The Yeti Panga 28 Backpack - A Waterproof Fortress for all Your Outdoor Gear (continued)

Operation: The Yeti Panga backpack continues the simple and clean styling of the company’s Panga Series dry duffels, which are also fully submersible, and feature the same Storm Grey color exterior and bright blue interior, all accessed via the HydroLok™ zipper which has two sets of teeth and a specially designed U-DOCK™ terminal-end which together create a completely airtight seal.

The Panga's key feature is the HydroLok Zipper and U-Dock design that come together to form an airtight seal

The design just plain works, and it doesn’t matter if you find yourself in an unexpected downpour, get splashed with an ocean wave, or wade chest deep into a river with the Panga, your gear will remain completely dry. The first few times I exposed my electronics to the water I was a little tentative, but I quickly learned that as long as the zipper is fully closed the Panga backpack does a phenomenal job sealing out the elements, and protecting everything you choose to store within it.

The zipper locks securely so you have to tug hard to open the pack. A nylon loop is provided below the zipper as an extra point of leverage

In terms of capacity the Panga’s 28 liters of interior volume is cavernous, and consists primary of one main compartment. There is a slim pocket on the bottom in which designed for a thin notebook or tablet, and I was able to load my 13 inch Macbook Pro and Microsoft Surface into this sleeve at the same time with no issues.

Inside a sleeve can hold a laptop, or even two, thin devices firmly in place

The only other dedicated compartment is a small mesh zippered pocket on the inside of the upper panel. I found this small pocket good for items like my wallet, car keys, smartphone, and one GoPro Hero 7 camera. The ability to see through the mesh made it quick and easy to identify and draw those items, but the overall capacity of this pocket is limited and best reserved for compact and loose items. Basically this is your quick access stash pocket.

The stowaway mesh pocket keeps smaller valuables safe and easily accessible

There is one large Velcro pad on the upper inside main compartment that can hold Velcro equipped items securely, but I didn’t find this all that useful. You can attach a few small objects but once you load up the pack with a few items this section is quickly overlapped.

A Velcro pad is provided inside for quick attach items

This brings us to the primary main compartment, which accounts for almost all of the 28L of storage volume that the backpack offers. I found early on that the pack performs best when filled, and if you place just a few small items into the bag they will bounce around within the undivided main compartment. Things also get a little crazy in this pack when loaded up with a variety of different sized and shaped items. For example, to eliminate the noisy and unbalanced shifting of items when the Panga was not fully loaded, I would add in an emergency puffer jacket which doubled as interior insulation for the separate items, but I found that when loaded I constantly had to dig through the bag to find smaller items like reels or tools.

I was constantly impressed by just how much this backpack could hold

The answer I discovered came with proper planning before each trip, and by using a number of smaller packing cases I was able to eliminate this issue completely. By using a separate case to hold my GoPro cameras, one for my drone, and another for smaller tackle and tools I was able to draw these smaller individual cases quickly, and not have to continually unload and reload the pack when attempting to access any single piece of kit.

The bag does benefit form smaller packing modules, including Yeti's own Sidekick Dry bag

Yeti’s own Sidekick Dry bag is a great option for internal organization, and it can also be pulled out and strapped to the back of the Panga to provide an additional quick access storage for frequently used tackle, and as an added benefit it is also completely waterproof with a cleverly designed magnetic closure system. The Sidekick Dry bag is 11 ¾” x 7 1/8” x 3 ¼” in size and will add only 12.8oz. of additional weight to the backpack. This smaller bag retails for $49.99 and is also compatible with Yeti’s other soft bags like their Carryall or Hopper coolers.

The Yeti Sidekick Dry bag can be attached externally as well

The Yeti Panga also has a variety of different lash point loops on the back and sides, and while the Sidekick Dry is a nice addition it is pretty much the only option that the company currently offers. The one thing that is really missing from this bag are bundled straps to hold a rod tube on the side of the pack. There are aftermarket options that will get the job done, but it is an option that we hope that the company will offer in the future.

Simply attach the smaller Sidekick to the Panga Backpack's lash points and you have a smaller quick access compartment

A quick down-and-dirty option to attach a Yeti Rambler bottle to the outside of the pack is to use a large carabineer and simply slip it on one of the lash points and clip it to the bottle’s oversized TripleHaul cap. The attachment works in a pinch and can also be used for other tools and accessories like leader, cutters, or pliers, but I personally didn’t really like having the objects bounce around while on longer treks. On activities like fishing from a paddleboard or canoe, or casting the shoreline, this method of latching on accessories is a good option.

Sidekick Dry attached

Next Section: Ergonomics, Durability, and Applications...