YG Product Reviews
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YG Product Reviews

We inevitably procure more "things" for our trips, some of which actually work!  We figured that we might as well share our thoughts on what we learned about using these things (maps, eye magnifiers for stream side knot tying, etc.) with you all.  Comments and disagreements are OK -please share back.  Also we receive no, nada, zero, zilch, and zip in terms of discounts or other gratuities for these reviews.  We don't buy things to review, we buy them to be used.  Our comments are entirely our own opinions and have no commercial value - our liability extends only to what you paid us for these comments (ie exactly nothing!)!! 

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New Product reviews

This section will report on YG members reviews of new products tested during the trips. Products purchased and reviewed by YG members are used in "real world" fishing environments that included but are not limited to, mud, sand, heat, water, cold, dropping, falling, etc. The reviews presented both good and bad are the opinions of the YG reviewer only unless noted otherwise. It should be pointed out that all products reviewed are purchased by YG members and no YG members receive any products reviewed free or in exchange for a favorable report nor does the YG receive any considerations (monetary or otherwise) for their reviews. To further help the reader, should you wish to buy reviewed items, in most cases the review will include website links, place of and cost of purchase.

1 Fish On:Look elsewhere not worth price paid or expectations

2 Fish On:Has problems but works fine, ok value for price paid

3 Fish On:Solid Product, better value, testing matches expectations

4 Fish On:Very Good Product, testing exceeds expectations, great value, very minor drawbacks

5 Fish On:Top of the line product, wish I’d have thought of that, no drawbacks

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Product Tested: Hat Eyes

Manufacturer:MagEyes

Website:mageyes.com

Description of Product: Hands free magnifier that attaches to hat, used as an aid to tying small flies.

Suggested Retail price:$24.95

Purchase price:$21.95

Place of Purchase:Rainbow Sporting Goods, Anaconda, MT

Product Reviewer:JR

I’m 48….No it’s not a statement about how far I have come in life or that based on actuarial tables I am statistically on the back side of my life expectancy nor an excuse on why I don’t understand how to operate cutting edge electronic technology pervasive in the world around us……you see it’s my eyes. Back in 2000 during my routine eye check my optomologist informed my that the time had come to get bifocals for I could no longer read books, newspapers nor words on computer screens without being more than a foot away. After that news, I figured I should buy a cane and start looking into old age homes! But I digress.

The History:

Our 2000 YG trip was a revisit to the Missouri River and the new waters of the Big Blackfoot made famous by Norm Maclean (and more recently Robert Redford) in A River Runs Through It. Maybe I’m unusual (most in the YG would agree with that statement) but my polarized sunglasses are not prescription lenses and I detest the "clip-on" type as you still have too much light coming in around your glasses. Fishing all day without my bifocals it became painfully clear about halfway through the trip that I was having major trouble tying my flies onto my tippets. What I needed was some sort of "aid" to help magnify my view when I was tying my flies….as luck would have it the Blackfoot Angler Fly Shop in Orvondo had just what I needed a nice clip on pair of flip up glasses by Magniclips, they were strong metal construction and the lens were glass (a big plus) this was perfect.

Over the years, one thing has bothered me and that was they were clip ons. I had to use them with my sunglasses. Its very tough in end of day, sun setting low light conditions when the bite is on and you have to retie a fly and the darkness of your sunglasses prevents you from seeing the fly……been there done that way too many times, I need a new option.

Enter Hat Eyes

During this years (2008) trip were stopped in Rainbow Sporting Goods in Anaconda, MT, there on the wall hung my answer Hat Eyes. Available in five magnification settings (1.00, 1.60, 2.00, 2.25 and 2.75) I picked the 2.25. This is an all metal construction frame with a long grip clip to slide on the bill of your hat, coupled with a slider on the clip to allow you to precisely adjust the magnifiers between your eyes and the fly. Further, you have two depth links to choose from to set the magnifiers at correct eye height. The lens is made from optical grade acrylic a drawback in my opinion, I would have liked optical glass for a reason I will come to later. For cleaning, you simply pop the lens from the frame, clean, pop back in, overall very easy and a big plus. After a few moments affixing to my hat and adjusting the distance and height I am ready to fish.

This item is a winner; after fishing with the HatEyes for a solid 11 days, these were put through the wringer. I just loved how easy it was to flip the lens down, tie on a fly and then flip them back up and out of the way. Moreover, that problem I had in low light…..GONE….take off my sunglasses, flip down the lens tie on a new fly and I’m back in business. I rate this a must buy for anyone looking for a tough set of magnifiers. I had no issue with the clip not holding steady it was rock solid from the moment I put in on my bill. The slider easily moved back and fourth but stayed in place once set. There is a similar set on the market that has plastic construction instead of metal and does not have a slider or depth adjustments, for my money, I’d go with the tough all metal construction and a vast amount of different configurations with the slider/depth adjustments.

