Sixty-three brand guides to fishing tackle and archery — fly rods and reels, tackle and bows — and the groups that own them.

Fishing and archery are sports of heritage names, and many of those names now belong to a few groups. These guides set out who owns each one.

Pure Fishing and its rivals

Penn, Pflueger, Shakespeare and Van Staal are all Pure Fishing brands under Sycamore Partners, while Lew’s and Quantum sit under Rather Outdoors. Shimano, by contrast, is an independent Tokyo-listed company best known for cycling, with fishing tackle about a quarter of its revenue.

Bows and their owners

Hoyt is a division of the Easton-family-owned Jas. D. Easton, Inc.; Bowtech and Diamond belong to Pure Archery Group under JDH Capital; and Bear Archery has been owned since 2003 by Escalade, Inc. Mathews is widely described as privately, family-held.

Still made at home

Winston has hand-built fly rods in Twin Bridges, Montana since 1929, and Lamson machines its reels in Boise.

The fly-fishing houses

Orvis, family-owned since 1856, builds fly rods in Vermont; Hardy has made reels in Alnwick since 1872 and is now owned by Pure Fishing; Sage, RIO and Redington belong to Far Bank; Abel and Ross Reels to Mayfly Outdoors; and G.Loomis to Shimano.

How to use these guides

Each guide covers who owns the name today, where the products are made — by the maker’s own account and, where it differs, by other sources — and the brand’s visual identity. A company’s description of itself is attributed to the company, and where a business has closed we say so plainly. The table at the end gathers the essentials.

Fly fishing

Fly rods, reels and fixed-line brands.

• Winston — The R.L. Winston Rod Company, premium fly rods hand-built in Twin Bridges, Montana since 1929, under new ownership in 2026.
• Van Staal — The super-premium sealed saltwater reel born from Connecticut aerospace machining, now a brand of Pure Fishing under Sycamore Partners.
• Lamson — The Idaho fly-reel brand founded as Waterworks in 1996 by mountain-bike engineers, US-machined in Boise, maker of the sealed conical drag.
• Echo — The Washington fly-rod brand founded in 2001 by competition caster Tim Rajeff, designed in the US and built overseas, with a lifetime rod warranty.
• Tenkara USA — The Colorado brand that brought the Japanese fixed-line method to the US in 2009; rods are made in China, sold on radical simplicity.
• Temple Fork Outfitters — The Texas rod brand founded by Rick Pope, tour-quality performance at a fraction of the price, with a no-fault lifetime warranty.
• Pflueger — The heritage American reel brand from 1880s Akron, Ohio, now made overseas under Pure Fishing and Sycamore Partners.

Reels and tackle

Spinning, baitcasting and saltwater reel makers.

• Shimano — The 1921 Osaka maker, an independent Tokyo-listed giant best known for cycling, whose fishing tackle (the Stella reels) is about a quarter of its revenue.
• Penn — The 1932 Philadelphia reel maker (Otto Henze), a saltwater specialist behind the Senator, now a Pure Fishing brand under Sycamore Partners.
• Okuma — The Taichung, Taiwan tackle company (reported to date to about 1986) whose value spinning, lever-drag and jigging reels sit at the mid-market.
• Shakespeare — The 1897 Kalamazoo maker (William Shakespeare Jr., who patented the level-wind reel), now a Pure Fishing brand and home of the Ugly Stik.
• Lew’s — The baitcasting name of Lew Childre, “Mr. Speed Spool,” whose 1973 Speed Spool reel was revived in 2010 and now sits under Rather Outdoors, beside Quantum.
• Quantum — The baitcasting-and-spinning reel brand (the Benchmark line) that sits under Rather Outdoors alongside Zebco and Lew’s.
• Accurate — The 1990 California maker, run by the Nilsen twins from a machining family, whose two-speed TwinDrag reels are, in its words, assembled and inspected in the USA.

Archery

Compound and recurve bow makers.

• Hoyt — The 1931 St. Louis bowmaker, now a Salt Lake City division of the Easton-family-owned Jas. D. Easton, Inc. (sibling to Easton arrows), and the dominant name in Olympic target recurve.
• Mathews — The Sparta, Wisconsin compound-bow maker Matt McPherson founded in 1992 (inventor of the single-cam SoloCam), widely described as privately, family-held, and the round’s lone brand with no corporate or PE parent.
• Bear Archery — The 1933 Detroit brand founded by the legendary Fred Bear, now made in Gainesville, Florida and owned since 2003 by the public sporting-goods company Escalade, Inc. (not a Bear-family business).
• PSE — Precision Shooting Equipment, the 1970 Tucson compound-bow pioneer Pete Shepley built, reportedly sold in 2023 to the investment holding company Heritage Outdoor Group, though it still trades on its founder heritage.
• Bowtech — The 1999 Eugene, Oregon flagship compound-bow maker, today a Pure Archery Group brand owned since 2022 by the private-equity firm JDH Capital (which also, separately, owns Savage Arms).
• Elite Archery — The Rochester, New York compound-bow brand (behind the tagline “The World’s Most Shootable Bows” and its 2026 Varos flagship), owned not independently but under the archery holding company The Outdoor Group, LLC.
• Diamond — The accessible, grow-with-you compound bow line (the Infinite Edge) that sits beneath Bowtech as the value tier of Pure Archery Group, under the same JDH Capital ownership.

