This review, by Simon Day, is from a few outings during the summer but when we had winter weather. Bought locally from Quay Stores.

I bought this in the summer in preparation for the coming winters but with the weather being as bad as it is I'm glad I had it.

It comes in a small black bag and my first thoughts were that once it was out I doubted I could get it back in such a small space. So for the first 30 minutes of getting home, and before I set it up, I took it all out and practiced putting it all back in. I was surprised at how easy it all went back in. I knew I would have no problems with this and so I carried on.

Each of the four poles are broken into 3 pieces which are joined by springs. Setting these up are very simple and only takes a few seconds.

The canvas is joined at the back of the two rear poles and cannot be removed (not that you'd want too). It is a very simple job of just placing the canvas up and over the poles and tying each corner to each leg via plastic clips that are on each pole and corner.

From start to finish erecting the shelter took me on average 1 minute to do.

Securing the shelter

This is where I ran into problems. The shelter comes with metal poles but they are too small to be able to secure into shingle or soft sand. The length would have been better if it was double the size.

My first use was on Slapton Sands which is a shingle beach. It was a dry, clear and hot summer morning so I used it to keep my bait and multipliers out of the sun. There wasn't much wind so that wasn't an issue.

You'll notice on the photo that there seems to plenty plenty of material which would run along the floor allowing you to put your bags etc onto them to secure better. It could well be me but I have nowhere near that amount of free flowing material to secure it down. If I'm lucky I maybe have a few centimeters.

The shelter does also come with rope which is much more useful if, like me, you fish quite often from piers. Our local Princess pier has benches and rails which makes securing it to the two very easy. I went out during gales force winds and it did well until the wind got even stronger and it just couldn't cope even being tied down on all four poles.

Overall if the spikes were double the size and there was much more canvas to let you put your equipment onto to secure it further I would be really happy.

These shelters are around the £30 mark and do an ok job.

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