New and Notable: Ross Reels Animas Native Series

Following the stunning success of its Colorado Native Series, which used the Ross Colorado reel as a platform to raise more than $100,000 for Colorado native cutts, Ross Reels is expanding its Native Series to the national level with golden trout-, rainbow trout-, and Eastern brook trout-themed Animas reels. The three new limited-edition 4/5-size Animas reel designs will retail for $495, with a portion of each sale going to Trout Unlimited’s Embrace A Stream (EAS) Grant Program. The are 495 of each design, and each reel carries a unique number.

Since its inception, EAS has already funded more than 1,150 projects with $4.9 million in grants. Local Trout Unlimited chapters that are working on native rainbow trout, native golden trout, and native brook trout projects can apply for grants through the EAS Grant Program and tap into funds earmarked specifically for these types of programs through sales of Animas reels.

The artwork of the Animas Rainbow Trout reel is inspired by the Kern River rainbow (Oncorhynchus mykiss gilberti), one of the southernmost native lineages of rainbow trout. Kern River rainbows are now found only in the South Sierra Nevada headwaters to Lake Isabella. Historically, Kern River rainbows lived lower in the watershed, but those populations have been lost. Golden trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss aguabonita) are another rainbow trout subspecies and their native range is limited to a 600-square-mile area also high within the headwaters of the Kern watershed. Brook trout historically had a massive native range in the East, but they have been extirpated from 90 percent of their native range in the U.S. and are now confined to Maine, and higher-elevation streams in the Appalachian Mountains from Vermont and New Hampshire to as far south as Georgia and northwest South Carolina. Each reel comes with an educational booklet on the EAS Grant Program and the specific fish species associated with the reel.

Ross Reels is inspiring sales of these conservation-oriented products through an East vs. West promotion, pitting Eastern native trout aficionados against their West Coast counterparts. Whichever side of the country sells out the limited-edition reel series first holds bragging rights. After all the reels sell, there is potential donation to native trout conservation amounting to more than $100,000.

“We’re hoping a little friendly competition between East and West might incentivize people to proudly use these reels that represent their native trout and their passion for places where we can return to our roots and focus on the headwater streams that are the lifeblood of every watershed,” said Jeff Wagner, president and CEO of Mayfly Outdoors.

The Animas reel, reintroduced in 2019, is a machined aluminum reel with a ported design that yields both strength and light weight. It has a bell-shaped ultra-large arbor, maintenance-free quick release spool, heavily knurled drag knob, composite disk drag system, and a ultralight canvas phenolic handle that gets tackier when wet. The original is available only in black, silver, or olive.

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