Welcoming Richard Strolis to The Thomas & Thomas Advisor Team

Richard Strolis has joined the Thomas & Thomas advisor team! For many, this is a familiar name within the fly fishing industry. Richard is an accomplished author (check out his book Catching Shadows here), guide, fly designer, teacher, well-known streamer junkie, and above all gifted angler. Looking at his involvement with the sport, it's easy to see why Richard makes a fantastic addition to the Thomas & Thomas team. His vast experience with all things fly fishing combined with his deep passion for streamer fishing is what really has us excited about his official appointment. Besides being a great fishing ally on the waters we frequently fish (the Farmington and Housatonic rivers to name a couple). Richard has also recently been involved in our product development and testing efforts. Richard knows the streamer game in and out. And because of this, we knew he'd have a tremendously in-depth insight as to what features a serious streamer fisherman is looking for in a rod. Richard has been working with one of our resident rod designers Joe Goodspeed to develop a series of rods designed explicitly for streamer fishing known as the Exocett SS. Richard speaks to his experience developing these with Joe here.

"Earlier this year he asked me if I would be interested in working with him to design a series of streamer and predator-specific rods knowing that streamer fishing is my absolute passion. Safe to say the rest was history and I made several trips a month back and forth to Greenfield to fine-tune and tweak what he was working on. Like I said above, I had been advising Joe on the Exocett SS series of fly rods this year which was a lot of fun. Being a serious streamer fisherman, I felt that it was imperative that this particular series of fly rods had serious lifting power enabling the angler to pick up a sinking head and larger fly out of the water in a single false cast, and place it that fly right back into the water with accuracy. I think we were both very pleased that the final outcome far exceeded our expectations as these rods easily perform those tasks yet also had a great feel in hand with just the right amount of sensitivity and forgiveness in the rod tip for fighting fish. Many other rods have been able to pick up the line in this manner, but they have lacked the sensitivity and comfort that the Exocett SS has. Because fishing streamers is a very demanding endeavor, it was also imperative that these rods are being built for punishment. A lot of thought went into the grips, components, and materials used to build a reliable workhorse for serious streamer angler. "

As you can see Richard's partnership with Thomas & Thomas is a perfect match. Due to several teaching and speaking opportunities, Richard took a short break from guiding and will be returning to his full-time position on the water within the year. We look forward to this as he continues to analyze different fishing styles and the role rod design plays in being successful on the water. We'll be tapping into this knowledge and continuing to work with Richard and use his insights to design world class fly rods for the experienced angler.

 

For more information about Richard Strolis check out his full Advisor profile here.