Zach Matthews
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Hey man –
The reels had a new porting design which was quite attractive. The center arbor drag knob is painted Abel style in cool fish skin prints while the reels are various solid colors. The drag was strong, a sealed stacked washer style similar to Nautilus and Hatch’s cores. No word on price yet but I suspect it will be quite steep: $800-900 would be no surprise.
I am very excited about the Ross/Abel partnership. It looks like they are going to really do nice things together.
Zach
That is cool. Thanks for sharing that Mike. Of course the trout are all still there; they’ve just moved around. Wonder what will happen on that Oxbow with respect to the landowner? He looks to have gained a lot of acreage, or at least functionally so.
Steve, they got me a review copy.
http://www.itinerantangler.com/blog/podcasts/2014/07/10/yeti-debuts-hopper-soft-sided-cooler/
It’s just as nice as the Tundra series, but has a different purpose. If you’d be willing to pay $299 for a Tundra, but you’re going to be using it in a driftboat primarily, this would be worth a very close look.
I am going to do an ice retention test this evening. It’ll take a week but I wouldn’t be surprised to see this keep ice for almost as long as the original.
Zach
Mike didn’t you just love the ability to walk the banks of Slough and look down into the water to sight fish? I’m so jealous of western angling.
That was awesome Mike. I really enjoyed watching the trip unfold on Facebook. I’d love to see that fox video man.
Thanks for posting.
Zach
David I have carried on four piece rods many times and have not ever had any trouble, even with a Bazooka style tube. One trick is to gate check your bag, which eliminates a lot of the handling issues that can break things. It also takes it out of the TSA’s hands for the most part. You go through security with the bag instead of your bag wandering off to where the high school dropouts can steal your stuff.
Only issue with gate checking is you do need to keep the bag on the small side just to get it through the scanners, etc. I’d look into the Maximum Legal Carryon line from Patagonia.
Zach
Ross went in and out of bankruptcy maybe a couple times, then was purchased out of bankruptcy by 3M/Scientific Anglers. It then was transferred to Orvis as part of the SA deal but Orvis itself had no real interest in owning it. It immediately went up on the block and was purchased by Abel.
As I understand it, the issue at Ross is that their machinery pre-dates a lot of the computer controlled stuff we are seeing now. They need individuals to monitor and work with the machines to a greater degree, and the machines themselves are not as flexible when it comes to making very tight interior cuts and things of that nature. This may explain what Abel is doing by bringing the old Ross designs out of retirement.
If I were in charge of resuscitating Ross (in the current climate of flexibility), I would do exactly what Abel is doing and bring back popular classic designs that I know there is pent up demand for. I would scrap the overly complicated F1 series and other current models, except possibly the Evolution.
Then, using whatever profits I could generate from the old stuff sales and hopefully not going too far into the red, I would bust my ass to design a core drag array that could be used up and down my line, just like Lamson does. Ideally this drag could be manufactured by the existing machines. If I could generate some profit to pour into some more updated models, I could put out a hybrid reel, using a core built on the old equipment and a new spool/frame manufactured on newer stuff that could run as autonomously as possible.
Ross had a history pre-1995 of using a floral pattern, last evidenced on the San Miguel. I would use that floral pattern as my design theme, possibly redesigning the logo, and then headhunt the hell out of someone from Nautilus, Lamson or Hatch to help me put a modern look on the underlying structure of my product.
My two cents.
Here’s the original Ross Reel:
That would make an awesome logo basis a la the old kayaking PFD company Lotus Designs:
Dang, Mike T., you can’t ask for better than that. I’m going to bring my map on Sunday and I’ll get you some additional spots as well. Thanks Mike Cline!
Zach
David –
Strictly speaking the Method would be the follow up to the TCX line. Why did you sell them though? Too stiff/casting oriented?
Zach
Here’s the review.