The Tight Loops crew continues their 'For Wild's Sake' series with an adventure in search of the rare and tough to catch Blueback Trout. Press PLAY and enjoy...
Follow along by subscribing to the Tight Loops YouTube channel, check out the website, and checking out their Instagram too.
A tip of the cap to
406 Fly Lines for
sharing this short film from yesteryear on their Facebook page. I found
it this morning and it's a wonderful snapshot into the life of John Voelker,
who wrote in the pen name of Robert Traver for years. His narration and
glimpses of his fishing days in the Upper Peninsula bring a smile for sure.
Anytime I share a story that is Robert Traver related, I have to also share a
few previous T.F.M. posts from 2010 that highlight a trip with his grandson
(and friends) to Voelker's Pond and around the Upper Peninsula for a few
days...
Longtime readers know that I have a real soft spot for click and pawl fly reels. I have a collection of a few dozen vintage Martin and J.W. Young fly reels and then a few more modern click and pawl fly reels from everyone from Hardy, Orvis, and The Spey Company. I like the way they work, sound, and they are a neat match to many fiberglass fly rods.
A relative newcomer to the game, Cubalaya, made waves a year or so ago by creating the Fair Chase click and pawl fly reel which starts on the tame everything big end of the spectrum. Tarpon? Permit? Redfish? Roosterfish? No problem.
They are working backwards now with it's slightly smaller Fair Chase 6-8 Wt. Click Pawl fly reel that was just released and they'll be showing it off at iCAST this week in Florida.
Here's a few looks at the Fair Chase which is available in five colorways.
Once the Cubalaya crew gets back from iCAST, Mike and Holly Wildes have said they'll sit down for an interview on T.F.M. Look for that in the coming weeks.
In the meantime, check out the Cubalaya website and follow along on Facebook and Instagram for the latest shop news.
Over the weekend, the news circled the internet that famed fly reel maker, Ari 't Hart passed away. He leaves a legacy of innovation, design, and purposefully creating fly reels that defy what many would consider a norm.
In his memory, I'm sharing three short videos that give a bit of insight on who he was and also some looks into his reel shop.
I've long admired several of the Hart fly reel designs and yet I
don't own one. I should get serious about finding at least one as
they match perfectly with a fiberglass fly rod.
I guess it was the fall of 2018 when I was first aware of Lo-fli and the idea of a "fixed spool" fly reel design with their Kickstarter campaign that I highlighted in a long ago T.F.M. post. They didn't meet their fundraising goal but designer and angler Paul Osimo didn't give up. He continued to work on his design, more field testing, trying new things, making new things, and from time to time I'd see an update on their Instagram page of their progress.
Do we really need a "fixed spool" fly reel? Maybe not but I really like new ideas and I think it's a good thing that there are people out there who can re-imagine something that you and I might of thought that can only be done one way. That is where innovation is born.
With the Lo-fli webstore launching today, I asked Paul if he'd mind answering a few questions which his answers are shared with a few images as you scroll down. Enjoy.
Lo-fli
began with me poking around tucked away streams and constantly
wrestling with that odd feeling of obligation to fight a fish on the
reel. In my attempting to scramble excess line back onto a reel after as
successful hook-up it seemed like I would drop the fish half the time, I
don’t know where that places me in the levels of fly fishing talent,
but luckily I’m an industrial designer and I don’t mind bending products
my way when I want/need them.
I started thinking about adjusting my fly
equipment to better fit a specific purpose. Did I need an actual reel?
Probably not. Didn’t tenkara offer a straight forward solution? Not
really, only because I wanted to retain some flexibility with line
length and the ability to control a fish in close quarters. So, I went
about designing a system that provides a variable length of line but
maintains a small footprint and celebrates my preferred line-in-hand
method of fish retrieval. Is it perfect? Nope, nothing ever is, which is
why product design is so damn fun.
