Ted Juracsik, founder of Tibor Reel Corp., with daughter Marianne Papa,
who oversees the fly fishing reel manufacturing business on Congress Avenue in Delray Beach.
Juracsik lives in Boca Raton and spends much of his time fishing from a second home in Chokoloskee.
INSET BELOW: The fly reel that Juracsik made for former President George H.W. Bush.
Photos by Willie Howard/The Coastal Star
By Willie Howard
The factory that builds Tibor Reels — a famous name in the world of saltwater fly fishing — is hidden in a nondescript industrial building off Congress Avenue in Delray Beach.
Tibor Reel Corp. founder Ted Juracsik is a master tool and die maker and lifelong fisherman from Hungary, who started building fly reels after he happened upon fly fishing legend Billy Pate.
Juracsik was running a precision metal parts factory in New York when he met Pate in 1970 during a trip to the Florida Keys.
Pate was lamenting the fact that the drag systems on fly reels of the day were not adequate to handle powerful saltwater game fish, such as the tarpon he battled in the Keys.
So Juracsik returned to his machine shop on Long Island and built a fly fishing reel. He produced the first Billy Pate reel in 1976. It was built, as Tibor reels are today, with a large surface area for the drag — the “brakes” of the fishing reel that slow down fish when they’re hooked and stripping away line.
“I made a couple of reels by hand,” Juracsik said. “I brought them down and he (Pate) liked them. Right away he ordered 100. That’s how it all started.”
Tibor fly fishing reels are named for both Pate and Juracsik. Tibor, pronounced (TEE-bor), means Ted in Hungarian. Some of the Tibor line of reels bear Juracsik’s name; others are called Billy Pate reels in honor of the late fly fisherman, who was inducted into the IGFA’s Fishing Hall of Fame in 2003.
Juracsik moved his company to Fort Lauderdale in 1979. He found a building to house his manufacturing businesses in Delray Beach and moved his company there in 1998.
The Delray Beach company employs 32 people who make fly fishing reels and specialty metal parts for the family’s sister company, Ted Juracsik Tool & Die.
Juracsik is proud of the fact that his reels are manufactured in Delray Beach from start to finish. Only the ball bearings are made elsewhere.
Workers at Juracsik’s factory begin the reel-making process with cylinders of solid aluminum called slugs. The factory includes an anodization room where aluminum surfaces of the reels are prepared for finishing.
Tibor reels are not cheap. They range in price from about $365 to $865. But Juracsik says fly fishing enthusiasts, such as his friend Lefty Kreh, another IGFA Hall of Fame member, appreciate his attention to detail.
The company says its fly reels are maintenance-free and are warrantied for life.
“All of our reels can be used in salt water,” Juracsik said. When people go fishing, they can’t have the reel fail when they go to the end of the world to catch a world record. It’s very important.”
More fly fishing world records have been set — 876 at last count — with Tibor reels than with any other brand, according to the International Game Fish Association, the nonprofit organization that verifies and maintains world fishing records.
Juracsik, 77, is a lifelong angler who grew up fishing the Danube River in his home city of Budapest. He immigrated to New York as a teenager in the late 1950s following the unsuccessful 1956 Hungarian Uprising against Soviet rule and started building metal parts.
Tibor Reels is a family business. Juracsik’s daughter, Marianne Papa, manages the fly fishing reel business. His son, Ted Juracsik Jr., oversees Ted Juracsik Tool & Die, the precision metal parts business.
When his factory was located in Fort Lauderdale in the early 1990s, Juracsik built a reel for former President George H.W. Bush, who enjoys fishing in the Florida Keys.
A few weeks after mailing the reel to the White House in the early 1990s, Juracsik got a call from the 41st president’s personal secretary. He later received a photo and a letter of thanks from the president.
The company says the Bush family has since purchased several Tibor reels.
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