Fly anglers are overloaded with gear choices—rods, reels, boots, waders, lines, packs, bags, boxes, vests, apparel and more. It seems harder and harder to know what's worth coveting and what's worth ignoring. Gear reviews are a great way to explore in-depth what might be right for you, but not every piece of gear is suited to a full-length review and, even if it were, there's simply too much of it to get to. With that in mind, we periodically showcase what's working for us right now, to hopefully offer more helpful feedback on gear that's worth a second look.
All gear is welcome here: new, old, cheap, pricey, and so on. The goal is to provide useful feedback on gear that works—not to help gin up marketing for new products. Sometimes, great gear has just hit the market, other times it's been here doing good work all along.
Orvis Helios 3D ‘Blackout’ 8’ 5” 8-weight
Orvis recently released its brand-new ‘Blackout’ series of Helios 3D fly rods, three re-skinned (in all black), purpose-built additions to its celebrated Helios 3 family. One of those rods is its new 8-weight H3D which tapes out at an unusual 8-foot 5-inches in length.
The tricky thing about finding just the right bonefish rod is that conditions on the flats vary so widely. One minute, you’re throwing relatively tiny, size 10 gotchas on a balmy, windless, watery plain; the next, you’re plunking a heavy size 4 or 6 shrimp or crab pattern down into the chop as you try to cut through a stiff Bahamian gale. And the flats will most certainly deliver you everything in between, too.
A smooth-casting 7-weight is what you want on those placid days, but a stiff 8-weight is what will serve you best when the wind really kicks up. As conditions change, you’re left either under- or over-gunned, and left dealing with the consequences—difficulty making delicate presentations when conditions are calm or struggling to power through the elements when they’re not.
Orvis’ new H3D Blackout 8-weight, on the other hand, comes as close to a do-it-all or do-it-all-well bonefish rod as we’ve fished in recent memory. It’s an 8-weight, but it’s as light and graceful as a 7-weight. As one would expect from a Helios 3, it tracks tight and delivers flies with satisfying and impressive precision. And its shorter, 8’ 5” length produces tight loops that help you punch through the wind. On a recent week spent walking the interminable bonefish flats of Long Island in the Bahamas, it had us shaking our heads more than once—in a good way.
BUY ORVIS HELIOS 3 BLACKOUT FLY RODS
Bajio Sunglasses — Permit Green Glass Lens
Speaking of bonefish, the truth is, it doesn’t matter whether you’re armed with the aforementioned 8-weight Helios 3D Blackout or a toilet plunger with clothesline attached if you can’t spot them. And spotting them is often a challenge, especially for anglers that haven’t spent a considerable amount of time on the flats developing their “fish eye.”
Even somewhat adept flats anglers tend to be middle of the road—decent at spotting fish on their own, reasonably adept at picking up fish that others have brought to their attention, but rarely up to eyeing fish before flats veterans get the chance. That is perhaps until they visit the flats armed with a pair of sunglasses featuring the Permit Green Glass Lens from market newcomer Bajio.
Like veteran industry brands (and Bajio’s competitors), Bajio’s lens technology selectively blocks portions of the visible light spectrum. Each manufacturer does this a bit differently, and Bajio has their own formula for success. We toted a pair of Bajio sunglasses along on a recent weeklong trip spent walking the interminable bonefish flats of Long Island in the Bahamas and were struck by their exceptional performance—offering a fish-spotting advantage unlike any lens we’ve used in recent memory.
You’ll be able to read more in an upcoming feature. For now, make sure a pair of Bajio frames with their Permit Green Glass Lens (also pictured at top) is on your radar.
Water Master Bruin 2-3 Man Raft
With our nation’s waterways more crowded than ever thanks to a pandemic-fueled rekindling of many folks’ love affairs with the great outdoors, being able to get away from the crowds and access different types of water can open up a wide array of additional opportunities and increase one’s chances of finding a bit of solitude.
The amazingly portable and approachable Water Master Bruin, is a full-fledged, 2 or 3 man fishing raft that has fueled a long list of our spring and summer fishing adventures. It can also help fuel a number of non-fishing outings as well, from whitewater floats to multi-day river camping excursions, and so on. We’ve toted it to fish rivers over much of the east coast, from our home waters in Pennsylvania, north to rivers that flow a stone’s throw from the border between Canada and Vermont, as well as numerous stops in between.
