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gypsy wrote:

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I've wanted a Hardy Lightweight for quite awhile and these Korean made Hardys and the price that comes with them is tempting. Very Tempting. But after thinking about it awhile I've decided not to buy one. The way I see it is if I spend my hard earned money on a Korean Hardy then I'm not buying the Abel or the Islander reel that I want. At least not this year. Multiply that by the hundreds or thousands of other fly fisherman who decide to buy a Korean Hardy instead of an Abel and pretty soon we're going to see either the north American reel makers go out of business or shift production to the far east. And that would be a sad loss for the fly fishing community as a whole. I like the fact that Abel, Galvin, Tioga, Islander, and other companies make reels by fisherman for fisherman. That means something to me and I'm willing to pay extra for it. I'm no expert on these things but I think if we're not careful where we spend our fishing gear dollars we're going to be left with reels mostly made in Asia and a few high end makers here in North America like Saracione and Bellinger.

I realize of course that a Hardy made in England is an import and that the North American reel makers have to compete against them also. But it's one thing competing against reels made in countries where the work is done by people earning wages similar to their North American couterparts and quite another who earns much much less than employees in developed countries. Although Korea is certainly a devoloped country the average annual income there is (World Bank '07 statistics) $24,700 as opposed to the U.S.A $46,040 and the UK $42,740. Certainly less expensive to have reels built in Korea than England or the U.S.A. If Hardy really wanted to maximize their profits they could have moved manufacturing to China where the average annual income is $2360.

I should make it clear that this isn't a personal bias against Asian made products. One of these days I'd love to buy a Japanese made fiberglass rod and I won't worry too much about it when I do. The average annual income in Japan is $37,670 so making a glass rod there cost comapareable to what it does here in the U.S. From what I've heard from guys on this forum who own and fish Japanese glass these rods are excellent fishing tools and beautifully made. I understand some of the fiberglass rods made in Japan are hand rolled by fisherman for fisherman and I'm a huge fan of that. In fact I love the idea of a guy in Japan rolling the perfect glass blank for Yamame and me fishing that blank on a cold brook trout stream deep in the woods surrounded by the beauty of Maine. I suspect that the guy in Japan who rolled that blank would get a kick out of it too; imagining me knee deep in icy water casting dry flies to beautiful Brook Trout.

Mark