Raz Reid is an old friend and in another life was a professional tennis player. He’s is married to an Aussie, former tennis champ Kerry Melville and they live on Hilton Head island in South Carolina. Its been many years since Raz converted his tennis skills to fly fishing and these days he’s the highly respected rep in the south east of the US for Sage, Tibor reels, Simms, Umpqua, and Rio. Florida is his main stamping ground and after a week of tarpon fishing with him in the Keys we drove north to South Carolina via Miami and Homosassa.
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Raz Reid used this Tibor Pacific reel fitted with the largest arbor spool for tarpon fishing in the Keys. I wondered about the size of it but you’re only making casts when you see fish - many casts some days and not so many on others. False casting as not recommended. The "reel" advantage of this reel is when a fish comes right at you, something I found out in the Keys, and you just can’t stay tight to it. The 14 inch retrieve with each turn makes a huge difference. |
Raz has travelled the Keys Highway for many years, he has competed in and won several of the major fly tournaments and is well known in all fly fishing circles throughout the south east, you couldn’t ask for a better guide on the water or on the highway. He counts Billy Pate as a mentor and a good friend and we stopped to spend some time with Billy.
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On the drive north we stopped at Robbies dock to feed the tarpon - Raz reckoned they were all on social security and should get the hell out there and earn a living where fishermen can get to them |
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After the tough week we had trying to get the Keys tarpon just to eat our flies I reckon Raz was saying to these tarpon at Robbies - "get outta here you fat lazy dole bludging bastards!!"
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The effect of a few misplaced and badly chosen words can change any aspect of history, even fly fishing. Ted Juracsik is a doer not a talker. Bob McChristian’s reaction to Billy’s modification was the catalyst that led to the Billy Pate reel, and it was in reaction to some derogatory offhand comments thrown about at a tackle show in front of Ted, by another aspiring reel manufacturer from the U.S. west coast, that led to the development of the Tibor reels. The comments were along the line of "no one but me makes quality saltwater fly reels" - Ted left the table where the conversation had taken place and walked across to where Lefty Kreh and Flip Pallot were quietly chatting and talked to them about helping him design a great new saltwater fly reel - the Tibor reel was born and the rest is history, large arbor reels are completely dominant in the world of fly fishing. Ted’s motto is "Don’t just react - act"! In 1995 the Tibor reels hit the market to great acclaim.
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Worldwide Sportsman is a wonderful shop and a must stop along the highway. The vessel inside the shop is Ernest Hemmingway’s boat "Pillar". There’s some tackle sold here but the clothing and extras are just sensational - there are many other places for tackle if you can’t find what you want here. |
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Some of Rob Killgore’s reel collection. |
On the road north from the Keys we spent a night in Miami at the home of Rob Killgore who works for Florida Sportsman magazine. Rob fishes the waters of Biscayne Bay and catches plenty, mostly tarpon, bonefish and redfish right in front of the city - he’s a passionate fly fisherman who lives on Key Biscayne. He also has a great collection of fly reels, and has at least one of each of the reels made in Florida, Seamasters (including a dual mode), Catino, Pate, Emory, Old Florida, and a Fin Nor wedding cake.
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Billy Pate is one of the real greats of fly fishing in the Keys. He hunted big tarpon passionately for many years (and still hunts them). It was Billy who introduced Ted Juracsik to the idea of making fly reels. The Billy Pate reel was the benchmark for several decades and is considered one of the toughest reels made. Billy still uses them exclusively. |
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Ted Juracsik is the owner of Juracsik Tool and Die company. He is a master machinist who came to the US from Hungary during the communist invasion. The Tibor reel is named after his home town in Hungary. Ted is a passionate fisherman who is semi-retired. He says that its more difficult, and expensive to produce a very high quality reel that has FEWER moving parts. Simplicity and absolute quality without compromise are the goal with all his products. |
Lengths of aluminium bar stock to be machined into fine fly reels. |
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Sliced from the lengths the sections are machined into basic spools and frames
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This machine drills out the holes in the reels to make them lighter. |
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Batches of spools and frames are loaded into this tumbler where they are firmly secured and the tumbler is filled with an abrasive compound and they are then rotated for several hours to remove any traces of swarf. |
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The spools and frames are again mounted onto a frame that is placed in another polishing tumbler with an abrasive compound. The whole thing vibrates shaking the compound pellets into all the corners of the sections. This is the second step to remove any remnants of the machining process |
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When they come out of here all the sharp edges have been removed and they’re ready to go to the anodising section |
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Ted’s new drag plates are made from aluminium with a currugated back to increase the surface area so any heat build up during fights with long runs is dissipated through the back of the drag plate |
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The anodising division, a new state of the art plant Ted had built at a cost of $1.5 million. The water coming in from the Miami city water pipes is not clean enough and is purified before use. Once its been through the system it is released cleaner than the water that came in. The power cables coming into the plant are as thick as a man’s forearm and the cleanest air in Miami is probably that which is right above the air scrubber exhaust vents |
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This is how the reels look once they have been cleaned up before going into the final bath which gives them their colour |
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A frame filled with reels about to be acid dipped. They go hrough a series of cleaning baths to prepare them for anodising
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The reels are all hand assembled and all the parts except the bearings are made in this factory. |
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Reel seat parts |
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Ted has TWO of these $50,000 laser engravers and they are working flat out all the time doing the basic branding, name plates, and the special fish engravings. The engraving is so shallow you cannot feel it. |
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There is a superb selection of quality fish engravings you can get laser etched into the finish of your reel. In time I hope they carry the artwork for some Australian fish (I’m working on it). To see all the fish available go to www.tiborreel.com |
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This is a very low numbered anti-reverse Billy Pate Bonefish reel that hadn’t been serviced for more than 20 years. The reel was in perfect condition in spite of plenty of use but the factory were replacing the old bronze shaft and drag plate with a more recent lighter weight aluminium version. |
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The older Gulfstream Spool is on the left. Tibor were one of the very first to utilise the LA concept and now all the reels from Everglades up come in two arbor versions (all retro fittable) so you can utilise the large working circumference yet not have to carry around hundreds of meters of backing and extra weight that you might not need for the particular fishing you are doing. The new super LA is a great innovation. |
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For the last few years Tibor reels have been honoured by the IGFA for the number of World Record captures made on them. |
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The newest model from Ted Juracsik is the Quick Change (QC) version. The outer cap that holds on the spool has the holding thread machined into the cap and the cap is held on very firmly with an "O" ring. For more information on Tibor reels and Tibor generally go to www.tiborreel.com
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