Sunday, 05 September 2010 19:34

What if you could sell your fly fishing customers 4 million variations of flies and lures in one?

IN a tough economic year, innovation has been scarce. Yet, a new company has invested significantly in research and development during the recession and come to market with a new tube-based lure system, which appears revolutionary.
More importantly for the industry it is being sold only through a limited number of dealers to help retain margins and reduce discounting. Already in major retailers in the UK including Hardy’s The Complete Angler Store in Alnwick, Border Gunroom at Kelso, Ian Woods and Gamefish in Edinburgh amongst others – the product is now rolling out world-wide with positive reviews in many angling magazines.
The company? Tubeology. And the product, by the same name, is a highly versatile tube fishing system that can create tube flies, surface wake flies and snake flies, convert those to spin flies and also allows creation of spinners and flying ‘c’s.
According to Tubeology, what it has created is so radical that it was kept secret until after the patent was registered to protect what it had developed. The system has accounted for the catching of fish ranging from pike in Bulgaria, salmon in Scotland, trout in England, sea trout in Wales and even mahseer in India during testing.
Tubeology’s system is designed to help anglers can catch more salmon, trout and other predatory fish. Interchangeable weighted or hotspot coneheads allow the angler to fish deep or shallow in slow, fast or coloured water. One Tubeology tube fly gives you 104 variations on the bank creating ultimate flexibility to get that all-important take. The Tubeology design also reduces leverage when a fish is on creating fewer chances to throw the hook.
You might think a product with such flexibility would take up huge amounts of room in your shop and your customers’ tackle boxes. Not so. It’s packed into one small book-sized storage system all weighing less than 1kg.
Founder of the company Andy Kitchener explained: “In creating Tubeology, we calculated that a single tube with the standard weights, spinner blades, spinner attachments and different coneheads in aluminium and brass in up to six different sizes and six different colours could be combined to make over 72,000 combinations! And a standard 48-tube system can provide 4 million variations of lures. “This is the equivalent of 32,000Kg tube flies, spinners and flying ‘c’s at the water’s edge!” The benefits are glaring.
“Tubeology will be a vital asset for all predatory anglers or destination game fishers everywhere. Destination fishermen will find great benefits as they can keep all their lures in their hand luggage, simply putting their hooks, singles, doubles, trebles, barbed or barbless into the aircraft hold, reducing tackle loss at airports.”
So how has this all come about? A brief history lesson. In 1899 Commissioner of the US Patent Office, Charles H. Duell, suggested that they may have to close the US patent office having reputedly said: "Everything that can be invented has been invented.”
Looking at our industry, fly fishing has moved forward in many ways over the past century. Better materials have led to better leaders, tackle, rods and hooks. Ceramics have improved reel braking, carbon fibre has changed rods. However in many ways the industry has not changed, anglers fish with tube flies that have not changed much since the 1800s. Hooks and spinners can trace their origins back over a century. Today anglers put up with plastic tubing and cones from tube fly manufacturers where their manual recommends that they weld them together with a cigarette lighter!
“To get maximum flexibility anglers often arrive at the water’s edge with bags rattling like a scrap-yard, or even worse, when anglers are going on holiday have the big question: “What equipment do we take for those days of snatched and deserved glory and delight and how do we keep under the airline weight limit?” exclaims Andy.
“Mother Nature is unforgiving and unpredictable, anglers could tie 50 flies or make 50 lures, get to the water to find it in flood and need a lure just a bit heavier or a bit brighter. Flies and lures are generally inflexible, anglers swap leaders or reels and lines and flies depending on the water conditions. What the team have done is stepped back, examined the techniques for fishing and articles worldwide including Scandinavian fishing techniques, saltwater tackle and articles by modern innovators like Jens Bursells and old books from Hugh Falkus. This has resulted in the redesign of basic fishing spinners and flying ‘c’s so that they work on the same tubing system as tube flies. Because the spinners and flying ‘c’s ride away from the hook like a tube fly fish have no leverage on the lure to throw the hook.”
By manufacturing spinners and flying ‘c’s around a tube with a screw thread head the Tubeology team have created the ultimate anglers Mecano or Lego, a lure system that can create many types of lures really simply and quickly, even at the water edge a genuine innovation.
There are complete systems and component add-on modules. People will be able to purchase more and more with the Tubeology System, which will benefit partners with incremental revenues and a recurring revenue stream.
“Added to that flexibility the team has created a modular spin fly, a commercial first in the market, a fly can be cast and then adding a spinner blade system to if we want to.”
“The limit is now the imagination of the fly tyer and angler. With our partners we expect a strong but limited partner base world-wide where we can grow business, protect partners revenues and profits and serve the angler well.”

Contact: Tubeology
T: +44 845 401 0005
W: www.tubeology.net