Badfish Hooded Tops

Steve Souter offers his thoughts on the eye-catching hooded tops from Badfish Clothing.

I received this particular hooded top some months ago with the intention of carrying out the review quickly. But how do you produce an even halfway meaningful appraisal of an item of clothing such as this without actual experience of the cycle of donning it, fishing in it and washing it several times over? My conclusion was that you couldn’t, so having done exactly that half-a-dozen times or more over the last couple of months, I finally felt qualified to deliver a review of substance.

Badfish Hooded Tops

Badfish Clothing is owned by graphic designer and keen sea angler Jamie Soons. The wider fishing world is probably oblivious to the fact that Jamie’s outstanding design work occupies space in practically all the sea angling magazines and top websites. Badfish apparel is the result of him putting that creative talent and passion for sea fishing to further good use.

Quality and Style

What we have here is top quality 80% cotton and 20% polyester hooded top intended to resist regular hard outdoor wear, while being eye-catching at the same time. Grey and black in colour, it’s lightly fleece-lined inside and unrestrictive when worn as fishing mid or top layer.

Badfish Hooded Tops

Powerfully screen-printed front and back logos unmistakeably stamp the ‘Bass Angler’ identity, and have so far remained un-dulled by numerous washes. I would suggest that this top will survive years of regular use as long the 40 degrees wash and low iron advice on the label is stuck to. I found the hoodie dries quickly straight from the washing machine and does not distort out of shape after a serious soaking… something that just cannot be said of so many tops aimed at anglers.

Hot Hood

The head-hugging double fabric hood is well formed and features a comfortable inner black lining that looks the part and feels great too. The hood is drawn tight by a strong flat cord that exits via two sturdy metal eyelets instead of the usual sure-to-fray holes that are such a problem with many similar garments. There are also two earphone retaining loops within the hood to ensure that phones don’t disappear within the garment should they fall out of your ears.

Badfish Hooded Tops

The front kangaroo pouch pocket is generous, has access from either side and features an internal hidden slit to discreetly feed through an earphone cord from an iPod or mobile phone. Ribbed cuffs and hem complete a snug and properly considered fit-for-purpose item.

Windproof

While clearly not waterproof this hoodie is sufficiently windproof and warm enough to cope with nasty winter wind-chills, as I found out during on particularly blowy session on a North East rock mark. The Badfish hoodie is not overly bulky for movement or heavy to wear. As such, it is ideal for summer fishing purposes too.

Badfish Hooded Tops

I have no problem with pullover-hooded tops, but, with summer in mind, I have a liking for zip-fronted hoodies, which are quick and convenient to take off or throw on as the case may be. I would rather not have to do the “cat in a sack” mad wrestle thing to get a top off in a hurry! I realise that this is a purely personal thing but I think it would be great to see these excellent Badfish hoodies made available in full zip versions.

Cod Coming

Bass Angler hoodies are only available online through www.badfishclothing.co.uk They cost £35 each, including postage and packing, across the full size range of M, L, XL & XXL. Bad Fish also offer Bass Angler T-shirts in either vivid orange or sky blue, which are priced at £22 each. There are also plans to produce other fish-themed tops such as the ‘Cod Angler’ range, which I am told will be available very soon. I was asked the other day what species of fish I’d like to see immortalised on a fishing top? After a pause I answered: “Gilthead bream”. So, if anyone from Badfish is reading this then that would be my suggestion for a new project.