Fly-fishing houses

Orvis, Hardy, Daiwa, Sage, Loop, Islander and Vision.

• Orvis — The American fly-fishing house of 1856, family-owned, building its fly rods in Manchester, Vermont.
• Hardy — The English fly-tackle house of 1872, whose heritage reels are still made in Alnwick, now owned by Pure Fishing.
• Daiwa — The Japanese tackle giant founded in 1955, a Globeride brand whose premium reels are made in Japan.
• Sage — The American fly-rod maker of 1980, building graphite rods on Bainbridge Island, part of Far Bank.
• Loop — The Swedish fly brand of 1983 that pioneered the Scandinavian cast, now part of America’s Cox Enterprises.
• Islander — The Canadian reel maker machining precision fly and mooching reels on Vancouver Island for over three decades.
• Vision — The Finnish fly-fishing brand of 1997, designed in Kellokoski with its tackle made offshore.

Fly reels

Tibor, Abel, Ross Reels, Galvan, Nautilus, Danielsson and Einarsson.

• Tibor — The American big-game saltwater fly-reel maker of 1975, machined in Florida by the Juracsik family.
• Abel — The American premium fly-reel maker of 1980, machined in Montrose, Colorado, under Mayfly Outdoors.
• Ross Reels — The American fly-reel maker of 1973, machined in Montrose, Colorado, and owned by Mayfly Outdoors.
• Galvan — The family-owned American fly-reel maker whose reels are 100% machined in Sonora, California.
• Nautilus — The American saltwater fly-reel maker machined under one roof in Miami, founded by Kristen Mustad.
• Danielsson — The Swedish fly-reel maker of Kurt Danielsson, inventor of the modern large-arbor reel, machined in Sweden.
• Einarsson — The Icelandic fly-reel maker of 2007, machined in Reykjavik, now part of Nám Products.

Rod builders

R.L. Winston, St.Croix, Thomas & Thomas, Scott, G.Loomis, Guideline and Epic.

• R.L. Winston — The American fly-rod house of 1929, split-cane bamboo and graphite handcrafted in Twin Bridges, Montana.
• St.Croix — The American rod builder of 1948, premium rods made in Park Falls, Wisconsin, by the Schluter family.
• Thomas & Thomas — The American fly-rod house of 1969, bamboo and graphite handcrafted in western Massachusetts.
• Scott — The American fly-rod maker of 1973, every rod hand-built in Montrose, Colorado, and sold only through fly shops.
• G.Loomis — The American rod builder of 1982, high-performance graphite made in Woodland, Washington, and owned by Shimano.
• Guideline — The Scandinavian fly-tackle maker of 1993, Norwegian-rooted and Sweden-registered, designed in Scandinavia.
• Epic — The New Zealand fibreglass fly-rod maker (Swift Fly Fishing), FastGlass rods and DIY build kits, studio-built in NZ.

Tackle groups

Abu Garcia, Penn, Berkley, Fenwick, RIO, Redington and Rapala.

• Abu Garcia — The Swedish reel maker of 1921, the Ambassadeur baitcaster, born in a watch factory, now a Pure Fishing brand.
• Penn — The American saltwater reel maker of 1932, the Philadelphia big-game house, now a Pure Fishing brand.
• Berkley — The American line and soft-bait maker of 1937, Trilene and PowerBait from Spirit Lake, Iowa, now a Pure Fishing brand.
• Fenwick — The American rod maker of the early 1950s, the graphite pioneer of the HMG, now a Pure Fishing brand.
• RIO — The American fly-line maker of 1990, the Idaho Falls line specialist, part of the Far Bank family with Sage and Redington.
• Redington — The approachable American fly brand of the early 1990s, designed in Washington, part of the Far Bank family with Sage and RIO.
• Rapala — The Finnish lure maker of 1936, the balsa wounded-minnow, now itself the listed parent Rapala VMC Corporation.

European and Japanese tackle

Pezon et Michel, Ari ’t Hart, Sportex, Hanak, Trabucco, Tenryu and CTS.

