Brian Greer
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Brian –
I think the more common scenario is the reverse: blanks and componentry made overseas then shipped into the U.S. to be assembled. That allows the product to be designated as “Made in America” (and keeps the ‘Made in Korea’ sticker off them).
Zach
I read somewhere that some companies were sending the blanks overseas to be finished. Their reason behind this is to keep proprietary materials under their own supervision and easy to track the number of blanks being sent to the rods sent back.
I wish I could remember the source of where I read that.
The ‘lifting’ of product design goes on quite a bit. Probably more than we know. Especially on high priced or highly marketable items. Watches, sunglasses, etc.
Very interesting thread.
I think that some manufacturers circumvent this by doing the higher end stuff only in the USA. I’ve also heard that some manufacturers make the blanks in the US, then ship them off to have them finished because of the price of labor.
It would be very interesting to know exactly what blanks get made where. It would also be interesting to know how the knock-offs compare to the real McCoy.
Brian
Over the weekend, I tested out some Costa Zanes that I got.
A couple months or so back I bought a two pair of Costa Zanes. One with the Sunrise 580P lens and one in the Green Mirror 580G.
First off, both are excellent at what they do. The green mirrors are great when there’s plenty of sun out. Fish and structure really stood out. I was fishing in an Ozark stream with a rocky bottom. Most of the day was overcast, so I wore the Sunrise glasses the most. I am very pleased with these. They worked great with clouds or when the sun was low.
I didn’t really get to test them in really low light at dawn or dusk, so I am curious about that. I have a pair of cheap yellow lens polarized glasses (actually safety glasses) that I wanted to compare them to, but I forgot them at home.
I’m pretty pleased with the purchase and finally happy I had a chance to fish and test them out. I chose the green mirror over the silver mirror because I mainly fish streams with a varied bottom.
Big bonus this weekend: Nabbing a very large brown. I was sight fishing and I saw him eat. I was able to set the hook on him before he could spit it out. I didn’t even notice if my indicator moved or not.
Color me pleased.Brian
Jon,
If you are serious about hiking, you should check out hiking up Slough Creek. There are three meadows. The first meadow is not a bad hike, but the second and third are quite a bit longer.
Going in Sept, you will have fewer hours of daylight that you will have to consider. Get a very early start. You’re pretty much tied to day hiking, unless you get a back country permit. See here:
http://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/backcountryhiking.htmJust getting from Jackson to the grand loop in Yellowstone will take close to two hours. Once to the grand loop, things slow down and it takes a while to get just about anywhere.
Tim’s recommendation about staying closer to the park or keeping a lookout for cancellations in the park is a good one. Read up on the area(s) you want to focus on and see if there’s a better alternative for lodging.
Yellowstone is just too big to try to do things everywhere in 7 days. I went for a couple weeks, but would have liked to have taken a month. I did set aside a couple days just to drive, see some sights and do some opportunistic fishing. While driving, if I saw a good looking stretch of stream or river, I’d stop and check it out. I found some good fishing that way.
But no matter what, I’m sure you’ll have a great time. It’s one of the greatest places on earth. Some people describe it as Disneyland….for adults.
Brian
I took my first trip to Yellowstone a few years back. It was mid-late September.
I don’t know if you’ve been there or how much you know about the area.
The place is really very big. So depending on how much time you spend there, will determine how many places you can fish. I spent a couple weeks there and mainly concentrated on the section in the northeast. I made some day trips to fish some famous rivers on the western side and the ones near Old Faithful.
You will likely get a mix of weather, so be prepared for warm, cold, and wet.
It sounds like you are going just after Labor Day. That will thin out the people a little bit, but there is still going to be a lot of people fishing. Being that, you will have to walk a ways to get away from the crowds. The farther you get away from the roads and parking places, the fewer anglers you will see and usually the fishing is better.
In Sept, they fish will definitely still be looking up. I was using large terrestrials in late Sept, especially when the days warmed up nicely.
Do you know where you want to stay?
