My first waterfowl hunt would have been comical—well, actually it was for everyone involved except me. I was invited to hunt ducks and owned a shotgun. What else did I need? Of course, I ran out and bought waders and a couple of calls—that I didn’t know how to blow—and threw my gear in a backpack. In the blind, I learned the lessons of my folly. The blind had flooded and between the dog and other hunters, real estate on the bench was limited. A backpack is great for some evolutions, but it’s a top down affair. Of course everything you need is on the bottom.
The internal area of a waterfowl blind bag must be waterproof. This will keep your shot shell boxes from disintegrating and spare you from eating pond flavored PB&J sandwiches. Here’s a million dollar idea for the first reader to run with it—waterproof batteries! I’ll admit the market may be limited to waterfowlers without a waterproof backpack, but I refuse to believe I was the only one to learn this lesson the hard way. By the way, when those little foamy earplugs are wet when you put them in your ears… With a backpack, the item you need the most is easy to find. Remove everything from your bag and try to keep it dry by holding it with your left hand. You can then retrieve your item from the bottom with your right. Blind bags will feature multiple pockets to arrange items and typically have a divider system for the main compartment too.
Allen’s Ultimate Floating Waterfowl Bag also incorporates loops for eight game calls inside. This is great. For instance, I may not be hunting an area known for pintails so I won’t keep the whistle around my neck, but I want it handy and with the rest of my gear if needed or for another hunt.
Other necessary features include a removable shoulder strap, double lid design to secure items in the top away from the main compartment (Granola bars, papers etc.) and of course a great camo in case you end up setting your bag outside of your blind. This is common when hunting fields from a layout blind.
Allen’s Ultimate Floating Waterfowl Bag measures 8 x 15 x 9 inches and comes decked in Realtree Advantage Max 4 camo.