Galvan reels were born out of necessity. Years before the Galvan reel hit the shelves, Boni Galvan, a Sierra trout fisherman by avocation and a machinist by trade, envisioned something more. In 1990, after fishing his home waters, (a tributary of the Tuolumne River called the Clavey River), he went into a fly shop to purchase a better quality reel only to find that he could not afford one. So he began to develop a design of his own: a light, rugged reel with an exceptionally smooth, dependable drag system at an affordable price.
From that design the first Galvan reel was born. Its genesis was in the high mountain streams of California’s central Sierra Nevadas. In 1992, using his machinist’s skills and trout fisherman’s intuition, Boni created the first prototype. This first reel morphed through several configurations until the summer of 1994 when it was ready for distribution. The finished product was one of the lightest, smoothest, simplest and most elegant reels available. And Fly Reels has never looked back.
Twenty two years later, Galvan is still driven by that same voice that whispers to us to keep walking up the river to the next pool, to fish into the dark and never stop striving for perfection. That drive has produced a line of reels they are proud to stand behind and proud to pass on to you. In an industry where boardrooms and bottom lines dictate quality and craftsmanship, Galvan never compromises and their reels echo this commitment. Galvan is a hundred percent family-owned business and their reels are a hundred percent made in America. This is how they make our reels and this is how they ensure that the Galvan reel you are fishing with is of the highest quality precision and craftsmanship, driven by tradition and fueled by passion.
Galvan’s history is a collection of stories: stories of passion, stories of ingenuity and hard work and stories of families.