With the summer season upon us, fly-fishing manufacturers are prepping their customers for better weather. This month’s offerings includes a new streamer fly reel, new sunglasses from a well-known lens crafter, a new collaborative inflatable boat offering, a new line of on-the-water packs, and a somewhat surprising entry into the flip-flop market from a company likely best known for its efforts to protect anglers from inclement weather.
Looking for the latest in gear? Here’s the rundown.
Umpqua Swiftlink Magnetic Accessory packs
Integration of magnets into fly fishing gear is one of those things that seems destined to improve everything and yet it still feels like no gear manufacturer has ever gotten it quite right. Umpqua is aiming to change that and its latest offering sings with potential. Umpqua has combined its Link magnetic accessory system into a line of packs that are designed to allow anglers to personalize their on-the-water packing systems to meet their needs. Umpqua calls its Swiftlink pack system (pictured at top) a “modular ecosystem designed to change the way you fish.”
Swiftlink is Umpqua’s fifth generation of fishing packs, and each offering is built with magnetic ports, dialed storage layouts, and varying carrying styles. Each pack comes with a Link Base Station, and a magnetic hatch pad.
The line includes:
- The Ledges Waist Pack that Umpqua says is “over-built to satisfy the needs of the most hard-core guides and anglers alike.” It features three full-length zippered pockets for storage and access.
- The Overlook Chest Pack is “the ultimate chest pack for anglers,” Umpqua claims. The company says the Overlook is built for anglers who like to carry gear higher on the body.
- The Steamboat Sling Pack is for anglers who want “high-capacity storage but free line-of-sight and range-of motion.” It’s likely a good choice for spey or switch anglers — it features a main compartment that holds up to six large fly boxes.
- The Thunder Creek Chest Pack, Umpqua says, “is the perfect balance of necessity and functionality.” It has a large main compartment that holds six large fly boxes and back panel with a zippered pocket and a net slot.
Hardy Averon Streamer Fly Reel
Developed in collaboration with innovative streamer tyer Kelly Galloup, Hardy’s new Averon Streamer fly reel is built for strippers and swingers of all ilk. Centered around its extra-large arbor to reduce line memory and coil while increasing retrieve speed for fighting big fish and to keep fly line off the ground or the boat floor, Hardy’s new reel seems to check all the boxes as laid out by Galloup.
“Nobody has ever built a reel specifically for streamer fishing,” Galloup said. “For years, the industry has said, ‘just use whatever reel you’ve got,’ which you can. But when I’m hunting the fish, I want a reel that does exactly what I need it to do. That’s why we built this.”
Hardy’s new reel has a wider spool to help manage more line, and a larger handle and counterbalance that’s meant to improve grip and control for anglers. It boasts a “nearly friction-free” retrieve for clearing slack line and helping anglers avoid stepping on and damaging fly line on the boat floor or streamside rocks. And, of course, it comes with the expected Hardy click when stripping line off the spool.
Smith ChromaPop Glass Polarchromic lenses
Smith has slowly rolled out its proprietary combination of four premium technologies into a single sunglass lens system over the last year or two. Now widely available across its lineup, its expanded line of ChromaPop Glass Polarchromic lenses are available in three mirrored tint opinions — one each for freshwater, inshore, and offshore. According to Smith, the lenses feature proprietary color- and contrast ChromaPop tech, durable glass lenses, polarization, and self-adjusting UV-reactive photochromic adaptability “to maintain optimal visibility throughout the day.”
The Oregon-based sunglasses company is offering the new glass ChromaPop Polarchromic lenses in three colors: brown green mirror, rose blue mirror, and yellow blue mirror. The lenses offer 100 percent UV protection and they’re both water- and oil-resistant, and they come in a variety of Smith’s frames.
BUY SMITH GLASS CHROMAPOP POLARCHROMIC
NRS and Orvis Approach 120 Fishing Raft Package
Legacy fly-fishing brand Orvis and raft/inflatable boat producer NRS are collaborating on “a raft with endless possibilities.” The Orvis Approach 120 fishing raft is designed for anglers who want to reach untouched waters. The portable and inflatable boat doesn’t require a trailer or a boat ramp, and, fully inflated, it can ride in the standard bed of a pickup truck or on racks atop a car or SUV.
“By combining a thick, 6-inch, drop-stitch floor with diminishing tube layers, we’ve created a craft that drafts in inches of water, provides a stable casting platform, and moves with the stealth of a much smaller boat,” said Mike Dolmage, director of fish at NRS. The Approach 120 features three seats (one each fore and aft, and a rowing chair), two knee locks for standing and casting, and storage that features everything from drink holders to trays for fly boxes, coolers, and the like.
The Approach 120 is a handsome, army-green craft that gives anglers more options for floating remote waters or distant rivers and lakes at the end of lonely backwoods roads. It’s not cheap — a used drift boat can cost significantly less — but its functionality is tough to dispute.
Danco Premio “AI” pliers
For saltwater anglers, or for those of us who visit the boreal north and cast to dangerously toothy northern pike, the search for a really good pair of pliers is seemingly neverending. Seriously, often, the only thing standing between an avid pike angler and an awful case of “hamburger thumb” is a good set of pliers. So, the question is, “How much is a really good pair of pliers worth?”
Well, the folks at Danco have an answer that will probably drop your jaw. The company incorporated AI to design its latest set of fishing pliers, a design that Danco first teased way back in 2021 but which just recently became available for anglers to purchase. When you read the retail price below, my guess is that most of you will come to the conclusion that you don’t need a really good set of pliers. Or do you? The company claims its new Premio AI titanium pliers employ the latest tech to produce a set of pliers that are 40 percent lighter than other titanium pliers and handle 500 pounds of torque. As Danio puts it, these pliers are “impossible to design by a human alone, thus re-writing product design as we know it.” Or, as we might say, “to hell with pike, bring on the great whites.” It might help to know that these pliers are backed by a lifetime warranty. Try not to clutch your pearls at the price tag.
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