Orvis Fly Fishing Reel

I recently purchased a new fly reel and to say that I am pleasantly surprised is an understatement! The new Orvis Mid-Arbor reel is one nice piece of machinery! I shouldn't be surprised actually, because Orvis makes quality products but for approximately $120 I thought I'd be getting some cheaply made reel with an expensive name on it. Not so; it's machined from the same bar stock aluminum as their Battenkill Bar Stock reel and has a nice solid feel to it without being heavy. The mid arbor design strikes a nice balance between the traditional sized reel and the wide arbor models that seemed to be all the rage just a few years ago. I found it to be slimmer than the wide arbor and only a slightly larger than the regular reel I had. Another enticing draw is the line capacity. I usually fish small streams and rivers so I'm not going get zipped into my backing by a monster, although I once had a submarine in near Bishop, CA nearly take my canoe for a ride! (You can read about it in Random Acts of Fishing). It is nice, however, to have a little extra "insurance" when you least expect it!

The drag system according to Orvis is a glass composite centerline drag that has an adjustment from free spinning to stopping a locomotive dead in its tracks! The drag knob is easy to handle too. Speaking of knobs, the crank handle is made from a flattened composite material that is wide with small bumps for gripping similar to those found on the bigger reels. Again, great for when you have to put the brakes on that 8 inch Golden trout! The reel is easily switched from right to left hand retrieve like most and has a spool that is simple to remove. According to Orvis, the reel is made from a corrosion-proof material with a scratch resistant finish so it can also be used by those of you who are salty dogs.

Being a traditionalist, I went with the black finish rather that the titanium but I'll tell you, it was a difficult decision as both are equally attractive. My test drive came on the Owens River a few weeks ago and I have to say, the reel performed flawlessly. The drag seemed infinitely adjustable and the reel was smooth as silk. I did get a chance to hear this baby sing when a nice Brown darted out from an under-cut bank and munched my juicy nymph. Overall, I think this reel is a great buy that competes with the Loomis and several others in the same price range but the quality here is first rate.

Note: This NOT a paid review.

Random Acts of Fishing Now Available in England!

Random Acts of Fishing is now available through one of England's largest on-line booksellers, Langton Information Services.

Fly Fishing Season Opens!

It's finally here! Time to fish! This past weekend we made the trek to the Lower Owens River, just outside of Bishop, California. While the weather in Mammoth Lakes and Crowley Lake was cold, cold, cold, the sun kissed the Owens Valley in Bishop and handed us a beautiful temperate day for fly fishing.

We arrived at our destination late Friday night under a canopy of stars that was so dense one could hardly pick out the black sky amid the mass of bright lights. It was good to see my fishing buddy, Tim after the long winter. He's a local and we've been fly fishing together for more than twenty years. The two of us have had many a fly fishing adventure together over the years and some of them are documented in my book, Random Acts of Fishing. Now my two sons join me on the trips and I believe the four of us will have quite a few adventures in store for us in the future. We spent the remainder of the night catching up on old times and looking forward to new ones.

Our jumping off point was at five bridges, just east of town. We followed the river as it wound its way through the tall dry grass. We found a nice bend in the river that formed U-turn with a grassy ledge high above the end of the turn. I waded out across the stream entering from fifty yards downstream. My youngest son and Tim decided to initiate the attack from atop the plateau. We tried nymphing for a while but as the sun rose and warmed our bones, a very minor hatch started so we threw some drys at the risers. While standing in the river with leaky waders and my boots filling with cold water, my concentration on a particular riser was broken when I heard Tim yell that my son had nailed one. I looked up to see him lift a nice brown from the icy depths. He was so excited! He went on to catch another beauty several hours later and just missed a third later that evening, while the rest of us came away empty handed!

We took our lunch stream side on the grassy ledge. We were full of stories about the ones that got away and the tale of catching the two browns was recited by my son repeatedly during our meal with the appropriate embellishments, of course! A more pleasant first day of the season could not be had by any means.

On Target!

Random Acts of Fishing is now available on Target.com!

Action Optics!

The search for a decent pair of quality polorized sunglasses for fly fishing seems at times to be a never ending quest for most fly fishermen. Sure, your can pick up the typical disposable fare from the colorful twirling rack at the gas station or fork out next month's mortgage for the latest in status glasses. Occasionally, the dilgent fly fisherman comes across a model of sunglasses that fits all of the crucial parameters, including the two most important: quality and price. That's what I found in Smith's Action Optics sunglasses.

In addition to the lightweight and stylish wrap around frame, these sunglasses feature shatter resistent polorized polycarbonate lenses. The lenses are billed as "optically correct" and that's what makes Action Optics so good. Apparently, they are curved to match the natural shape of the human lens. I'm not sure if that's true, but I can attest to the amazing clarity and lack of distortion in these sunglasses.

The polorizing technique used is equally amazing. The polorizing lines on the lenses are adjusted to match the curvature, yielding a truly astonishing polorization. With most polorized sunglasses, one can see the fish in the stream as the sunlight reflection on the surface of the water is removed. With these lenses however, one can actually see "through" the water to the fish, almost as if the water was nonexistent. The large square lens at 62mm is designed for medium to large faces and I really like the coverage. Nothing is more annoying when fly fishing than having reflected sunlight blind you from the side or from below the lenses because the frames are too small for your face. In addition to the polorization, the copper lens provides another factor important to fly fisherman: true color representation.

Action Optics sunglasses are a well made example of superb polorized vision for which Action Optics is so well known. The impact resistent nature of the glasses and the scratch resistent coating make for some pretty tough fly fishing glasses at a very reasonable price.

It's Here!

Random Acts of Fishing is finally done! I thought the day would never arrive. The book is available for purchase through my e-store here and through Amazon.com I hope you enjoy the fly fishing tales!

Still Waiting.....

I received the proof of my fly fishing book back and wouldn't you believe it, there was a spelling error as big as life right on the back cover. My heart sank. One single word misspelled. The more I stared at the back cover in an attempt to make the word magically change, the more glaring of an error it became, just to spite me. This means having to correct the error and request another proof, which is another way of saying DELAY! Sometimes it seems like I'll never get this fly fishing book off the ground. On a lighter note, I have been offered to display my fly fishing book for sale by a small church bookstore.