[ED: The first in a short series of reports from the FFR show about goodies that might not get a lot of press, but deserve to.]
While I remain a little skeptical of the practical advantages of large arbor reels, I bought one a few years ago -- after Chris Raine and I started catching big, fast-moving fish on tiny dries and tippets. We figured the hatch would last forever, and if it did, I wanted to be ready (it didn't; don't even ask; and we're not telling).
So I went searching for a reel with an extremely smooth drag (even at very light settings) for my "technical" DT4 rig, stumbled across a Lamson Velocity 2 on closeout, bought it, and fell in love with the thing. It's solid, light, and the drag is absolutely smooth at the lightest settings -- an irritatingly weak spot on a lot of very expensive reels (my Galvans are excellent in this respect too).
When I had the chance to sit down with the Lamson/Waterworks folks at FFR, I took it. Their reels were intriguing, and more importantly, their design philosophy was impressive. In simple terms, they're not machinists making reels -- they're designers looking to strip fly reels down to a tightly engineered minimalism.
Their reels use far fewer parts than your average fly reel, with even spool counterweights and spool latching mechanisms cleverly eliminated.
It's an approach that appeals to the "simpler is better" part of my brain. It's also an approach that's appealing to the market; Lamson/Waterwork's sales increased by 35% shortly after release.
Their premium reels are interesting, but in addition to liking things simple, I also like them cheap; that's why Lamson's new $119-$149 Konic reel immediately flashed on the Trout Underground's radar.
The Konic; Lamson's $129 reel with the $400 drag. Tommy likes.
The key to the Konic is Lamson's sealed conical drag -- the exact same sealed unit you'll find on their $400 reel. If you believe a fly reel is basically a drag mechanism surrounded by something designed to hold the fly line away from the center spindle, then this reel's appeal far outstrips its somewhat drab finish.
It's die cast and then machined, and I know some of you are already rolling your eyes, but to the "machined or die" partisans, I simply point to the hordes of die-cast Hardy Lightweights still catching fish.
And besides, these guys do die-casting a little differently:
In order to deliver this expensive drag in a low-priced reel we are die casting the frame and spool. But this is no low-end die casting. This is Pressure Casting with molten ALDC12 aluminum alloy injected at 1,080 kgs pressure to ensure consistent, smooth and strong parts with lower porosity.
Like many, I wondered aloud at the durability of the Waterworks reels when they were introduced in the 90s, but their record over time suggests the problem lay more with my perception of what a reel should look like than with the reels themselves.
The drag mechanism itself is impressive; not only is the sealed-for-life mechanism maintenance free, it's also wildly smooth. For those who -- like me -- like to set their drag light, the Konic's drag micro-adjusts from almost no drag to reasonable settings in discrete, tiny steps.
Hot damn.
The finish of the reel won't excite those looking for brook trout themed paint jobs; it's a silvery grey polyurethane finish that's as tough as your average anvil, and generates about the same amount of sex appeal.
Still, Lamson's betting some fly fishers actually buy gear because they want to fish the stuff (never a sure bet in this industry), and I find myself hoping they're right.
How the Konic looks on a bamboo rod is open to interpretation, but those hunting for a more traditional look would probably consider the Radius anyway (the next reel up in the line).
Prior to the show, Alert Underground Contributor and Director of Scrounging Sully
urged me to steal borrow one of Lamson/Waterworks' top-of-the-line reels, and while the opportunity sadly never presented itself, I think their Konic reel's a steal unto itself.
You can read all of Lamson's Konic Reel Marketing Propoganada by clicking here.
For sheer usefulness and price -- and for focusing on the parts of the reel that really matter -- I'm giving Lamson/Waterworks four rollcasts (out of five) for the Konic.
More to come from FFR.