rain jacket and maybe want some matching bibs you can’t go wrong with the combo in which I was gifted by Sportsman and that’s the Aftco Barricade Jacket and Aftco Barricade Bibs which I will go into detail on later. The design of the Barricade meets in the middle of the above two jackets. It’s bulky and allows layering beneath it, doesn’t hold as much heat during the warmer days but still allows water to pour off in even the wettest of conditions. Like most of Aftco’s products it’s designed specifically for fishermen and in this case foul weather fishing. A highlight and downfall of this product is the neck protection, while it’s great on cooler days, it can be quite annoying on warmer days. Additionally, this isn’t exactly the jacket you wear around town with a pair of blue jeans or to the office when it’s raining it looks and feels like a sport fishermen’s jacket.

Those are my three favorite jackets and I think all serve a great purpose. But like a lot of technical gear it’s covering a specific scenario, it’s hard to build a universal product that also fits the high end technical side of things for all users and all situations. If this were easier to do I would probably be spending my time trying to make millions selling high end universal technical outdoor gear.

Moving onto the bibs side of things, there’s a few options here too and when I say bibs, remember we are talking about water repealing bibs, not cold weather whitetail deer hunting bibs. I own two pairs of water repealing bibs and a few pairs of what I would refer to as rain pants. Let’s start with rain pants.

None of my rain pants are pricy and I honestly only know the brand name of one of them and that’s the pair I wear most often. They’re just a cheap pair of rain pants that came with a rain jacket that I purchased at a Field & Stream on a trip where I managed to forget all my foul weather gear. Florida forecast may say sunshine all day everyday but it’s subject to change at any moment, my thoughts of packing light for that trip ended up biting me as I had to find some gear that worked well but wasn’t going to break the bank to last me a few days. These Field & Stream rain pants work great though and they’re some much better in my opinion for summertime fishing. They feature zippers from ankle to mid-thigh for dumping heat and are very breathable while still repealing water just as well as any pair of bibs that I own. Remember though these are pants not bibs, while they do have suspenders, they are still just waist high pants that repeal water.

Aftco Barricade Bibs

Now looking at a traditional bib, my favorite everyday pair is my gifted Aftco Barricade Bibs. These are breathable like the jacket, bulky enough to fit warmer layers underneath for winter yet still slim enough it doesn’t look like you’re wearing grandpa’s old bulky PVC boot-foot waders. The reason these are my favorite over my second pair, which are the Grundens Charter GORE-TEX Bib, is because they come up higher on the chest, the leg length covers to the base of your deck boot, even when seated, and they’ve got excellent pocket storage build in. In the end, these honestly in my opinion are just more comfortable too. Additionally, as the camera operator when we are on these fishing shoots these bibs are excellent for keeping me dry but also storing a lot of those necessary essentials like extra batteries, lens cleaners and more.

Grundens Charter GORE-TEX Bib

Lastly, looking at the Grundens Charter GORE-TEX Bibs, these are actually more expensive than the Aftco Barricade and certainly more durable. This pair is really geared for the Charter captain, the guy who’s throwing the net, getting dirty and cleaning fish after docking the boat. They’re a fantastic set of bibs, incredibly breathable and water resistant. These are a great pair of summer bibs due to how breathable they are but can easily be layered for winter months. The GORE-TEX design adds an additional layer of protection from water intrusion without adding bulky membranes to the fabric. Their downfall is their stiffness below the knee, they do not come as far down on your boots and they only have one small pocket big enough to stuff an phone. During the summertime I find myself wearing my Grundens bibs more than the Aftco Barricade bibs because they seem to be a bit more breathable but the comfort from the Aftco is hard to beat.

In the end all of this gear I would purchase again and with how much I use each piece it’s all held up incredibly. I will say it again and again, while it seems like these results could be achieved in a cheaper platform I completely disagree. Over the years going through different gear I have settled on a few brands that I believe are priced where they are because of how great it is at doing what it’s designed to do. Cheap gear becomes expensive when you have to replace it often but expensive gear pays for itself when it lasts years and is backed by incredible warranties.