Welcome to The Bonefish Flat

There's a stiff wind in your face as you squint in the sun trying to see what the guide sees. "Bonefish at 12 o'clock about 90 feet, do you see it, mon?" You don't and keep squinting, your hat pulled low to keep the sun out of your eyes. "Bonefish at 11 o'clock 70 feet out. Come on man, do you see it?" As the guide is calmly shifting the skiff into position, this time you spot the fish, "I got, it," you reply.

"OK, Mon, Bonefish 50 feet at 10 o'clock. Cast when you're ready."

Cast when you're ready. And with that you drop your fly, roll out a cast, false cast once, and then...

Welcome to the bonefish flat.

Monday, March 26, 2012

Ted "Tibor" Juracsik in the New Garden & Gun

Garden & Gun is one of the best magazines out there.  It's one of about three that I really regularly read.  No it's not all fly fishing, but it tends to have a good amount of fly fishing in it along with other southern fried fun.  So it was a good thing when I opened up the mailbox today to find the April/May 2012 edition (I also got my credit card bill, so this helped to take some of the sting out of that).

April/May 2012 edition of Garden & Gun


The latest issue has a big spread on Ted Juracsik.  You might know Mr. Juracsik better by his nickname "Tibor," as in Tibor reels.  I know I did a post a few weeks ago about simplicity, but I'm a big time sucker for fly reels.  I marvel at how a reel with a good drag can stop a bonefish racing like a car that just robbed a bank.  Tibor, in my opinion, is the best reel out there. Besides being an absolute thing of beauty, it has a cork drag that stops a fish and Tibor has more world records than any other fly reel.  I've found that all the old Florida salts prefer the cork drag, so that's what I'm going to stick with.

What a story.

The story in Garden & Gun reads like a great cold war thriller.  Juracsik was a Hungarian refugee who was forced to flee his country to America.  He's a genuine American success story and built a successful business from the ground up. One thing that is troubling in the article is when Jurascik mentions he tried to create a trout reel for under $150.  He said he basically couldn't do it because of competition from Chinese manufacturers.

The writing in Garden & Gun is really top notch.  David DiBenedetto is the Editor and Chief and he wrote On the Run about the stripped bass migration on the East Coast.  It's a fantastic read.
Posted by at 8:31 PM

2 comments:

  1. UnknownMarch 27, 2012 at 8:28 PM

    He has an amazing story. I remember a cool interview on the Itinerant Angler a while back.

    He also has amazing reels. This post may result in a Tibor Light in my hand really soon

    ReplyDelete
  2. JTWGMarch 27, 2012 at 8:52 PM

    Hi Trevor,
    Zach did a great podcast with him. You should def. pull the trigger on a new reel. I'd like another one!!

    ReplyDelete

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