Now remember earlier I told you I would come to the drawback about the acrylic lens, well here it is.  Many dry fly anglers use a liquid floatant to repel water and keep their fly riding high in the surface film. I use Umpqua’s Bug Flote. I like it…I don’t know what the heck it is made of, some say Leprechaun spit, some the tears of fisherman past, some even think it is waste from the Manhattan Project. One thing is for sure I realty do not want to know what it is, I just know it works. But I do know this, floatant is not friendly to plastic. I had a Minolta Weathermatic film camera prior to my digital. It was great for fishing because it was a small, lightweight waterproof dive camera and you could beat the snot out of it and best of all it floated. Well one day the Bug Flote decided to explode out of its bottle (might have been the 115-degree heat in the Jeep) and it went all over the Weathermatic, and the camera was not the same after that. It stilled worked and was waterproof, but the housing was eaten somewhat. From then on, I have sealed my Bug Flote in a plastic zip bag to guard against unauthorized discharge.

Now imagine the bite is on and you are hauling in fish after fish and losing flies and retying over and over and using your magnifiers (with the Acrylic lens (plastic right)) and your floatant. I did a good job of wiping off the lens after I juiced up the fly, but onetime I missed a spot and now I have a small-discolored artifact in the lens. Oh, I can still use them just find (and the lenses are replaceable), but my point is glass would have made these the Lamborghini of magnifiers. Aside from this small issue, I like them and expect years of great service from them. JR.

Product Tested: MONTANA River Maps & Fishing Guide

Manufacturer:Frank Amato Publications

Website:amatobooks.com

Description of Product:Up to date, detailed maps of 30 of Montana’s best rivers to fish, included is details on best seasons, species, flies, gear, hatch’s as well as historic hooking and run data by river, Also included is information on boat launch sites, parks, knots, local services, guides and fly shops

Suggested Retail price:$25.00

Purchase price:N/A

Place of Purchase:N/A checked out from King County Public Library, Bellevue, WA

Product Reviewer:JR

Winter here in the Pacific Northwest is full of cloudy days with lots of light drizzle. One cannot help but think of warm summer days and outdoor activities. Midwinter is the time that the YG gets into full swing nailing down dates, laying out itineraries and assigning G-2 (intelligence gathering) duties to the members for the upcoming year’s trip. After agreeing on the dates and final itinerary, I was assigned G-2 for lodging and river reports.

One day I was on my computer at the KCPL and just typed in Fishing Montana, well lot’s of books came up but most were old, some very old and what may have been a hot spot 10 years ago, may in fact be a sub development today, hardly any great help….but something caught my eye, a book called Montana River Maps & Fishing Guide by Frank Amato Publications and better yet it was not only just published (Aug 2007) but the Library had not yet received any copies so I placed a hold on one when they came in.

A word about Frank Amato Publications, this company has a wealth of outdoor books on just about all things fishing in the Pacific Northwest and West. They also publish two magazines Salmon, Trout, Steelheader and Flyfishing and Tying Journal, give em a look up.

Well the day arrived and I picked up the book, boy was this a nice book of maps, 30 river systems in all, large 14.7 x 10.6 layout of each river including a river system review, hatch table, fishing peaks by month, fly patterns, services locations and phone numbers. For this years trip the YG would hit eight out of the 30, so this book got a fair bit of a workout.

History:

With out a doubt, the maps of choice the YG uses the is the Atlas & Gazetteers published by DeLorme (www.delorme.com), this is an invaluable aid in our trips as we find ourselves in the "middle of nowhere" quite often and the Gazetteer is most often the only map that can get us in and out with not to much trouble, we just love them. Each YG members copies of the many states we have visited are well worn and annotated with our fishing locations we’ve picked up over the years from fishing guides, fly shops, waitresses, bartenders, city officials, and anybody who might give us the time of day (drive past the broken guardrail; pull off on the right go down the embankment and fish). Most of the YG members want to take a "look" at the others to make sure they have not missed a "secret" spot. That said,

I just love this book. To have a drill down detail of each river is a great aid as most of the places we fish tend not to have any identifying signs or markers for the most part. The ability to switch from Gazetteer to these maps when you "got close" to the river was an immense help in identifying our selected fishing spots. In fact, Eric Thorson one of the owners of The Sunrise Fly Shop in Melrose, MT when giving us directions to his "secret" location of where we should go fish on the Big Hole, insisted that we use the Big Hole map from the book. Now I only have one small issue, I acknowledge that these rivers systems are vast, but I would like to see just a bit more detail of all roads/bridges around the rivers and perhaps a bit more identifying features as we sometimes had to guess if the bridge on the map was in fact the one that we were on.

Aside from this small issue, I think it is a great book to have if you are fishing any or all of the big 30 of Montana. JR.

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Website: http://www.brodin.com

I’m not sure I should blame him or thank him! In his quest for a Montana IGFA Brookie record last year, I assisted YG member Andy Batcho as "official" photog and net boy! For those whom have never witnessed the process of documenting a potential IGFA record, let’s just say I would put it somewhere between Grand Jury Testimony and the Federal Witness Protection program…….easy it is not. All while keeping our finned friend breathing and stress free (the fish, not Andy).

