Kevin Muirhead |
I hate to brag, but I’m proud to be a mountain biker. I’m not a phenomenal rider or a racer, but I know enough to get myself uphill. Downhill, however, is another story. You need brakes for that. Like that one time on the Treasure Mountain trail…but we won’t go there. I do love my bike, though it will probably kill me one day.
That said, I’ll move on to fly-fishing (an almost-as-dangerous occupation):
I was idly chatting with my boss Mike McCormick the other afternoon in the fly shop (which, you must realize, is becoming a rarer and rarer occurrence i.e. slightly more often than the appearance of Halley’s Comet) and we got to talking about fly-fishing reels. I must have mentioned peanut butter, because he went off about the quality of the new Lamson Litespeed reels. What has that to do with peanut butter, I bet you’re wondering. I figured it could have been one of three possibilities: A) Mike’s incredible analytical skills would have associated the stickiness of peanut butter with the stopping power of a Lamson reel or, most likely, B) peanut butter was what Mike fed his daughter, Scarlet, in the car-seat while driving to Durango in order to buy a freezer for Dale (a guide) when he simultaneously glimpsed a mountain biking shop out of the corner of his left eye which reminded him of our Rep. Greg mentioning something about the drag system of the Lamson reels being designed by mountain bikers, or C) Mike had been planning to give me a selling spiel all along and wasn’t listening to my peanut butter comment in the first place.
But I think it was the second option.
At any rate, he was excited about the arrival of our new order of Lamson reels and so I listened to him rant on about their innovative drag system. It went a little like this:
Dudelamreedrasysaresomelsbuilbybikyourbikarnchu?
I said, “Huh?”
I couldn’t figure out if he was so enamored with these reels that he was slurring his speech or if he had bitten his tongue straight off at lunch. Or maybe it had something to do with that Full-Throttle Sonic Slush I had bought to keep me awake during the tedious mind-numbing hours of 2:00 to 4:00 pm. That would probably explain why my right leg kept bouncing the whole time. It would also explain the headache that night.
As I reflect on the event, I do remember what Greg had been saying — what Mike had been trying to repeat to me. It regarded the incredible drag systems (that’s what slows the fish when they get angry that you hooked them and swim madly downstream like my Uncle Matt when the wind blew his hat out of the boat and into the Potomac River) of Lamson fly reels and went something along these lines:
It really doesn’t matter if Lamson makes the lightest, hardest, most-durable, true large-arbor reels with the fewest parts on the market (which it does), the reason I would buy one of these babies is that they have the best drag system in the world. Why? It was made by mountain bikers, who know what it takes to get real stopping power.
It’s a revolutionary conical drag system, not a disc-drag like other reels. Disc drags are great, but require more surface area to work effectively. This large area, however, makes them impossible to seal, and therefore, they are susceptible to the elements: mud, sand, moss, and salt. These are the enemies of drag systems. The conical concept takes the large area of a disc drag and wraps it into a cone, thus keeping the stopping power of a disc drag while making it possible to completely seal it. The benefits: one has fantastic drag to subdue even the nastiest runs of something like a big Steelhead, the drag is totally protected from its elemental enemies, and it was made by mountain bikers.
One other thing the design offers: nil startup inertia (the bane of light tippet). Which basically means that it doesn’t take any extra “umph” to get the drag moving — thus protecting that fine piece of .00004 lb fluorocarbon line tied to a fly the size of a pinhead. The amount of power the drag applies to the line is consistent throughout that first blistering run of the fish, even if it’s a six-inch Brookie. That’s handy. Ask any fisherman over fifty — especially if he’s fished salt water.
So, to recap what Greg was saying: Lamson reels are bomb. (Okay, now comes the shameless plug) Buy them. From Wolf Creek Anglers. This afternoon. Please?
Well, regardless of your decision, I like these reels mostly because mountain bikers came up with an innovative fly-fishing reel design. It makes me proud to call myself both mountain biker and fly-fisherman.
I also think I’ll make myself a peanut butter sandwich now.
Kevin Muirhead writes for Wolf Creek Anglers, and claims to love fly-fishing as much as he does writing. Though Kevin has fished in the Pagosa Springs area his entire life, he has attempted to abandon the area for most of the past three years, attending Colorado Christian University, where he studies English.
Wolf Creek Anglers, located at 169 Pagosa Street, has a satisfying collection of top-quality fly-fishing equipment, accessories, and clothing and retains a great selection of the flies you need to catch fish at any time of the year. Above all, however, they are an information-based business and would love to share their knowledge of the best-fishing streams and flies. Their guided trips, for beginner or expert, will never disappoint the angler who wants the extra edge provided by unparalleled guides or solitary waters in which to fish. For more information, visit www.wolfcreekanglers.com |