Reviewed by: Captain Mike Schoonveld
Gloves are more than just a “handy” garment worn to keep fingers warm. Surgeons wear thin latex gloves to help keep their work area sterile. Dentists wear them to keep the nasty germs in their patients’ mouths away from their hands. I wear similar gloves when I’m changing the oil in my engines or greasing my trailer bearings to keep my hands (mostly) oil and grease free.
Cowboys wear leather gloves to protect their hands from cuts, lariat burns or to get a better grip when handling slippery fencing pliers. Welders and bakers wear heat resistant hand-wear. I’m sure you can figure other reasons to put on a pair of gloves.
For a walleye fisherman, that includes handling their fish. That’s how I learned to love Gorilla Grip Gloves.
Step one – As I strolled the aisles at the ICAST show in 2019, one of the booths – the Gorilla Grip Gloves booth – was handing out gloves like the Easter Bunny doles out colored eggs. They had 100 quart coolers full of them. Pick a size (Small to XL) and a Veil Camo color in black, yellow, blue or green. I chose a black XL.
Step two – Two weeks later I was on a remote river north of Lake Nipigon in Ontario anchored over a whirlpool at the downstream side of a rapids. The bottom of the river was coated with walleyes. Drop down a jig, crank up a walleye, repeat again and again and…. Actually, that first day I slowed down only because the sharp-edged gills and the abrasive scales on each fish threatened to turn my hands into raw meat.
Luckily, I’d tossed my Gorilla Grip ICAST freebies into my duffle. The next day I had them on my hands; I welcomed them on my hands – the guys fishing with me were jealous I had them on my hands.
The base fabric of the gloves is some sort of stretchy nylon, breathable and even if water gets on the non-waterproof part, it dries quickly. The gloves are very lightweight. Don’t buy them to keep your hands warm in cold weather.
The waterproof palm is, well, waterproof, so when I grabbed a flopping walleye my hand didn’t get wet. The waterproof palm also protected against the sharp gills, the needle tipped spines on the fins and the dagger-like walleye teeth. The waterproofing is textured just enough so, even when wet, it’s not like trying to hold something, wet and slimy, as it would have been with a slick-finished rubberized-palm glove.
To see these gloves check out www.gorillagripgloves.com. And check out the Gorilla Grip Cut-Resistant Fish Cleaning gloves – I love the OSHA A5 Rated cut resistant pair I picked up later They are available online at Amazon.com or in big box stores like WalMart, Home Depot and others.
FISHING TOYS 