The Fiberglass Manifesto: EMERGER FLY FISHING

I typically verify in on gear makers and talked to Chris Freeman of Emerger Fly Fishing a number of months in the past the place he instructed me about a number of adjustments that he had made to the Cameron Aspect Bag. As he was telling me, I could not consider that an inch in depth may make such a distinction. He provided to ship one to demo on a late summer season journey to the Driftless (See these posts HERE, HERE, and HERE) and am now a agency believer. 

Chris took the final technology Cameron Aspect Bag, that was just a bit too small for me to hold all the mandatory gear and a DSLR digital camera, and created a bag that may maintain all of that an extra.  A second lens?  No drawback.  Extra fly containers or fly wallets?  Additionally, no drawback.  The brand new leather-based shoulder pad can also be a step ahead in consolation to hold this bag all day on the water.

I requested Chris if he’d ship an replace to the three-part collection of posts that we did in 2018, which highlighted all of the steps in constructing one in every of these timeless waxed canvas facet luggage and this submit talks about refining an already great piece of package to make it that a lot better.  It’s best to re-visit the construct posts HERE, HERE, and HERE as these posts actually present the workmanship that goes into all the pieces that depart’s the Emerger Fly Fishing store.

Chris wrote…  “Virtually, Emerger Fly Fishing tends to be design-centric and never product-centric. I might relatively have a number of merchandise that I consider maintain as much as our rigorous requirements of type and performance than have a number of merchandise. This implies we always take a look at our merchandise to the bounds, discover out what works and what doesn’t, after which alter accordingly. It additionally means listening to our prospects. I like listening to from the guides who’ve our luggage, those that put their gear by the paces each day — some simply logging 150 days on the water every year. They’re suggestions is extremely worthwhile to us.

Once we first launched the Cameron in 2016, I felt fairly good about it — higher than I had about any product we had launched as much as that time. Over time, we heard from a number of guides that they felt like they wanted only a bit extra room of their luggage.

So we made it barely greater — I imply an inch general within the depth of the bag. Because it seems, that made an enormous distinction. We additionally reworked the inner pockets of our primary compartment to ensure that fly containers to take a seat higher within the bag and keep good group. We additionally added a giant shoulder pad to our straps to assist the bag sit extra comfortably on the shoulder when spending lengthy days on the water.

We additionally made some much less apparent adjustments that we expect have made a giant distinction, like transferring to YKK #10 brass zippers as a result of they’re smoother and more durable than the smaller dimension we had been utilizing.

The top result’s a bag that’s greater, more durable, and but barely lighter than the primary technology Cameron. As a craftsman, it energizes me to focus extra on making issues higher than simply making extra issues. That doesn’t imply we received’t have new merchandise (and there are some coming), nevertheless it does imply that the merchandise we make might be thought out, purposeful and crafted to our extraordinarily excessive requirements with prospects in thoughts.

As with honing any craft, it’s a journey — one which I’m grateful to be on, with the parents who’ve chosen to journey together with us.”