For this endeavor, I used my large Orvis Stretch and Release net. Now I’ve had this baby for years and the extra large bowl make even the "netting challenged" like me net em like a pro. The stretch bag is Orvis’ first generation design of a very soft stretch micro-mesh intended to reduce the harm to the fish’s protective slime therefore increasing survivability upon release. The only issue I ever had was this mesh was a breeding ground for sticking hooks (especially hopper-dropper combos). Most of the time you could carefully remove the hook without much damage to the mesh, today would be different.

Well, during the course of our documentation process the hook got stuck (the very least of our issues at that moment) in the mesh. Repeatedly having the fish in and out of the net and the water to keep the guy breathing during measuring, weighting, and photos exacerbated the problem even more as we tried to keep the hook and line from tangling the fish. So after all that work and releasing the guy back home (Andy does get his IGFA record BTW) we turn our attention to getting the hook out of the net. No small task as it’s wrapped around and imbedded in a big section of mesh. Long story short, we end up having to put a small hole in the mesh to get the hook out…no big deal….or so I thought at the time!

Next day I land lot’s of big fish all day and as luck would have it, one of the fellows decides to make a break for it via you guessed it the hole in the mesh. Well he gets stuck at his pectoral fins and after we get him out, snap some photos and put him back into the water, I now have a rather large hole in the mesh. Andy comes to my aid and does immediate field surgery and sutures up the hole with some firewire. It’s OK but I have a rather large line in the mesh and it is all bunched up. The rest of the trip the net works without any more issues.

YG members Al, Andy and I all have the large Orvis S&R net. Due the hook/mesh issue, Al was the first to jump ship and buy a rubber bagged net from fisknat. Andy found a net maker in Hawaii who sent him a rubber bag for his net frame, I was the last holdout, but I was looking. Spring rolls around and Andy asks what I’m going to do about my net. I decide to go to the local Orvis shop and speak with fly shop manager Leland about my options.

I can see why this is the number one Orvis store in the US, Leland is all about customer satisfaction. Now they have not made the S&R net series for sometime, but Leland starts calling around to all his "secret" stash locations looking for anyone that might still have an S&R net, no go. So he grabs his old and well worn catalog and says to me, well I’ll give you full price you paid on a replacement net , have you seen the new Orvis/Brodin Ghost Nets yet?

Wow full price for my old net and upgrade to a new one…cool! We look at the nets and Leland explains the bags design and functionality. We find a net similar in size to the S&R but the width is not as great. Price is about $30 more than what I paid for my S&R….I tell Leland my desire to have a large framed net, and he says Brodin has replacement ghost bags give them call and see if you can find a correct size replacement, the offer to exchange you net stands as long as you don’t take the bag off your net, what a guy.

I get home go to the Brodin website and they do have replacement bags for sale, I measure the ID of my frame, looks like I’ll need their large bag so I give Brodin a call. I tell my story and the Brodin staff was just great to work with they will send me a replacement bag and tell me if it does not work out and I don’t cut the bag, send it back for a full refund, wow!... can’t lose here. Cost is $28.

A few days later I get a package from Brodin, I put the bag inside my net and I could see this just might work. As Andy has re-strung his net before I give him a call and ask for his assistance if I decide to go through with it, he say yes……now it’s go time….I finally decide this can work and slice off the S&R net, no going back now. I decide that while I have the bag off I’ll sand and re-varnish the frame.

So I have my newly re-varnished frame, new ghost bag, heavy duty flat nylon cord and an appointment with Andy to rig my net. Well, let me tell you it took lots and lots of tries to get that thing right, but finally after much frustration (and a lot of brain drain from retired engineer Andy) we do a test lace up and we had it sitting pretty. As we pull out the test cord we follow that with the final cord and after a full days work the new bag is all laced up in the frame and looking pretty, thanks Andy!

So let me tell you I put this thing through its paces during this trip. Al and I bushwhacked through willows, brambles and other brush on the Ham’s Fork and my fear was that the soft rubber bag would hang up on branches and tear, not so. In fact it would catch and stretch and then pull away from the branches unharmed. No issues at all with hooks and the bag, if one got stuck it came right out, no ripping or tearing. I did not do a double blind experiment to see if the fish are calmer being netted by a clear bag verses a black bag, but I landed the fish without incident and for the most part on the first try.

Only one issue I have. Al landed his biggest Cutthroat ever, the thing was massive and the net worked great, except he was so big this fellow had a good set of teeth on him and every time we’d line up a shot, Al would raise the net out of the water go to raise the fish and…boom the net would be stuck on his teeth, It happened a number of times until we got the shot we wanted.

So would I do it all over again the same? Yes I would, I have the best of both worlds, a great Orvis frame and a super Brodin bag that hooks come right out of. All told the project was equal to what I would have spent on a new Orvis/Brodin replacement net.

Oh, and I stopped by and showed it to Leland…he thought it was cool…high praise indeed!

I give this 4 fish-ons.

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