An Icelandic fly reel ready to meet the best of them
The Icelandic Einarsson fly reels.
An Icelandic brand of fly reels is ready to expand abroad following several successful years making the grade in Iceland. Formerly known as Wish reels, they now go by the name of Einarsson, the brand name stamping in their Icelandic origin. We spoke to the companies sales manager, Óskar Páll Sveinsson recently.
Steingrímur Einarsson is the founder of the company and started making the reels in 2004 when he started , just for the fun of it, to make reels according to his own judgement. They proved to be good enough to prompt Steingrímur into forming a company to manufacture the reels. By now, the company, Fossdalur, has put forward an exclusive line of fly reels most recently bearing the name Einarsson Fly Fishing, but formerly Wish.
Sales manager Óskar Páll (photo right, with a spring sea trout) is a higly experienced fishing guide and musician and has been promoting the reels since early this year. „I first used these reels in the season of 2008 and since I know Steingrímur quite well, and was very, very impressed with the reels, I started working for them and showing the reels to numerous anglers, local and foreign. Steingrímur and his team have a well equipped factory in the village of Ísafjörður in the western fjords. They put a great deal of effort and soul into each and every reel they make and, having tried all the top brands in reels over my many years in the field, I can comfortably say that they are as good as, in fact even better, than anything I have tried.“
Óskar Páll next went on to tell us about a new revolutionary line of reels, in the making this winter, and due for the market late next summer. „Steingrímur has invented a new sort of brake system for the new line of reels. It is a revolutionary system and had no difficulty in obtaining the international patent rights to it. The system takes into account the whole fishing mechanism, from the backing line on the reel, to the fly line, to the leader, to the reel itself and into the rod itself. This may sound strange, but it is best to try it out, the difference is obvious. It will be a huge moment for Einarsson Fly Fishing when the first reels are marketed late next summer, as they are sure to have a massive impact among fly fishermen all over the world. It has been obvious for a while that Iceland alone is to small a market for these reels so we have been planing our next moves beyond our own shores. Earlier brands of our reels will start in the Scandinavian countries early next year and then we will follow up with the new exceptional line,“ Óskar Páll told us. For more info, check out http://www.einarsson.com/
