mdraft1 wrote:
Hi everyone,
Thanks you for all of the honest feedback. Despite my silence I have been following the thread with each new post. With a recent turn in the thread to the larger political rhetoric “MAGA” I felt I needed to chime in. Like many here I enjoy fishing and working on rods, in part, as a way to temporarily escape some of the back and forth of what is todays political scene. Regardless of which side you come down on its exhausting. I’m glad that Wayneo has seen fit to remove the personal attacks against Ron and others. I don’t know Ron that well, but a forum for people who love fishing is no place to sling mud. It breaks down community. Community feedback has always been at the heard of my business and so I would like to offer an olive branch. I have no illusion that it will satisfy everyone, here it is: When I move through my current stocks of the Garrison seat I will no longer carry the line and no additional seats will be brought on (I have seen titanium as well as the sideband seats available in other markets). I do appreciate all of the feedback the good the bad, and even the ugly.
Thanks,
Matt
This forum has been off the hinges a bit lately with mud slinging, however sometimes it's earned. There is no doubt that the Garrison style designed or inspired reel seat has been produced for a very long time. What has most of us here upset is the pattern of behavior. In the last week (for those of you with access to instagram) Proof has posted new products with cork bark on the end (Christian's idea), magnets on butt caps for hook keepers (Barclay's idea), and a facsimile of Lemke's Garrison seat (not to mention the blatant copy of Lemke's LC1 that Proof sells as the Atlas).
Proof's style of business is recognizable, copy or steal intellectual property, have it produced by a cheaper supplier, and undercut the original. What surprises a lot of us here is the defense and support of the behavior.
Claiming to appreciate the feedback of the community isn't a sufficient response and not sure what an olive branch will accomplish. This forum is a community of fiberglass fly fishers, product manufacturing, and consumers, and as a community we shouldn't tolerate this behavior.
Dusty