ECHO
ECHO is a small, personable company of fly-fisher folk residing in Vancouver, Washington. We are the vision of Tim Rajeff – the culmination of his huge personality and an outlet of both creativity and service to the industry. Currently, Rajeff Sports distributes Echo Fly Rods and Air-Lock Strike Indicators to the world. We strive to provide quality products and customer service to our fellow fly-fishers.
As the founding father of Rajeff Sports, Tim tends to be busier than your average bald guy. When in the office, he spends all his time designing new lines and rods, addressing managerial-type-stuff or helping with customer service. When he’s out and about, he’s usually finding a reason to wet a line somewhere nearby or in far off lands.
Tim’s extensive knowledge of fly rod design and performance stems from his early childhood patronage to the Golden Gate Angling and Casting Club in San Francisco, where he became a young and successful competition caster. Tim won a gold medal in the World Casting Games in single hand distance as well as winning the national overall fly accuracy and distance championship. Tim first began designing rods in 1980, and was one of the first people to use and adapt graphite fly rods in competition casting.
After spending his youth fishing and casting in California and Oregon, Tim’s fishing career took a turn when he took a job working for the Fenwick Fly Fishing School in Montana during 1973. In 1985 he made the trek north and began guiding in Alaska, eventually moving on to develop and build the first fishing camps on Russia’s Kola Peninsula, 60 miles above the Arctic Circle. He spent six years managing these camps before returning to the states in 1994. Upon his return he began working for a premium domestic rod manufacturer, where he worked as head of the engineering department and the Fly Brand Manager. Until 2001, he worked learning the ins and outs of fly rod design and manufacturing.