Click to enlarge
Loop Evotec CLW fly reels
(Photo: Loop) |
When
Loop
brings out a new fly reel, it is always an event. Because
Loop
is the inventor of the large arbor fly reel.
After years of lack of understanding and denigration, competitors, realizing that the concept of the large arbor was taking among fly-fishermen, started to copy
Loop
. Today, many brands offer large arbor fly reels, when they offer anything else. But it is not because one copies the look of a reel that the reel will be good. Many copies are no good for the very simple reason that their manufacturers have not understood the advantages of a large arbor fly reel and the necessary conditions for it to work.
The very first fly reel that
Loop
produced is the Traditional. Instead of a brake, the Traditional has a spool that is suspended between two sets of three wheels. Some tried to copy the concept, but it is patented and it only works with that number of wheels. Therefore, none of those copies worked properly. This is the reason why so many copies have a brake. Most claimed that the brake was an advantage. For dry fly fishing for trout, I don't see any advantage in having a brake. I am fishing with a light tippet. The brake is the safest component of a fly reel for breaking the tippet.
When
Loop
took the decision of putting a brake on a series of fly reels,
Loop
has not copied the other brands.
Loop
has invented a new brake system, a sealed and waterproof brake. By doing this,
Loop
has created the best brake in the world, a brake that is not affected by water, unlike so many others… The big advantage of that type of brake is that it requires almost no maintenance. And recently, some brands have started to copy that
Loop
idea and to offer waterproof brakes…
With the Evotec CLW, once again
Loop
hammers it in.
Until now, those who were willing to have a good large arbor fly reel had to chose between the Loop Graphite, and the aluminium Loop Traditional, Evotec FW, LW and HD. If a fisherman was willing to have a reel with a brake and if he could not afford to buy an aluminium
Loop
reel, he could only go for a more or less happy copy of it.
This is now something of the past. The Evotec CLW is an authentic
Loop
fly reel. The Loop Evotec CLW is the composite version of the famous Loop Evotec (CLW = Composite Light Weight). Made of a material that looks very nice, it inspires us with confidence. It looks like both the Evotec FW and the Evotec LW. It is about 4 times less expensive than the Evotec FW and 5 times than the LW!
Loop
offers two models of the Evotec CLW: the 5eight designed for single-handed rods, the 8twelve for double-handed rods.
|
