Equipment Philosophy

For approximately 15 years I have been involved with fly tackle design for major European companies. After almost seven great years developing and growing the Scierra brand, I have decided to move my professional home to Zpey. As of June 1, 2008, I have been appointed Research & Development Director. Zpey is an innovative, relatively new company where we're building a top-notch professional team that promises to bring you high-quality, reliable gear.

What I’m about to express might be controversial and hard to stomach for some. While I don’t intend to upset anyone, I cannot refrain from speaking my mind about an area for which I have so much passion and experience. The core of my philosophy is: make tackle that is beneficial to the customer and is clear in how and why it should be used.

Don’t believe the marketing of most fly fishing equipment companies. And most importantly, don’t focus on the concept of long distance casting. In all the years I’ve been an angler, almost every company comes out with “the world’s best rod” and the “farthest casting rod” every year. How can that be?

"Distance”"is an overused and inappropriate word and concept in the world of fly fishing. From the birth of the sport fly fishing, distance has never been a major factor. Distance is more important for another sport called casting, and this has nothing to do with “fly casting.” That distinction needs to be made clear.

If you are interested in fly fishing then distance shouldn’t be a factor in your decision about which fly fishing equipment to buy. Fly fishing takes brains, not brawn. Precision and presentation are what make a successful fly fisher. Almost all tackle manufactured these days is able to cast an appropriate distance, but not much tackle is made to enable control and presentation the fly from any position and any depth. This is the tackle that should be bought, and this is my personal design goal.

Rods can be made for different styles and actions. They can be made stronger or lighter, shorter or longer, flexible or stiff. They can, and should, be made for particular situations. And you should buy gear according to your particular situation, environmental and physical. The purpose is the road and you are the driver.

Skills should not come into play. The beginner and skilled angler should use the same functional equipment. Does an advanced football player use a different shaped ball than a beginner? Obviously not. I will, though, concede that more advanced athletes will, and probably should, use higher quality equipment.

However, quality has nothing to do with price. Just because a rod is more expensive it doesn’t mean that it is a higher quality. The equipment that is of the highest quality is that which is the best developed for the particular situation which one faces.

Customer trust and loyalty is gained by making solid products coupled with honest and straight-forward marketing. Sales spin that focuses on distance or looks should tip one off that that product/company might be trying to cover-up for lack of development know-how. My goal is for the products I design to have very clear and accurate product descriptions.

Additional factors that lead to bad tackle include lack of universal measurements and/or ratings systems. For instance, the AFTM system that is being used by tackle producers for matching lines and rods is a catastrophe since it is not followed uniformly.

Throughout the years, I have seen many anglers confused because they couldn’t figure out what in general was wrong with their casting. Upon examination of their gear, most of the time the root of the problem was due to the fact that their tackle wasn’t developed properly and/or it was sold to them unbalanced. Normally the line ends up not matching the rod, and when that is the case it doesn’t matter if one is an incredibly skilled caster since nothing can compensate for that fatal error.

Therefore, in my gear development, I’ve tried to correct this by adding a casting weight to the AFTM number and have listed this on the rods, and have also added a casting weight to the line weight listed on the fly line boxes. In my view, this slight revolution has brought us a step closer because now the angler can actually see what casting weight he has to buy for his rod, providing the customer with a solid opportunity to be sure that his tackle is well-balanced and adjusted. This means the client only needs to focus on learning/perfecting the cast. Nothing gives an angler a better start in fly casting than the confidence that the tools he is using are actually produced and adjusted correctly.

My fondest hope is that the rest of the industry begins to use this system of adding casting weights to rods and lines. It is important that the industry shows respect for the customers and empowers them to make the right decision, on their own and without deceptive marketing.

Tight lines.