Sometimes the best ideas are the simplest ones. The Catch-A-Lure fly retriever is both simple and extremely innovative.
The Catch-A-Lure fly retriever is a small plastic device that clips right on to the tip of your fly rod. Essentially, it converts any fly rod into a giant pair of scissors, used exclusively for retrieving your favorite fly from 14 feet up in an unclimbable tree.
So you’re casting on a lake shore or a brushy riverbank. You manage a few perfectly placed back-casts, but suddenly get your very last one snagged on the highest limb of the thinnest tree in the woods. With a simple twist and snap, you’re ready to retrieve your fly.
The Catch-A-Lure locks on tight, so you know its not going anywhere. Whether it costs $2.95 at the fly shop, or it only took you five minutes to tie, I know you’ll be glad to have it back.
When I first got a hold of one for myself, I wasn’t quite sure how to use the Catch-A-Lure. I initially thought that the device would act as something that grasps the line to pull on it. Once I clipped it on and tested it out on a snagged line, I figured it out in an instant. The Catch-A-Lure houses a small blade that cuts any fishing line with very little effort. The best way to go about getting your fly out of a tree is to use the device as close to the fly as possible. In other words, cut as far down the line as you can. Once the line is cut, there is actually an extremely small magnet, on the gadget, which secures your fly until its back in your hands.
The magnet was another little feature which I never really noticed until I tried it out. Pretty clever, if you ask me. The Catch-A-Lure company provided me with the statistic that fishermen in the US spend $1.1 billion on lures every year. My hope is that this gadget can bump that number down a notch – or at least save my wallet the pain.
Using this little gadget does a few things. It saves you a fly, and it saves you some length on your leader. In an ideal scenario, using this thing will get you your fly back, as well as the maximum amount of line. In the occurrence of a tree or branch snag, you will be able to maximize the retrieval of equipment that you may normally be discarding in that situation.
So you get your fly back and you get your line back. Now you’re back in action. Just that goes to show how innovative this little thing is, but the coolest thing is that it’s doing a lot more than just helping fishermen. The Catch-A-Lure is also doing its part in saving the environment. – one potentially littered fly-line at a time. Tons of fishing line finds itself in river beds, streams, lakes, and our oceans. If this small and inexpensive piece of gear can potentially minimize the amount of fishing line scraps in our water systems, then I think every fisherman in the world should have one. It’d save them a lot of money on flies, and more importantly it would save our water-ways from a lot of trash.
