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Kast Steelhead Glove Review

Posted on December 12 2011

Kast Steelhead Gloves
Warm, waterproof, great dexterity.

A few months back we heard from the folks at a new company called Kast Gear.  They make a few different products designed for fishing in the cold.  They sent us a pair of their Steelhead Gloves to try out.

We fished them in cold weather.  We liked them.  Here’s why.

Design and Fishing Use

They’re fairly close-cut gloves that combine a waterproof (more on this below) / breathable outer layer with fleece lining on the inside.  They’ve got some really nice secondary features, like a nice soft section to wipe your nose, and sturdy nylon loops on the cuffs to help pull them on.

The cut is really comfortable and allows for very good dexterity.  There’s not a lot of excess material between or underneath your fingers.

This lack of extra bulk allowed us to keep them on much more than we typically keep on other full-fingered gloves.  We’d take them off to tie knots, but we actually fished while wearing them!  Spey fishing using a Skagit head and thin mono running line was doable while requiring that attention be paid to line management – but that’s about the most challenging line-handling situation we can imagine.  If you’re fishing a single-handed rod or using PVC running lines, you’ll have very little problem managing your line with these gloves on.  That right there is worth an awful lot!

Our one gripe was with the cuff design.  The cuffs are cut fairly small and made to seal tight, underneath your jacket cuffs.  We tend to keep our jackets on and take our gloves on and off during the day (tying knots, for example), and these cuffs were a little too small to easily close over the tops of our jacket cuffs.

Waterproof

This is the feature that blew us away.  Kast says these gloves are waterproof.  Maybe we didn’t pay attention, but we assumed waterproof in a “sheds water like a raincoat” sort of way.  We certainly didn’t expect this…

NOTE: If you’re viewing this in a newsletter or a reader, click here to watch the Kast gloves get dunked on our web site.

Yep, they’re totally waterproof.  Rain is not going to make your hands wet.  Landing fish is not going to make your hands wet.  Driving a boat in hard rain is not going to make your hands wet.  These gloves are really, really waterproof.

Conclusion

Love ’em.  Great for winter steelheading.  Great for Alaskan guides.  Great for cold mornings on the ocean.

They’re cut well, you can fish in them, they’ve got a nice warm lining…and your hands are absolutely, definitely not going to get wet.

They’re not cheap at $79.99, but warm, dry hands are worth it in our book.  You can pick yourself up a pair directly from Kast right here.

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