Product Review - Grundens Rain Suit

Pete McMiller

Pete McMiller

Well-known member
I have tried a lot of rain wear over the years and always managed to still get wet. Not any more!

Prior to my recent trip to Lake Erie I bought a Grundens Petrus HD 44 jacket http://www.grundens.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=27 and Petrus HD bibs http://www.grundens.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=27 in green. The jacket has neoprene cuffs set inside the sleeves so with a pair of Atlas 495 gloves my hands, arms, etc. never got wet in a week of fishing. Most rain jackets have sleeves that allow water to run down the inside - not this one. The other benefit to this model is that it is polyurathane on the outside. This makes it much quieter than the PVC as well as easy to move around in. Since there is now fly in the bibs to leak water, your butt stays dry also. The legs are cut big enough to still offer some ventilation so you don't end up all clammy. The hood on the jacket fits well over a cap and with the chin snapped offers good protection. Also, rather than a zipper, the jacket is fastened with an inside AND an outside snap system that is very effective it keeping the water and wind out.

I bought mine from LFS in Bellingham, WA over the internet. No problems ordering or getting delivery.
 
No, not really. Lost the first day, Sat. 5/8, to high winds of 40-50 mph and predicted 12-15 foot seas. Lost Tues 5/11 to the same and got chased off the lake twice on Thursday by lightening storms. Ended up with about half the fish we normally get. It's real hard to get a program going when the water looks like chocolate milk most of the time. We had to search for clear water every day. The weather this year was more like the April weather we used to fish in. We gave up that cold, windy, nasty weather and moved our trip to May but this year the weather followed us.

On occasion we end up fishing (drifting) in high seas of 6 ft. or so but this time we saw an actual 8 footer come through. We both knew it when it came too. Fortunately it was a swell and not a breaking wave. Then again if the waves had been breaking we wouldn't have been out there. Mind you, that my boat is only a 1775 Lund and not a 25 footer.

Fish averaged a bit smaller than we expected also. The biggest in my boat was about 7 lbs. and the biggest of the six of us was a 30 incher caught by one of the other boats.

Nothing like fishing the big water.
 
Pete,

You can't go wrong with Grundens.
I have the Brigg parka and the Hercules bibs.
I have been using mine for 4 years and they are in great shape.
 
I don't step on the boat without my grundens bibs. I have a newer pair of the petrus ones that I love, but also have a pair of the hercules that are going on 10+ years strong. I also have one of the fleece windjammer jackets that is awesome for the spring and fall.

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Craig,

The windjammer vest I bought a couple years ago was my first intro to Grundens. At the time I was in Rhode Island hunting with a few guys from this page. We stopped at a commercial fishing supply place that had the vest. I bought it and the windjammer beany. Two of the best purchases I've made. I forgot the vest at the hotel at Westlake a year ago and was sick until they located it. Cost me $25 for FedEx charges to get it back but it was worth it.
 
Pete,
they make good stuff. It is not cheep or the latest in breathable but it sure is the first thing I want if its going to be anything but blue bird..... and if you have fish to cut you aint gonna see any thing that beats the bibs.

They us. get ripped and that is the end. I was still using a jacket that I had for 15 years till I took out the shoulder on a hang up on a boat.
Bibs get trashed by tears at work way too often, but that is part of the work not the design.
No wind gets thru the heavy gear.
 
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