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The Absolute Buyers Guide to Fishing Umbrellas
As British anglers, we are all more than just a little familiar with the rain. British weather is notoriously unpredictable and we all will have grown accustomed to bringing the necessary precautions down to the water’s edge with us. One such precaution is the humble umbrella. The brollies that you’ll find on our website are far superior to the standard umbrellas that you can pick up from any high street store. All the fishing umbrellas we stock have been designed specifically with carp, coarse and match fishing in mind and, as such, they offer exceptional protection against the elements.
Benefits of Fishing Umbrellas
You might be wondering why you need this level of protection from the elements and, if you own a top-quality waterproof jacket from our angling clothing collection then you’re all geared up for the very worst that the British weather can throw at you. However, whilst a waterproof might do a reasonable job at keeping your torso dry, there can be nothing worse than the rain beading down your back and pooling on the seat of your box, soaking the seat of your trousers. What’s more, a hood on your waterproof is all well and good whilst you’re sitting face-out over the water.
Without a fishing brolly on the bank, as soon as you twist to work on a rig on your side tray then you’ve completely lost all your peripheral vision or, even worse, you turn your head to look directly into the side of your hood rather than at your station or your pole. In this situation, an umbrella is the only solution.
Fishing brollies are not just good for keeping a drizzle of rain at bay. Out on the bank, a brolly can be anything from a broad, tilted, umbrella design that’s more about offering shade, and keeping your bait out of the worst of the weather than ensuring you don’t get wet if it starts pouring down, up to what is essentially a mini-bivvy, perfect if you half plan on staying out overnight, but definitely can’t make a proper weekend of it.
You may argue, why not just take a bivvy or fishing shelter with you? Well for short session anglers, either in the sun or rain, you need protection from the element that can house yourself, bait and tackle which most umbrellas on our site can offer without breaking the bank like a big shelter might! The benefit of a fishing brolly system to a bivvy is also the setup time. In a matter of minutes, with less frustrating steps, a brolly can be up just in time before the rain starts to fall!
What are the Different Types of Brollies for Fishing?
When it comes to fishing umbrellas, there is more than just the standard pop-up brolly that you may double up to use for everyday trips during a downpour. We stock three different kinds of umbrellas in our range and each has a specific purpose in mind.
Side/ Seatbox Umbrella:
Designed to attach onto or sit next to your seat box and fishing chair, this is a large umbrella that can cover not only you but also your seat box and all your accessories. After all, when you’re out in the rain you don’t only have your comfort to look out for but you also need to bear in mind the implications of your tackle.
These kinds of umbrellas are often angle adjustable, to ensure that you can get the perfect cover and protection from the elements. In the UK, the rain is rarely simply pouring down on you and more often than not it will be gusting at you from one side or the other – almost moving horizontally across the water and over the bank. In these sorts of conditions, an angled umbrella is essential for ensuring that you and your gear can remain dry throughout your match.
In our range of seat box accessories, you’ll be able to find a whole collection of brolly arms, each designed with their own seat box system in mind. These arms allow you to secure your brolly to the side of your seat box, helping to ensure that it is precision positioned throughout your angling session. The arm also provides additional structural reinforcement to the brolly once erected, supporting it in the middle of its pole as well as simply at the point at which the pole meets the ground.
Hermit Brolly:
This umbrella offers all-around protection by letting you secure the sides to the terrain, similar to the fishing umbrella with sides that again offers extra material to secure to the ground with pegs as well as extra space for luggage to stay dry.
Hermit brollies will often have flat backs and long storm sides, designed for resting directly on the ground. You can then set up your chair and tackle under the shelter of the brolly, allowing you to sit on the bank perfectly protected from the very worst of the elements.
Anglers who have come from a carp fishing background will recognise this style of angling, which is generally associated with mobile carp fishing. Unlike carp fishing brollies, these umbrellas usually come without storm poles and you’re unable to remove their central erection pole, too.
