Echo Fly Fishing

As fly fishermen, we are pretty brand loyal if you haven't noticed.  We put stickers of our favorite brands on things and we stand up for our companies when someone asks who makes the best fly rod.  You can probably think of more examples but you probably see my point.  For me, I have been and am now even more so, brand loyal to Echo.  This isn't only because I love my Echo Carbon XL five weight and my Echo Base six weight.  I am an Echo customer for life because of what they did for the middle school fly fishing club that I sponsor. 

For those of you that don't know, I am a teacher.  That's what keeps the lights on at my fly tying desk and puts gas in my truck so I can get to the water.  I'm still waiting for some of that sweet, sweet internet, YouTube, and Etsy money to start rolling in so until then, I teach.  I also sponsor what might be the only middle school fly fishing club in Missouri as well.  The club received a donation of 18 Martin fly rods about five years ago.  You know the kind.  They came in plastic packaging and had "everything you need to get started fly fishing!"  They have been pretty good workhorses over the last few years and I don't have a bad thing to say about them.  However, they are starting to show some wear and tear and it seemed like a good time to upgrade.  With a lot of help from my former building principal, we were able to replace all of our Martin reels with Echo Base reels about a year and a half ago.  I didn't have the funding to replace the rods and reels at the same time so this was a two phase process.

Phase two began about a month ago.  During this time, a lot of things had to come together to make purchasing eighteen fly rods.  Money came from my budget, a fellow teacher's budget, grant money, and thankfully from funds that my building principal was able to allocate.  I cannot find the words to thank my friend and coworker for his donation or my principal for approving the funds that I needed.  Finally, I have been humbled by the good people at Echo.  They have provided quality equipment to my small club that will no doubt give them a better experience.  Our new rods are fast and responsive when casting.  They are four weights, which is a change from the six weights we were throwing, and will make the anglers feel more connected to the bluegill and small bass that we usually catch.  The rods are also a foot shorter (we went from 9 foot rods to 8 foot rods) which will make them less intimidating and easier to handle.  Overall, they are going to make club members better casters, better anglers, and just give a better overall experience on the water.  I have no doubt about that.

So from the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone at Echo that had a hand in getting my club new fly rods...and for the lifetime guarantee because I'll probably need to use that once or twice.  You have a customer for life and one brand-loyal guy!

Link: http://echoflyfishing.com/