DENVER (Could 19, 2026) – On the most recent episode (#30) of the Fly Fisherman Loop to Loop podcast, Ross Purnell, Editor/Writer of Fly Fisherman Journal, sits down with Mayfly Outdoor CEO Jeff Wagner within the spacious Montrose, Colorado, headquarters for Ross, Abel, Renzetti, Dyna-King, Airflo and a number of other different manufacturers. A real native of Sidney, Nebraska, Wagner grew up fishing the realm’s small spring creeks for trout in addition to the realm’s quite a few warm-water fisheries for bass, walleye, pike and different species, and he was mentored there by some people he considers to be among the many unsung heroes of fly fishing, guys like Monte Malzahn and Wayne Nelson. Wagner’s first fly fishing combo was a 9’ 5 wt. St. Johns combo from Cabela’s, and he fished native lakes and ponds with poppers for bluegills and bass.
“Throughout the week, particularly in the summertime, after I needed to fish, we had a bit pond on the town that had carp; however in any other case, I’d spend a ton of time tying flies and casting,” Wagner defined about how he bought his begin. “I feel that’s actually the place I realized to forged, really was out in our cul-de-sac, wishing I used to be fishing someplace and couldn’t be at 14 or 15 years outdated, and I’d spend hours on the market beating up fly strains on asphalt, casting and tying flies. It was tremendous windy and, truthfully, that’s the place I realized to forged,” Wagner admitted.
Hearken to the Fly Fisherman Loop to Loop podcast, in partnership with Patagonia, G. Loomis, Mayfly Outdoor, TroutRoutes and Cigars Worldwide, on Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, and at FlyFisherman.com.
Not surprisingly, Mayfly Outdoor CEO Jeff Wagner bought his begin at Cabela’s, the place he labored for about 15 years, throughout two totally different stints, and he labored in retail, first as an affiliate and later as a product specialist the place he was examined on each space of the shop. Finally, he moved to customer support the place he dealt with 100 calls a day. Whereas Wagner benefitted early on by accessing all of Cabela’s fishing merchandise and sources, there was one other distinctive a part of the corporate’s enterprise that captured his creativeness. “I’ve all the time been a fish nerd. Tremendous nerdy. Aquariums, protecting fish, netting fish and all that. My undergrad was in Fisheries, however even earlier than that began, I labored with a man named Rob Zimmerman at Cabela’s – we had been constructing retail shops fairly rapidly – and he was the one answerable for placing the aquariums in all of the retail shops, so I helped do a good quantity of that, managed a number of the aquariums, constructed the aquariums’ life-support methods and put in a bunch of aquariums.”
Wagner left Sidney for some time, completed up a Biology diploma, went on to work for the Nationwide Park Service doing native fisheries restoration, labored as a information and helped begin a fly fishing store, bought married, and ultimately he discovered himself again in Sidney working for Cabela’s once more in merchandise monetary planning. He was doing stock planning and gross sales planning for quite a lot of classes and eventually grew to become a divisional planning supervisor. “I helped do a whole lot of issues internally,” he defined, “nerdy enterprise stuff, doing ERP [Enterprise Resource Planning] system implementation , exercise based mostly value implementation, demand forecasting and all kinds of different stuff. I liked it!”
In accordance with Wagner, Cabela’s not solely influenced his fly fishing profession but in addition had a much bigger affect on fly fishing than folks notice. “They helped in making it accessible,” he mentioned, “by way of the catalog enterprise on the time, they usually additionally did loads for small companies within the fishing business (for instance, our fly rod blanks had been coming from G. Loomis after they had been going by way of some powerful occasions), and I bear in mind the Cabela’s workforce helped smaller companies get began. That was a perception of the Cabela’s Household they usually had been type of an incubator for that…”
Wagner has been obsessive about casting ever since he bought his first Cabela’s fly rod. “I
began casting early on. I used to be most likely about 18-19 years outdated after I realized in regards to the Federation of Fly Fishers (now Fly Fishers Worldwide) and their Licensed Teacher program,” Wagner started, “and to me that was a technique to pour myself into some type of an finish aim and find out about casting, and that was actually a really pivotal factor for me in studying and assembly folks in fly fishing. Guys like Tim [Rajeff] had been a part of that program. I’m positively introverted, however when it got here to a factor like that, I reached out…it was a very cool technique to meet these guys. We’d go and simply nerd-out casting. I bear in mind going to the Worldwide Sportsmens Exhibition, early 2000s, they usually had a casting competitors known as ‘The Better of the West,’ and it was a distance competitors, and it was so cool.”
