Archive for category: Products and Services

Our store boasts the largest selection of mono and fluorocarbon in Southwestern Ontario.

About Umpqua Feather Merchants:

The idea first took shape in the hands of our founder, Dennis Black, back in 1972. As a fast and facile professional fly-tyer, Dennis was known for his skill and speed at producing hundreds of dozens of flies each year for the larger mail order houses. But he was also quick to realize how fast the demand for excellent flies would outstrip the abilities of cottage industry types like him.

To create excellent flies in sufficient supply – without sinking his standards. In response, Dennis developed (with characteristic care) a methodical plan: First, he enlisted the tying expertise of the likes of Dave Whitlock, Jack Dennis, Andy Puyans and others, to help him set the standard of excellence for Umpqua flies.

Next, Dennis established the first of what would eventually be five separate fly-tying “factories,” first in India, then in Sri Lanka, and finally in Thailand. The primary focus at each of these factories was on producing the very best fishing flies possible, constructed of the very best materials available. From the beginning, the quantity of flies produced was secondary to the quality and excellence of each fly pattern. These high standards were assured by the personal involvement of the fly designers themselves, and by the ever-increasing skill, imagination and creativity of the Umpqua production fly tiers. Today, you will find no flies more skillfully tied than those available from Umpqua Feather Merchants.

Finally, Dennis created a system of royalty payments, to reward professional tyers like Whitlock, Lefty Kreh, Randall Kaufman, Larry Dahlberg, and Bob Popovics for uniquely good patterns.Next, Dennis established the first of what would eventually be five separate fly-tying “factories,” first in India, then in Sri Lanka, and finally in Thailand. The primary focus at each of these factories was on producing the very best fishing flies possible, constructed of the very best materials available. From the beginning, the quantity of flies produced was secondary to the quality and excellence of each fly pattern. These high standards were assured by the personal involvement of the fly designers themselves, and by the ever-increasing skill, imagination and creativity of the Umpqua production fly tiers. Today, you will find no flies more skillfully tied than those available from Umpqua Feather Merchants.

Please contact the store for further details on current inventory and any special orders or first visit:

https://umpqua.com

Our store boasts the largest selection of mono and fluorocarbon in Southwestern Ontario.

Contact the store for further details and availability after visiting the Eagle Claw Website here.

“In the late 1920’s Drew McGill and Stan Wright formed the Wright & McGill Co., for the tying of high grade fishing flies. Drew was on the upper Colorado River pursuing his favorite sport, fly fishing that magnificent stream.

It all happened when he stopped to light his pipe and take a short rest.

The morning’s fishing had not been as good as it could have been, for it seemed that even though the rainbows and native Trout were rising, they were difficult to hook. While thinking of this and the ways that he could improve his fishing techniques, he watched the lazy circles of two large eagles. As he sat quietly enjoying this wilderness scene, one of the eagles slowly spiraled downward and landed beyond him in the top of a dead cottonwood; the tips of the bird’s talons lightly gripping a weathered bare limb. His thoughts turned to the penetrating power of those lethal claws, and then to the penetrating power of the fishhooks he was using.

As the powerful bird took to the air, Drew took his fly and holding it by the tiny leader pulled it across the leather of his fishing creel. The point scraped along the leather, but did not penetrate. Using his fishing pliers, he changed the shape of the hook by slightly curving the point. He tried the fly again and found that, this time it would penetrate. He quickly modified several flies and was back on the stream. The results were encouraging, and he eagerly tested shapes and sizes until driven from the stream by an afternoon thunderstorm.

Returning to the fly factory in Denver, Drew started working to produce a fishhook design with greater penetrating power. A hook that would exert this power in the direct line of pull of the leader. From this research came a fishhook that had sweeping curves and sharper points. It was forged for strength and was double offset for greater hooking qualities. The hook’s point was in direct line of pull and shaped like the talons of that mighty bird.

The rest is history.

This design quickly swept the country, for it offered the first improvement in fishhooks in hundreds of years.”

Our store boasts the largest selection of mono and fluorocarbon in Southwestern Ontario.

Contact us for further details and availability after visiting the Drennan Website here.

Drennan Company History:

The Drennan tackle company was founded in 1967 when its current Managing Director, Peter Drennan, began producing a small range of Balsawood floats in his mother’s garage. Having served his angling apprenticeship with some of the finest anglers of that era; Dick Walker, Peter Stone, the Taylor Brothers and England’s first World Champion, Bill Lane, the young Peter Drennan was already recognised as something of a tackle expert. With the ability to design superior floats and the craft skill to make them, the original one man business expanded steadily from those humble garage beginnings.

Drennan International now offers more than 2500 individual products, employs over 350 people and supplies over 2000 tackle shops direct from its headquarters in England. Those shops are spread across the UK, France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands and beyond this area Drennan tackle has distributors in most other European countries.

All research and tackle development remains in the UK together with some of the more complex high-tech production, however the company now has six purpose built factories outside of Europe in an economically competitive location. This low cost location allows the company to offer the bulk of its range of tackle at prices which are comparable with Chinese manufacture but which are of superior design and have a much higher quality of build.

Drennan International is very strong on the engineering side, from Computer Aided Design (CAD), through toolmaking, high-tech plastics processing to building its own special purpose production machinery. On all aspects of product design, manufacture, packaging, quality control and customer service, the company has expert anglers in key positions.

The criteria for Drennan is always that the product must be good value for money, trouble free and must help catch fish.