Tackle tray is 4 1/2″ wide by 7 3/8″ tall. Elastic lanyard and small pocket can hold pliers, etc.

Yes, I’m wearing gloves. Those will be reviewed soon!

I used to use MMA training shorts in the board shorts style to surfboard and kayak fish. No, I don’t train MMA but they were stretchy, and had hip pockets to hold my phone. After years of use they started unraveling, and since I rarely board fish anymore, I was looking to replace them with shorts that had open front pockets since I didn’t plan to be swimming or wading in waist deep water.

Columbia Sportswear makes a line of clothing specifically for fishing, called Performance Fishing Gear, or PFG.  I hadn’t worn Columbia clothing for more than a decade, but the shirts and pants I had before were very functional and reasonably priced.  My dad still wears my long sleeve, button down, collared, vented fishing shirt to do yard work. 🙂

West Marine has a great selection of the Columbia PFG line, so I tried on some long sleeve, high tech, sun reflecting shirts and the Terminal Tackle shorts.  Columbia shirts run a bit big.  I wear a Large in other brands of fishing shirts but their Medium is roomy for me.  I was a size 30 in the shorts which is about what I wear in surf trunks cuz a 30 really has a 31 – 32 inch waist maybe?

I liked that the Terminal Tackle shorts had 4-way stretch material, deep, useful front pockets, and a zippered side pocket that could fit my Galaxy S8 Active. It also came with a bottle opener / line cutter on an elastic leash.  I don’t keep anything in my pockets while seated in the kayak, but having pockets would be super helpful during the loading and unloading process and for boat fishing.

Purchased some long sleeve shirts that I haven’t tried yet, and the Terminal Tackle shorts.  Oama fished in them, and they were comfortable due to the stretch. I loved having a place to put my keys and phone when I got out of the water.  They’re also sun, stain and stink resistant which is key when you’re using smelly baits for picky oama.

Kayak fishing for 6 hrs was a much better stress test.  The shorts were comfortable in the heat, didn’t chafe, dried quickly and held my pre and post fishing stuff easily.  They look more like walk shorts than surf trunks, which is ok I guess.  I removed the bottle opener/line cutter and can attach a fishing tool to the elastic lanyard if I want.  At $50 in the stores locally, they’re cheaper than stretchy surf trunks and at times some colors are on sale at www.columbia.com.  The Terminal Tackle shorts are everything I wanted in fishing shorts – I highly recommend them.