Bass Pro XPS Stalker Bag Review

[WaffleJaw]

Well like many,I had some BPS gift cards burning a hole in my pocket....Ive been on the hunt for a new tackle backpack..My plano rig has been slowlly falling apart on me,plus I wanted something a little more user friendly and more options.
I had a few in mind,but I wanted to take another look at the XPS Stalker bag (That and my gift cards only work there)....On sale for 32 bucks.

I looked at it awhile back but decided against it because I thought it might be a hassle on the bank with all the compartments,and lack of plastic storage.....For the first time ever....I was wrong

The first thing I noticed was the material....Its seems 5x tougher than than plano's bag I have...The stitching and everything looked heavy duty.


The thing is rated to hold 8 3600 series plano boxes..I found 7 plus a slim 3600 box was perfect!.8 normal was too tight in my opinion....Once the boxes were in,this bag looked good!
When opened the oppisite side of the flap has two mesh pockets for plastics..Reminder that this is the side that rest against your back while wearing it....I was able to fit 5 bags in each pocket and it provides a little cushion while wearing it.I decided this was awesome because it will not only limit to what I carry plastic wise,but also slow me down on fishing them.....But still 10 bags is plenty imo.



The outside of the flap has even more storage....For the backpack straps and possibly another rod......There are rod straps on both sides.



The bottom of the bag is reinforced with a heavy duty vinyl....Well see how it holds up


Both sides of the bags are identical...Both have a water bottle mesh pocket,deep,deep zipper pockets,and a zipper mesh pocket....One side has the cell phone holder which as you can see I use for my pliers......The other side has a built in towel..(removal,but still cool,lol)




The bottom has two rounded pockets for extra spools of line...They also have a slot to feed the line out of and you can use them as a spooling station...At first I thought it was kind of a dumb feature because I never carry spare line on me...But then I thought if you were fishing with leaders then this might be very useful to pull out some line to make new ones....I dont,so its kind of a dumb feature


The top also features a molded sunglasses zipped case along with two more zipped storage comparments...The sunglass case is pretty useless to me....But I can find another use for it Im sure.


And if that aint enough...In one of the zipped pockets under the sunglasses case is a rain cover for the whole bag.



Ive got this thing loaded down with gear....The backpack straps are padded and there is a chest snap to hold them in place.Their fairly comfortable.Ive yet to do walking in it but I think Ill be fine....Im not trying to carry everything Ive got...Just what I think Ill need...Which everything.
Im excited to use this bag,and see how it holds up...Its got more features than Optimus Prime and I think its a winner!