At under 12’ in length and only 108 pounds fully equipped with a 3-man NRS fishing frame, 2 anglers can easily and quickly toss the Bruin on top of a car, crossover or SUV and head for the river. And, the raft’s portability means that no boat ramps are required. Put in and take out the Bruin almost anywhere you’re hardy enough to try. We’ve dragged the Bruin through farm fields, slid it down 20 foot tall embankments, and more.
What might be most notable for such a portable raft is how substantial it actually is. Virtually every angler that’s spent a float in the Bruin has remarked at its stability and tracking, both of which are a virtue of the Bruin’s oversized tubes and rockerless design. Add in the fact that the Bruin is rated to handle 1500 pounds and Class IV whitewater—more than any other raft in its class—and you quickly start wondering where the compromises for all its portability lie.
BUY THE WATER MASTER BRUIN RAFT
Loon Fly Dip
If you’ve been around the fly fishing world for a while, you probably remember a time years ago where it was particularly common to find yourself in a drift boat or streamside with another angler where someone would pull out a jar filled with some form of homemade concoction. They’d proceeded to dip a dry fly that had turned into a hopelessly waterlogged bottom-dredger into the mystery mixture and miraculously bring it back to high-floating life. The only problem? The secret recipe that filled the jar smelled like something you’d use strip paint or embalm bodies. It wasn’t something you wanted on your skin, let alone in your rivers.
Over the years, whether due to the offensive, toxic nature of these concoctions or some other reason, they became less prevalent. But, truth be told, there wasn’t really anything else on the market that breathed life back into soaked dry flies better—and those mixtures were also typically CDC friendly, which was no small bonus. Enter Loon’s Fly Dip — which offers all that fountain of youth effectiveness in a non-toxic formula that, according to Loon, is safe for river ecosystems and won’t make you smell like you washed your hands with kerosene. Drips of the mixture do often leave a white residue on your fishing gear, but it typically washes off easily with a bit water.
G. Loomis NRX+ LP
LP, meaning “Light Presentation”, is storied rod maker G. Loomis’ moniker for its lineup of NRX+ rods geared towards technical dry fly presentations thanks to their moderate action, sensitive tip, and precision tracking. But the new LP had big shoes to fill thanks to the reputation of its predecessor. That predecessor, the original NRX LP, won the vaunted Yellowstone Angler 5-weight shootout roughly a billion years in a row. Why? Because it was that good.
The new G. Loomis NRX+ LP is everything you’d want a next-generation version of a classic to be: faithful to the original, protective of the character and it factor of its predecessor, while leveraging new technologies and design improvements to offer better performance.
The new LP is noticeably lighter than the original. It’s also a tad bit faster, thanks presumably to its slightly stiffer tip. But, it’s still a pleasure to fish in close and is as accurate a performer as any other presentation rod we’ve fished in recent memory.
BUY G. LOOMIS NRX+ FLY FLY RODS
Toadfish Stowaway Filet System
Nowadays we fish for lots of reasons. But seemingly lost amid the often high-minded catch-and-release-everything crowd is the bloody truth that catching a fish trips the dopamine flood gates because catching a fish is the first step to eating a fish. Scratch the veneer of even the most pretentious angler just a bit and you can still catch a glimpse of that primal hunter/gatherer. Some of us don’t even try to hide it.
For the modern piscivore, the Toadfish Stowaway filet system offers packable and practical tools for turning fish into meat. The foundation of the system is a full-size cutting board measuring 12x16 inches that folds down into a very stowable and portable 3x16x1.5. It features magnetic closures, an anti-skid bottom, a built-in knife sharpener, and is made of non-porous, polyethylene that is easy to clean and dishwasher-safe.
The dirty deeds are done by a 7-inch locking blade that folds easily into its non-slip rubber grip when not deployed. The blade and components of the knife are constructed of Salt-Tough Titanium made to endure the elements and coastal life. So you can bet that it’ll hold up to years of slicing anything from brookies, to bluegill (it handles bluegill quite nicely), to catfish, to redfish, to grouper as well as any other species you care to eat in any habitat.
It's also worth noting that Toadfish is a company that does more with your dollar. For every product sold Toadfish puts money toward replanting oyster beds, the bedrock of healthy coastal fisheries.
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