Review: Simms Taco Wader Bag

A simple, affordable, and wonderfully functional piece of gear
simms taco wader bag
Image credit: Simms Fishing

The Simms Taco Wader Bag is one of those pieces of gear that, the moment you're introduced to it, you find yourself wishing you owned. It is also one of those pieces of gear that, despite its utility, you're assuming you'll go on living without once you see the price tag. The world of fly fishing is filled with gear that achieves its intended purpose with simplistic grace, but that simplicity isn't often reflected in the price tag. In the case of the Taco Bag, you can have your cake and eat it too. Simms has put together a simple, wonderfully useful piece of gear and decided not to take those who want one to the cleaners.

taco bag
Image credit: Simms Fishing

What Works

Everything. The goal of Simms' Taco Wader Bag is to let you store your waders, boots and other soaking wet and possibly mud-covered items in a easy to carry bag that you don't otherwise care about because it isn't intended to do anything else. As a result, your waders are always bagged and your car or truck and house stay a lot cleaner because of it.

The Taco Bag packs few features, but the few that are there are what make it work. For one, the bag is vented. Mesh panels at what becomes the top of the bag allow air in, reducing the chance that your waders and boots are doing to turn into mildewed cesspools if you don't unpack them as quickly as you'd like to. The lower panel, on the other hand is water proof, meaning the bag won't drip or leak when you're toting it or when it is set down.

The bag is roomy. My waders, size 13 wading boots and rain jacket all fit in with plenty of room to spare.

Simms Taco Bag Open
I double as an excellent streamside changing mat (Image credit: Simms Fishing).

Perhaps the most notable feature of the Simms Taco Wader Bag is the feature that gives it its name, and one that SImms fails to highlight (or even mention) in its promo materials. The bag folds like a taco when closed and when open, lays flat like, well, a tortilla. Except this tortilla is made of sturdy 600 Denier Ballistic Nylon shell fabric.

The result is a nylon tortilla that doubles as a streamside (or truck side) changing mat. No more stepping out of your boots with wet, but otherwise clean, waders and turning them into a muddy disaster by stepping into the dirt. And the best part? The price. Simms has seen fit to price the taco bag at very reasonable price point of $39.

What Doesn't

I guess Simms could have made it $29.

Final Word

The bag works, works well, and at $39, is the sort of purchase you're unlikely to regret even if you don't think it is as hot as we do.

BUY THE SIMMS TACO BAG

Comments

Can't live without my taco bag.

I've pissed away $29 on plenty of other things that haven't done anything to improve my day. The taco bag always does.

Your magazine does a great job in all respects when it comes to fly fishing and the many factors that affect it -- good and bad. It's for that reason I'd like to point out that the owner of Simms -- the maker of fine equipment -- has aligned himself with the Republican Party and its many and various anti-environmental policies. With our new Republican governor, the first in 16 years, Montana's over stressed coldwater fisheries are feeling the lash of unbridled development at any cost and a return to state advocacy of mining, ranching and logging; extractive industries with long histories of damaging our trout populations. Many regional fly fishers and guides have begun a quiet boycott of Simms and its products.

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