RENFORS Heritage on steroids In late 1800, Finland was a dream destination for wealthy international game anglers. Salmon rivers were abundant and several of country’s numerous trout rivers were absolutely out-of-this-world. In that atmosphere it was no wonder that a new branch of industry, created around fishing tackle, was born in Finland. The Finnish pioneer of this emerging industry was Mr. Herman Renfors, who started his business in 1870 and received several prices and nominations internationally for his ground-breaking fishing tackle. The business grew rapidly and in 1910 Renfors factory was equal in size to famous the James Heddon (USA) range, producing rods, reels, lines, spinners, flies, fishing literature and many other related items. Being very much a family business, Herman Renfors’s sister Maria went to England in 1876 to study fly tying skills and is considered to be the founder of the Finnish professional fly tying, especially when traditional full-winged salmon flies are considered. Many products made by the Renfors family have been passed on from one generation to another and can be found in various antique auctions quite frequently. It is not unheard of in some parts of Finland that you might still see one of their early reels attached to a modern salmon rod. That exceptional operational reliability combined with the elegance of these no-nonsense reels inspired us to design a new reel series, aptly named as Renfors. The nostalgia issues, regardless how important they might be for some of us, have not been the only motivation why we decided to introduce a new reel series with a traditional approach. Highly popular large-arbour reels have many excellent features as we all know. However, there is one ma-
jor negative feature related to the line capacity. These reels have a shallow spool which means that in order to get enough line on the reel (sometimes necessary when targeting large and strong fish species) the outer diameters of the reels will increase to a level, where they start to resemble old centre-pin reels. In fly fishing, where casting is normally required frequently, the momentum caused by a large diameter reel can feel annoying to say the least. One way around this problem is to take a step back in history and abandon the concept of large arbour reel and use the capacity of a deep arbour spool to the maximum. By increasing the volume of the spool you can have a lot of backing in a reasonably sized reel. The Renfors reel is just as at home with an old cane rod as it is with a top-of-the-line modern carbon rod. Its antique grey matt finish together with a Line # Diameter 7-9 96 mm 9-11 108 mm
Volume 134 cm3 194 cm3
large number of ever increasing holes towards the outer rim will give it a classical outlook. When you pull the line out of the reel, the loud clicking sound will bring back lots of memories at least for the older anglers. Memories of that big fish, which after the initial run, held silently in the depths of the pool and which gave no warning other than few subtle clicks from the reel before the long loud crescendo indicated that the fish was running for its life towards the rocky rapids looming somewhere behind the turn of the river. But do not let the outlook or the sound of this reel fool you. Inside it is a first-class brake package well capable of stopping that running fish in due time. This reel has truly a winning combination of old-age looks and modern technology. Salmon, seatrout and steelhead around the world, beware, Vision Renfors reels have arrived.
Capacity Slide Spey 8-9 + 183 m 30 lb Dacron Slide Spey 11-12 + 183 m 30 lb Dacron
53