I’m constantly learning and forgetting and learning again that in design, it’s super easy to go wild with details, but much more often than not it’s the most simple, no frills answer that prevails. To me, that’s what this fixed spool is.
Why fiberglass for the fly rod that you're offering and how does this elevate the Lo-fli experience?
For
the specifications that this system was designed to exist in, i.e.
tight, woody, places you bushwhack into and bushwhack back out of I
needed a rod that was short, sensitive, responsive, but most importantly
it needed to be crazy, brutally tough. I grew up using hand-me-down
fiberglass equipment and I was not at all kind to it. Only after buying
my own equipment, carbon fiber rods specifically did I start breaking my
rods, such a bummer. I cannot think of a bigger pain in the butt than
getting all the way into a secluded area and then having a rod
break. It's heartbreaking. This rod is not a 2-weight that’ll magically lose
its tip as you shove your way through some tight cover, I assure you. It
is a whippy little workhorse of a rod and a real pleasure to use to
boot.
In my quest to offer a badass rod with my newly patented spool, I floated
around fishing forums, rod building forums and spoke with local rod
builders about what the fly fishing rod landscape looked like to them.
All my research regarding pricing, size
requirements, fun factor all kept coming back to this one fiberglass
spinning rod blank offered by Batson Enterprises Inc., the SPG720.
I
ordered one and I absolutely fell in love. It had all the qualities I
was looking for, so I called Batson and asked
them about making this one piece blank into a 4-piece, colors, seeing
about manufacturing, etc. Let me tell you, those people know fly fishing
and the years of adjustments and fine tuning I think really paid off.
This rod is just about the most enjoyable,
versatile piece of fly equipment I have honestly. A sweet kayak rod,
great in the sticks, it fits in a darn carry-on, it’s super responsive,
light as heck, it’s fiberglass, what more could a fiberglass rod
enthusiast want?
Since filing for the patent four years ago, I’ve had friends and strangers alike field test these products in the wilds of central Maine, central Pennsylvania, coastal New Hampshire, the Gulf of Mexico, and a ridiculous number of New England’s named and nameless creeks and streams. Out of curiosity, I even brought a test version to Guadeloupe to see what sort of bend a jack or yellowtail snapper would put on it. Not exactly what they were designed for, but these pieces proved themselves time and again as useful and enjoyable fly fishing options.
Who's on the Lo-fli team and what does the future look like? Are there other ideas in the mix?
The
team is me and a handful of supportive and unpaid friends who are
infinitely better at rod design, marketing and CAD than I am. Frankly
too many to list, but they know who they are and that I friggin cherish
them. Most importantly I have an extremely supportive and loving wife
and daughter that keep me pushing forward with this exciting venture. They put up with a lot, which is not lost on me, but this has all been
an excellent excuse to get out into the sticks for frequent hikes and
nature walks. So there’s that.
As
far as next steps, I would love to offer some more varied lengths and
weights in the fly rod department and a spectrum of smaller diameter
fixed spools are already being developed. Some peripheral fly equipment
like nets and gear bags would be pretty slick too. It really all depends
on interest, which is something I’ve been openly and unapologetically
annoying about extracting from my social media followers and local
anglers. I’m confident that these designs will be enjoyed by our fans
and future customers. They’ve waited long enough!
Last night, someone on Instagram sent me a note in response to a photograph that i shared of the Lo-fli setup with a comment of "So that Lo-fli reel is simply genius yet also crazy...". I agree but we need crazy thinkers within fly fishing to take us to new places with outside the box ideas.
I have a Lo-fli fixed spool and fly rod that I'll be messing around with for the rest of the summer and I'll report back my thoughts in a later T.F.M. post. There are a couple places around here where it should shine and be a lot of fun.
Take a moment and visit the Lo-fli website. Orders are shipping this week and I'll be interesting to see where these fixed spools and fly rods end up.
Follow along with the next chapters of Paul's story on Instagram and Facebook.