“For about 4 hours the fly fishing pond can be lined with guys like Mel Krieger, Tim and Steve Rajeff, Rick Hartman and Bruce Richards, simply watching everybody forged for distance [using consumer gear]… It’s actually the place a whole lot of innovation got here from…it was all about, ‘What’s my monitoring doing? What’s the rod doing? What’s the road velocity doing? When do I haul? What’s the acceleration? What’s an acceleration section appear to be? What’s the max rod load?’ All these various things. So, I began pursuing the Licensed Teacher program after which the Grasp’s Licensed Teacher program, and all alongside the best way assembly these guys and spending time with them and educating lessons… Nonetheless at present, I like the science behind fly casting. I nonetheless love the Mel Krieger mantra: ‘Fly casting is the essence of fly fishing.’ I consider it’s. What defines fly fishing is the casting part, really.”
Wagner had the next to say about his background and growth as a fly fisher and his management function at Mayfly Outdoor: “Developing the best way that I did in fly fishing and assembly all of these folks, to me the historical past, the legacy behind all of it’s such a essential factor of what it’s and one thing that we have to shield. With Mayfly having manufacturers like Airflo that’s been round for over 40 years and having Renzetti as a part of it… We have a look at it really as being a steward of a historic factor inside fly fishing. In fact, there’s many components to having a enterprise like that. We wish to promote vices and be sure that they’re on the market. It additionally provides a producing part, as a result of they’re excellent at Swiss-style machining, small elements that they do, however even greater than that to me it’s about, ‘How can we honor the legacy that they constructed and the enterprise that they constructed and the status that they constructed, in order that 15, 20, 30, 40 years from now Renzetti continues to be alive and that legacy continues to be dwelling on,’ after which we attempt to do this with the entire manufacturers that we have now as a result of all of them have this historic factor to them, whether or not it’s Renzetti or Dyna-King, Ross or Abel. We’re not trying to be an enormous assortment of manufacturers, however premium, legacy fly fishing manufacturers are one thing that we maintain fairly expensive, and we wish to make sure that we’re good stewards of these manufacturers and ensure we are able to preserve them alive and preserve the historical past behind it transferring ahead.”
“It’s a fly fishing enterprise in a small city, and we attempt to verify we convey ahead an ethos and tradition, as a lot as we are able to, of fishing,” Wagner acknowledged, offering additional perception to what makes the Mayfly Outdoor’ workforce so particular, “and the crew right here works extremely arduous and is extremely devoted… At Mayfly, we’re a B Corp, and I solely convey that up as a result of, a part of the best way we have a look at enterprise is what’s known as a ‘triple backside line’ – folks, revenue and planet. …You may’t do something in enterprise with out some type of profitability. You might have to have the ability to generate profits with a purpose to assist issues. However the different a part of that’s folks and planet. Clearly, this enterprise can’t be worthwhile, can’t be making the issues we do, with out folks. The folks listed here are the primary a part of the enterprise that retains it alive. After which, additionally the planet aspect of it, the conservation of it. And that’s not simply one thing we are saying – you see it in every little thing that we do. That’s a giant a part of the reels that we come out with after we do a Native Collection; it’s a giant a part of what folks don’t see…as a proportion of income, we most likely give extra to conservation than some other model.”
This info-packed podcast continues as Wagner fields all Purnell’s questions on quite a lot of new merchandise and Mayfly initiatives, from the launch of the superb new Ross Cimarron Creek Reel, which has “open supply” pawls you may 3D print at house; to how the corporate manages to anodize reels in Colorado; to on-going collabs with unbelieveably gifted fish artists Derek DeYoung, Andrea Larko and Casey Underwood; to aluminum and fly line recycling; to a sidebar on Airflo’s TPU materials fly strains, line weight and tactical taper selections; and eventually to a brand new mission with Abel Reels, Derek DeYoung and Benchmade – all to learn Mission Therapeutic Waters. You received’t to overlook a second of what Mayfly has deliberate!
“I feel that Jeff Wagner simply may be the primary fly fisherman that I’ve met from the state of Nebraska, however what a pleasure it was to go to with him, find out about his deep fly fishing roots and his superb journey to Mayfly,” mentioned Fly Fisherman’s Purnell. “We’ve got loads in frequent – not the least of which is we’re each fish nerds at coronary heart – and it was great to go to with him on the superb Mayfly Outdoor complicated and to take a deep dive on fly fishing gear and the mechanics and magic of fly casting. You may guess I’m trying ahead to creating a return journey to Southwest Colorado within the close to future!
Obtainable on Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, and at FlyFisherman.com the most recent episode of Fly Fisherman Loop to Loop podcast is a must-listen for fly fishing lovers of all ranges who wish to keep knowledgeable.
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