Wherever you fish is the Reel Coast.
Tofino, British Columbia. Traverse City, Michigan. Dutch Harbor. Islamorada. Hilton Head. Marblehead. The Fraser or the Manistee. Salt spray or a crystal mountain stream.
It isn't a place on a map. It's wherever you push off from — and whoever you go with.
Reel Coast Gear exists to outfit that. Every cast, every tide, every adventure.
Built by Anglers, For Anglers
Reel Coast Gear was born out of a shared passion for fishing and adventure. Brendan (Mo) and Brian (Fonger), lifelong friends and avid anglers, spent countless hours exploring coastlines, rivers, and lakes, searching for the perfect catch—and the perfect gear. Mo spent his career in the NHL, and is now nine seasons into hosting Reel West Coast, fishing this coast in every kind of weather. Frustrated by outdoor apparel that couldn’t keep up, they set out to create their own: high-quality, performance-driven clothing built to withstand the elements and keep anglers comfortable, no matter where their Reel Coast is.
Handed Down
This didn't start with us.
Jess Wisler was fishing Michigan water in the 1800s. Then his son. Then his grandson. Then Robert Wildfong Sr., who fished until he died in 2014 at 92. Fonger learned it from him.
Mo’s start came in the early ’80s when his grandpa put a rod in his hands on the dock and taught him patience, knots and how to read the water.
Most people who fish seriously learned it from someone. That’s the part the gear industry tends to miss. It treats fishing as a sport to be equipped rather than something handed down. The photographs on the wall aren’t of the fish.
Jess Wisler, 1857–1932
John Donald Wisler, 1909–1968
Robert Wildfong Sr., 1922–2014
Mo & Grandpa Morrison, 1983
Mo & Grandpa Morrison, 1983
Mo & Grandpa Morrison, 1983
What we set out to build.
The most technical, most comfortable outdoor performance gear we could make — and a community of people who care about the same water we do.
We work from our own experience and from the industry's best guides, designers, and testers. The standard is gear that performs flawlessly on the water and still looks right off it.
We've been focused on sustainability from the start, because we've watched what's happening to our waterways firsthand — microplastics, PFAS, and the rest of it. Reel Coast Gear is built with PFAS-free materials, recycled nylon, plant-based nylon made from the castor bean, and strong wool that the industry had written off.
And we'll stay independent. We answer to the people who buy our gear and fish in it. Never a corporate suit.
Our roots are in the water. The solutions are built on solid ground.
We buy from mills, not middlemen.
Toray. Allied Feather & Down. PrimaLoft. The Merino Company. The suppliers behind the most demanding outdoor brands in the world, working with us directly on materials built for our conditions.
Every spec we cite is published and sourced. We wrote all of it down.
Five percent of all company proceeds.
We founded The Five Whole Foundation ourselves — a US 501(c)(3) supporting sustainable fisheries, species at risk, fragile ecosystems, and the health of our oceans, lakes, and rivers.
Reel Coast Gear donates 5% of all company proceeds to it. Proceeds, not profit, so the number doesn't move when the accounting does. Five percent, every purchase, every year.
Keeping our water clean and our fisheries stocked isn't separate from what we sell. It's the precondition for it. Ecology over economics.