• Pezon et Michel — The French fly-rod house of the parabolic rod and Charles Ritz, a heritage name continued as a modern tackle brand.
• Ari ’t Hart — The Dutch machined fly-reel house of Mijdrecht, a Made-in-Holland boutique reel maker now dormant.
• Sportex — The German carbon-rod house from Ockert near Munich, high-modulus blanks backed by a ten-year guarantee.
• Hanak — The Czech competition fly house of 1997, euro-nymphing rods, hooks and tippet from a Czech-nymphing tradition.
• Trabucco — The Italian match-fishing house of 1986, floats, groundbait and rods from a competition angler in Parma.
• Tenryu — The Japanese carbon-rod house of 1961, premium rods built in Nagano, an independent made-in-Japan maker.
• CTS — The New Zealand rod-blank maker of 1999, rolling its own carbon blanks in Auckland for builders worldwide.

Fly fishing

Orvis, Sage, R.L. Winston, Hardy and Abel.

At a glance: who owns the name and where it is made

Taken from each guide’s fact panel, as of October 2026. Ownership and production change; follow the link for sources and detail.

Brand	Origin	Owner	Where made
Abel	See guide	See guide	Made in USA
Abu Garcia	See guide	See guide	Swedish heritage
Accurate	USA (1990)	Nilsen family	Corona, CA
Ari ’t Hart	See guide	See guide	Made in Holland
Bear Archery	USA (1933)	Escalade (NASDAQ: ESCA)	USA (Florida)
Berkley	See guide	See guide	Iowa origin
Bowtech	USA (1999)	JDH Capital (PE)	USA (Oregon)
CTS	See guide	See guide	Made in New Zealand
Daiwa	See guide	See guide	Japan + global
Danielsson	See guide	See guide	Made in Sweden
Diamond	USA (sub-brand)	JDH Capital (Bowtech)	USA (Oregon)
Echo	USA (Washington 2001)	Rajeff Sports	Overseas
Einarsson	See guide	See guide	Made in Iceland
Elite Archery	USA (~2005)	The Outdoor Group	USA (unconfirmed)
Epic	See guide	See guide	Studio-built in NZ
Fenwick	See guide	See guide	USA heritage
G.Loomis	See guide	See guide	Woodland, Washington
Galvan	See guide	See guide	100% made in USA
Guideline	See guide	See guide	Designed in Scandinavia
Hanak	See guide	See guide	Origin undisclosed
Hardy	See guide	See guide	Reels made in England
Hoyt	USA (1931)	Jas. D. Easton (family)	USA (Utah)
Islander	See guide	See guide	Made in Canada
Lamson	USA (Idaho 1996)	Private	USA + import
Lew’s	USA (1949)	Rather Outdoors	Overseas (rep.)
Loop	See guide	See guide	Scandinavian design
Mathews	USA (1992)	Independent (McPherson)	USA (Wisconsin)
Nautilus	See guide	See guide	Made in Miami
Okuma	Taiwan (~1986)	Independent (rep.)	Taiwan/China
Orvis	See guide	See guide	Rods made in USA
Penn	USA (1932)	Pure Fishing	Mixed
Penn	See guide	See guide	Philadelphia heritage
Pezon et Michel	See guide	See guide	French heritage
Pflueger	USA (Ohio 1881)	Pure Fishing	Overseas
PSE	USA (1970)	Heritage Outdoor Group	USA (Tucson, rep.)
Quantum	See guide	Rather Outdoors	Overseas (rep.)
R.L. Winston	See guide	See guide	Twin Bridges, Montana
Rapala	See guide	See guide	Finnish heritage
Redington	See guide	See guide	Designed USA, made abroad
RIO	See guide	See guide	Idaho Falls, USA (lines)
Ross Reels	See guide	See guide	Made in USA
Sage	See guide	See guide	Made in USA
Scott	See guide	See guide	Montrose, Colorado
Shakespeare	USA (1897)	Pure Fishing	Mixed
Shimano	Japan (1921)	Independent	China/Malaysia
Sportex	See guide	See guide	German-engineered
St.Croix	See guide	See guide	Park Falls, WI + Mexico
Temple Fork Outfitters	USA (Texas ~1995)	Private	Korea + TX
Tenkara USA	USA (Colorado 2009)	Private	China
Tenryu	See guide	See guide	Made in Japan
Thomas & Thomas	See guide	See guide	Western Massachusetts
Tibor	See guide	See guide	Made in USA
Trabucco	See guide	See guide	Italian-designed
Van Staal	USA (Connecticut)	Pure Fishing	Undisclosed
Vision	See guide	See guide	Finnish design
Winston	USA (Montana 1929)	L. Robertson	USA

Frequently asked questions

Who owns Penn reels?

Pure Fishing, under Sycamore Partners, according to our guide.

Who owns Bear Archery?

Escalade, Inc. has owned it since 2003, according to our guide; it is not a Bear-family business.

Part of our Sports & Outdoors brand guidelines. See also all collections.