Bait Brolly:
Unique to coarse and match angling, these are small umbrellas which pretty much do as they say on the tin: they are designed to shelter your coarse and match bait from the elements.
Bait umbrellas can either be attached to your seat box system via the use of a brolly arm placed underneath your side tray or ground bait bowl, or you can stand them on the floor over your larger bait bucket. These are often square, rather than heptagonal as normal brollies are, to cover the often square side trays that you might use on the bank.
What Should I Look for in A Fishing Umbrella?
Across the range, there are several features that you might want to look out for to ensure that you’re getting the kind of brolly that suits your needs.
1. Waterproofing
One of the most important features of an umbrella is its waterproof rating. All of the umbrellas that we stock, here at Angling Direct, are guaranteed to be waterproof, however, it is worth looking out for a hydrostatic head rating if you’re looking for a product that goes above and beyond.
Waterproofing is usually measured in millimetres using a Hydrostatic Head test which establishes how long it takes for the fabric to allow the liquid to pass through. It might also be worth looking to see if the product states whether or not its seams are taped. If you’re ever going to find a weak point in the fabric’s waterproof rating it will be at the seams, where the needle will have created thousands of microscopic holes. By taping these seams shut, manufacturers can create an additional barrier against the water at this weakest point of the fabric, preventing any leakages in even the heaviest of downpours.
2. Thickness of Brolly Fabric
You can also get an understanding of the thickness of the umbrella fabric if it specifies its denier (D). The dernier rating along with the size of the umbrella is worth considering also. It’s worth remembering that your umbrella isn’t only a valuable asset in the more miserable angling conditions. After all, as pleasant as you might think it will be to sit out in the sun all day, we know that we usually find ourselves desperate for shade after only a couple of hours.
3. Central Boss of the Umbrella
This is the area of the brolly that slides up the pole and houses the spokes. Whether you’re looking for a brolly to sit under or an umbrella for your bait, ideally you’ll want this boss to be as flush to the roof of the brolly as possible. The neater the boss is the greater the internal space of the umbrella. If you’re sat under it, this will maximise your headroom, ensuring that you’re able to sit up tall without worry.
4. Manoeurabilty of the Umbrella
If you’re using the brolly to protect your bait, this will ensure that your hand has maximum manoeuvrability when you’re reaching under the brolly to ball or otherwise prep your bait. Similarly, if you’re using your side tray for rig construction rather than bait storage, your small tray brolly can keep your rig bits dry and a high boss allows you to make vital terminal tackle modifications with ease.
5. The Best Umbrella Pole or Handle
You’ll also want to pay attention to the pole of the umbrella. Much like all things in angling, you want a pole which is both lightweight and durable. The weight of the pole is important as you don’t want your excuse for not bringing your brolly to be because it is too heavy.
You’ll often find that your brolly pole is manufactured from either carbon, stainless steel, or aluminium. Carbon is the lightest of the three and stainless steel the most durable. Aluminium is a strong compromise between the two, offering the robustness of steel whilst maintaining the low weight of your umbrella. It is worth looking at the material that the arms (or spokes) of your brolly are manufactured from. Some manufacturers use fibreglass in their arm construction, to minimise the weight of the brolly, whereas others will rely on more traditional materials.
6. Shape & Structure of the Fishing Umbrella
Another thing to consider is the shape of the fishing brolly or at least the angler the umbrella sits at when erect. A flatback brolly, for example, will enable a flat surface to be fixed too whilst ensure the rest of the brolly is structures to encourage rain to pour to the back of the umbrella where you are completely covered, instead of near the entrance of the shelter. You will find some brollies are more rounded in structure, ideal for holding when moving to and from your bivvy to rod set up and some are squared, ideal to use for covering your luggage, extra tackle or bait station.
