About Manic Tackle Project
IT ALL STARTED WRAPPING SOME THREAD TO A HOOK
Rene Vaz, Manic’s founder, got his start as a school kid tying flies for tackle stores. By the time he’d reached University to study fisheries biology he was working in one of those stores, writing and photographing for the leading Australasian fishing magazines, competing as the youngest member of the NZ fly fishing team and teaching fly casting on the rugby field close to his house.
A few years later Rene graduated from University with a Masters Degree with Honours, whilst at the same time become the youngest NZ fly fishing champion and a member of NZ’s 1999 bronze medal winning world fly fishing team.
After University Rene moved to the UK, where he gained certifications in single hand and Spey casting, and also a certified fly dresser where he learnt to teach the art of constructing fully dressed salmon flies. During this time in the UK, Rene worked as an advisor for Europe’s largest Fly Fishing retailer whilst further establishing himself as a writer and photographer for many UK and US publications.
A year later drawn back to NZ’s trout fishing Rene became General Manager of one of NZ’s then prominent rod manufacturers and tackle distributors, where he gained a grounding in rod manufacture and composite material manufacturing, he also sat on development teams for a number of the world’s leading fishing brands. That leads us to 2008 where Rene and his wife Susan founded Manic Tackle Project in their small Auckland garage.
Today Manic distributes the world’s leading fly fishing brands and, although the garage has been outgrown many times over, Manic still operates on its original premise of designing and distributing the best tackle and apparel to make your time on the water a success.
Over time our team has grown not only in head count but skill levels, and although on a day to day basis we all have different roles, we all share a common ground as anglers. That common ground means as a company we see the world and our jobs through the context of fishing, and that view overarches all of our day-to-day decisions.
We understand that as a customer you want value at every price point, great selection created by experts in every field, to be looked after fairly with warranties and to be kept up to date with new products as they come along. On top of this we also love sharing with you our journey as anglers.
Because ultimately, that’s what we all have in common, for us this Manic journey all started the first day Rene wrapped some feathers on a hook, but for you it may be your first trout caught on one of our rods, the first of our fly designs you pick up at your local store or that sweet t-shirt you wear out to show your mates you’re an angler.
Whatever your journey is, know that we are there with you learning and developing just like you, and just like us you can make this wee project we’ve started yours too.