Teeple Gear and Pawl Reels-Simply Perfect

Custom, Simple

This year at Spey-O-Rama I was stoked to win a Leroy Teeple gear and pawl clicker reel, a reel designed similar to a Hardy Perfect. The raw look to the Teeple reel caught my attention as a work of fine art with dedication to craftsmanship. Leroy has been a face in fly fishing for many years and is a certified single and two handed instructor. I met Leroy about 5 years ago when I started practicing for SOR, he was kind enough to give me a few pointers on distance casting that got me going. He also loves fishing floating line with a two handed rod and big water, when he isn’t on the river he can be found crafting reels in his garage. I haven’t fished with the reel yet but waiting for the summer steelhead  to arrive to test it out and listen to the click, click.

How did you get into fly-fishing?
Back in the day I would fish for summer steelhead on the Salmon River in Oregon using bait.  One Saturday while fishing it started to rain, I put on my rain coat that had been in the back of my truck for a while, reached in one of the pockets that had two week old sand shrimp in it and almost passed out from the smell. That’s when I decided, I have had enough of bait fishing. One of my fishing buddies was a fly fisherman and suggests I try his method. After many days of fly fishing without catching any summer steelhead I finally hooked up and never looked back.

Do you have a favorite place to fish.

 In the past I have fished several places in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and B.C.  Some of my favorite places are the Sandy, Clackamas and Deschutes Rivers. Being retired I like to spend month fishing for steelhead in the Lewiston Idaho area too. I Love fishing floating line with a two handed fly rod, big fish and big water.

Poppy shows off a Teeple.

When did you start making gear and pawl clicker reels and what provoked you to start making them?

 About four years ago, one of my fishing buddies challenged me to make a reel.  I did some research and found that a Hardy Perfect is mechanical one of the best, basic reels available and I like things that are very basic, or in other words less is more.

How did you come up this design and where are your reels made?  I heard you make them in your garage...  

 I have always enjoyed tinkering with fly fishing gear, such as tying my own flies, cutting and splicing lines, and wrapping graphite fly rods. After serving as an apprentice with a master bamboo rod builder, Ed Hartzell for a year, I learned how to make bamboo fly rods by the traditional machining processes necessary for building. These processes are rarely used anymore and thats when I decided to start making reels. Now I have a small machine shop in my garage where the reels are built. Ed got my creative juices going.

  

What is differance between your reel vs a Hardy paw clicker?

 The difference is, I use modern materials such as stainless steel for the shaft and screws, high performance plastics for the bushings and gears, and a ceramic coating, or anodizing for exterior finish.The reels are custom made.I like to know what the end use will be so I can tailor it for the angler.

How can people buy your reels?

At this time there is no website, contact me via e-mail leetee23@comcast.net .

 The diameter is 4"