Shakespeare Quiver
January 2000. I have been thinking over the last few weeks, whether a rucksack and quiver would be a better way for me transport my gear, rather than using my trolley and a rod holdall. The reason for the concern is due to the Osteoarthritis that I have in both knees. I have found that pulling the trolley over rough muddy fields to be very hard work, and damaging to my knees.
I was looking in one of my local tackle shops when I saw a large selection of quivers. This seemed to me to be a way of carrying a lot of my gear, in a relatively simple way. There was quivers by all of the "names", at varying prices. I settled for the Shakespeare quiver, with the logo "cypry" on it. The workmanship looked to be good, the materials robust, and at the asking price of just £25-00, seemed to be a real bargain.
I have been using the quiver over the last month and it appears to be able to do the job well. I carry the 2 carp/pike rods already made up and banded in the outside rod retainers. There is in fact places for 3 rods. The butts of the rods slide down into material pockets. There is a central fitting restraining strap, and a top padded strap to secure the higher section of the rods. The top strap has 3 press studs and a buckle. The only problem that I have at the moment, is that the 3 press studs are very hard to push home. This will obviously get easier as they are used more and more. With the rods secured, I put 2 short rods rests, complete with the fitted bite alarms (in their plastic protection cases) into the smaller of the 2 zipped and buckled outside pockets, bite alarms towards the bottom of the quiver. This is so that the pointed ends of the rod rests do not try and poke a way through the material. In the same pocket I put the 2 monkey climbers. In the larger of the 2 outer pockets, I put the 2 longer bank sticks, and the two Twistiks, also upside down, and the folded landing net. In the large central pocket, I roll up my unhooking mat (length ways), and down the centre of this I put the brolly and the landing net handle. All safe and secure, the quiver is slung over a shoulder. Once over the shoulder it feels very comfortable., and there is no problem at all in carrying it. The only addition I would like to see on the quiver would be a cover that could be pulled down and tightened so that when it is belting down, the quiver is not inclined to take on too much water.