If you haven’t decided on a place to stay, I would really be looking into that quickly. Staying in the park is “do-able”, but reservations fill up for campsites as well as the modern facilities. I stayed in Cooke City/Silver Gate, MT. Just outside of the northeast entrance to the park. It was a short drive to a lot of fishing…Soda Butte, Pebble Creek, Trout Lake, the Lamar, and Slough Creek.
When the fishing is on, it’s really not that technical. When they’re smashing hoppers, just keep a good drift and hang on!
I’m sure there are a lot of people on here that will be of help. And if you can provide any more specifics, that will help narrow things down. Like, how long will you be there? Where do you want to stay? What type of place to you want to stay at? etc.
You will have a great time. I had a hoot.
Brian
Good review. I like that it was more objective than subjective, as we see in so many gear reviews…..er, tests. Well done. While it would have been nice to see some other reels in the lineup also, I can see why some manufacturers may not want to send their stuff. Maybe after they see what sort of test it was, they might be more inclined next time.
Those subjective tests/reviews/comparisons (whatever you want to call them) just turn me off. It turns me off of the website that does them, as well as anything they might be peddling.
Too many times I’ve been gathered with fellow fly fishers and have someone say this rod/reel/whatever was rated No. 1/’the best’ by so-and-so. Often times people rely too much on praise of others for whatever reasons.
Enough rant. I plead the First.
Well written review. I like the inclusion of the test data along with the 1-10 rating.
Brian
I’ll throw in my thoughts.
I listen to the podcast more now than I did before. I’ve listened to everything this season and have dug up a lot of stuff from the past. I listen while I am downstairs, tying flies, organizing, getting ready for a trip, or what-have-you.
I like the technical explanations of things. That’s just how I’m built, I like details. Before I buy something that I consider important, I research the hell out of it to make sure I get what I need and want. No use throwing away money.
Long before coming to this site, I owned Simms Gore-tex and Costas. I bought a pair of 580’s right when the technology hit the market. I’m not a bandwagon jumper.
I think it’s great when someone comes on the podcast and says, “Here’s how we do it….and here’s *why* we do it that way.” If that’s a product I might be interested in, I will research things and see if that is indeed what I consider the best for my use.
Not every podcast is for me. I don’t think that I am going to go to fish the salt in Central America. It’s possible, but I doubt it. There are a lot more places that I would rather go to fish. But I’d still listen to a podcast about it, just for information’s sake.
That’s enough rant. Keep doing things the way you’re doing them. You can’t please everyone, there’s no need to even try. You’re stuff’s good. I enjoy it.
I listened to the podcast last night.
That really was more informative than I was expecting.
I bought a pair of copper 580G glasses a while back, not long after they were introduced. I really like them. But after a while, the soft plastic material on the earpieces started to deteriorate. (Either due to sun, sunscreen, or both.)
I sent them back to Costa to get them checked out and their service was great. Like Clay mentioned, it was pretty straight forward. I did some stuff online and then mailed them off. They replaced the earpieces with new ones. The new ones had a different material on them. I don’t remember how much it cost me, but it wasn’t all that much.
If I recall from the podcast, the copper lenses were good for color enhancement. And the mirroring would let less visible light in. Is that correct? I’ll have to give it another listen. Anyone know how different the mirrored lenses are compared to their non-mirrored counterparts?
I like the copper a lot, but they don’t work well in low light. I have been looking at the Sunrise lens for a while. And after the podcast, I think I am going to actively shop for a pair.
I have the fathom frames, but I think they are a little small for my noggin. I might look into one of the larger fitting frames. The Zane looks nice.
Also, has anyone ever used those little stick-on reader lenses?
Brian
I know Steve from Feather-Craft, too. He was always friendly and helpful. I’m looking forward to listening to the podcast…..just as soon as time allows. Holidays, work, and inventory have been keeping me hopping.
I use Wullf lines and find them to float pretty well, I clean my line, but no grease, it’s a dirt magnet. I do grease my leader and that helps a lot to have the leader on top, not pulling the tip down. Loon Payette paste is great for leaders, and also for flies. Then when you want the leader to sink rub thoroughly with spit, best way I know.
