Orvis is so good at fly fishing gear, some think it was always in the bigs

Orvis just gets better and better at angling, and who would have thought that possible just ten/15 years ago?

By Skip Clement

Orvis has come from behind in a short ten/15 years under the leadership of who knows in a privately held company. Still, whoever it is or was, they wowed me, thousands more, and set the doggy bed club, pipe-smoking, leather elbowed herringbone jacketed crowd out for lunch – where they’ve always been, at least here in the colony.

Any angler of hardened likes and performance-driven demands would be hard-pressed to speak ill of Orvis having remained in its former panty waist offerings for a stream, coastal or offshore fly rod offerings. And now reels, but I wouldn’t go so far as to pair one equally to a Mako or Nautilus for Florida Keys tarpon or Guatemala billfish. But they’ve taken their best-selling Orvis Hydros Reels, refined them even further, and gained better performance.

The only knock is that the Orvis Hydros Reels are imported, and if from China – well, you know . . .

I’d be willing to take a Hydros V as my primary reel to Costa Rica and pitch 6-inch flies to the 80-pound tarpons beyond the inlet of the Colorado River. Hey, my HYDROS® II is performing like it wants to play for a century or more. — author

Here’s Orvis’ new HYDROS® REELS:

“The new Orvis Hydros Reel is the result of our own desire to make something great, that much better. We took a best-selling reel and removed unnecessary material to further reduce the weight while stiffening the narrow spool, which minimizes line stacking. We changed the drag knob to be more ergonomically accessible and comfortable to use. We further refined the seal on the sealed drag to protect the clutch bearing in the drag mechanism. We radiused the reel foot as on the Mirage for kink-free leader protection. The fully sealed drag with stacked carbon and stainless steel disc washers is still one of the strongest in the industry, with zero start-up inertia. Matte type II anodized finish, standard large arbor size which balances better with lighter-weight fly rod, and yet still offers excellent retrieval rates and less line coiling than standard arbor reels. Refinement and improvement are the hallmarks of quality. Matte black with silver accents, matte silver with charcoal accents.” — Orvis