7. Umbrella Fixing or Attachments
The fixing of your umbrella is another feature you should look out for. The most common fixing is the fishing brolly spike that is attached to the end of the pole of the umbrella and can be pushed into soft terrain. You can also get umbrellas with pegging points, like shelters which are common in umbrellas with sides or hermit shapes. Some fishing umbrellas just have a standard handle at the end of their pole that you can either hold in a hand or use attachments to add to a fishing chair or seat box set up.
8. What Umbrella Colour is Best for Fishing?
A final specification to consider when shopping for a new fishing umbrella is the colour! To some, it may not matter what your umbrella looks like but for those anglers that love to stalk their catch, you need all the help you can get with blending into the natural surrounding of the bankside. Black, browns, camo, greens and khaki are the colour patterns often picked by carp anglers but you may find a match and sea fishing brollies use different colour palettes, with bright blues, oranges and even red being some options.
Fishing Brollies and Sun Protection
An umbrella is a perfect solution for the sun and heat ruining your session. An umbrella allows you to stay on the bank in complete comfort. Simply erect your umbrella to create a large shadow over you and your gear, keeping you sheltered from the worst of the sun’s rays all day. Sunlight contains UV rays – which can create catastrophic damage to you and your tackle. UV rays are classified into two different categories: UVA and UVB.
UVB rays are the ones that we are most familiar with and the results of these can be seen on our skin after only a few hours of exposure. These are the rays that cause sunburn and blisters. UVA rays are the more dangerous of the two rays as their effects aren’t noticed until much later in your life. Liver spots, moles, and other forms of cellular mutation occur as a result of UVA rays – with the most serious outcome being skin cancer.
Sunlight and UV rays can also cause serious damage to your vital tackle. Have you ever left something on your window sill, only to find it faded or degraded? This is exactly the sort of thing that can happen to your fishing tackle if it is left in the sun for too long, so it is as vital to protect this as well as you on the bank. A top-quality umbrella and bait umbrella combination allow you to do just this.
Read more on Sun Protection for Anglers, here.
How Do I Know What Size Umbrella To Get?
Size can cover both the span of the shelter provided by the brolly and the length the arm of the brolly can reach. Both are important to consider and can make choosing between two brollies the deciding factor! Taller anglers will certainly benefit from a taller umbrella so when sitting in their fishing chair their head is not hitting the support of the brolly! Alternatively, you can shop for low-profile brollies that ensure the wind does not sweep them away!
How Do You Measure a Fishing Umbrella?
The size of an umbrella is usually measured by the span its structure covers. This is measured by looking at the length of the rib and then doubling it. Starting by measuring from the top of the umbrella’s centre to the outside edge. Umbrellas can also be measured in terms of height with the length of the pole attached to the structure. Sometimes these umbrella poles can be adjusted to fit the angler's requirements.
Which Brand of Fishing Umbrella is Best?
The best brand of umbrella is a choice depending on what you require from your angling shelter. We, here at Angling Direct stock a range of brands that produce top-notch brollies such as Browning, Fox, Maver, Daiwa, Preston and many more!
What is the Average Cost of an Umbrella?
The standard, handheld umbrellas vary between £20-£40 whereas your smaller bait brollies cost around £35-£60! The hermit style or umbrellas with sides vary but can cost anywhere between £45 -£300!
There you have it, our Absolute Buyers Guide to Fishing Umbrellas and Brollies. We hope this guide has answered your questions and pointed out some of the top features you need to look out for in the best umbrella for you when fishing the UK shoreline, lakeside or rivers! If you are in for a longer session and want to upgrade from brolly to bivvy then check out our dedicated Buyers Guide to Bivvies and Shelters, also on the Angling Direct Blog.
More about Fishing Umbrellas...
If you’re asking yourself, ‘what is the best fishing brolly system?’ or ‘what is the best quality umbrella?’, you can always check out our brolly reviews found on the AD blog and our video reviews over on ADTV (our Youtube channel). Still wondering ‘what is the most durable umbrella or if vented umbrellas are better?’, then give out customer service team a call or pop into your local Angling Direct store for more advice!