JCThat’s a good point, Jon. A little floatant on the leader helps to keep it from pulling the tip down. And you’re right about it being a dirt magnet. It has to be used sparingly.
I have three of the Wulff TT lines. They do float decently, but the tips are always the first to go. Some people chop off the first part of the tip. This will help with the sinking tip, but I’m not brave enough to do that. I like the way the fine tip lays out a gentle cast.
So far, the best thing that I have found is the Rio stuff. I use the wonder cloth and Agent X.
First, I scrub the line with some Ivory soap….not detergent. I get it as clean as I can with this method. Then I use the wonder cloth on the line to get it “even cleaner”. The wonder cloth does a good job of scrubbing the line. Then I dry the line and use the Agent X. It’s not perfect, but it gives decent results.
Sometimes I will use some red tin mucilin on the line before I fish. This is to help keeping the line from sinking into the surface film of the water. This is kind of a work-around to the whole buoyancy thing.
Silk line guys have been using red mucilin forever. Silk lines have a higher specific gravity than water. Untreated, they will sink. Using the mucilin on them keeps the line on top of the water.
Keeping the crud off of the line helps a lot. Taking care of the line helps too. Cuts, nicks, and cracks in the line are bad, especially in the tip…..the part that’s going to see the most wear and is also going to wear the quickest. That goes back to what Zach just said, a little age on a line will affect the lines floating performance.
One word of note is to go easy one applying stuff to the line, if you overload the line with the stuff, the line is going to start sinking quickly as the line treatment picks up dirt and crud.
usual disclaimer: I have zero affiliation with any of the products I’ve mentioned.
Yes, I was making a joke about the tips of floating lines that don’t float. It was not a dig at Tim’s SA “Hover” fly line.
It’s a pet peeve of mine.
I’ve tried everything I can think of. Cleaning the line, using different line to leader connections, trying to seal the end of the line so water doesn’t wick into the end o the line.
From my understanding is that air pockets, or microballoons, or whatever they are called…are manufactured into the fly fly lines for buoyancy. That’s what makes the line float….it lowers the specific gravity of the line to be less than that of the water. However, with lines being what they are, they have a taper. The tip is thin by design. This means the tip has less volume and that volume doesnt have a lot of those microballoons. This lowers the specific gravity of the tip. This makes it not *as* buoyant as the thicker part of the line. But alas, the line’s taper and thin tip is necessary.
That makes the tip a lot more prone to sinking. Getting crud on the tip will easily weigh down the tip, a fly line to leader connection that is even remotely bulky will sink the tip.
It’s just frustrating when trying to fish a tiny dry to finicky fish and have your efforts usurped by a fly line with a sinking tip.
The Castwell is the same as a sheet bend which was used for attaching two lines of different diameter, it is also essentially the same as a bowline. The only differences are what’s a tag and and what’s not.
JCThe castwell knot and the sheet bend are very similar but there is a difference.
http://www.pechetruite.com/Noeuds/Albright-Castwell%20knots.htm
Helios 2 is new, as is Winston’s BIIISX, Scott’s T3h spey rods (which look like the S4 series), and Sage’s Circa and ONE Elite.
SA has a new “Hover” freshwater line, with a sink tip that sits just under the surface for, I think, slick water fisheries. Tim Pommer invented that and his line won best in show for the second year in a row, so definitely congrats to Tim.
Zach
This is nothing new at all. I could show you lines from a half dozen manufacturers at least that does this already. 😉
Zach,
No experience with either one….but after taking a quick look:
It seems as the one that you are looking at is comparable to the smallest Brunton model. Probably about one-third the output of the $600 Brunton.
The voltage outputs are also different, so that may be something to consider.
Brian
O.K., this is not a technique per se, but it was a blast to catch a fish with blind faith. Has anyone had a similar experience?
I have done this several times on my home waters. But just like you, it was in spots that I knew well. Like just at the tail-out of a fast pool that makes a bend over some rocks.
Is it entirely luck?
