Gear You Need // Hatch Nipper 2

For those of you who appreciate high quality fishing gear, you are undoubtedly familiar with Hatch Outdoors. They are known in the industry for their outstanding reels but make other products that are also worthy of your investment. These products are all designed and manufactured with the same high quality materials and attention to detail as their fly reels. Their newly designed Nippers are what I want to bring your attention to today. Get a pair of the Hatch Nipper 2 and you will have purchased the last pair of nippers that you will ever buy. They are built out of aluminum before being protected with a type II anodization to help battle saltwater conditions. They are also finished with a “misted texture” to improve the grip. Like all Hatch products, they are bomb proof and thoughtfully designed driven by time on the water.

The product retails for $120 and like I said, with this you are getting the last pair of nippers you will ever have to purchase. The material it is crafted with will last forever and my personal favorite part about the nippers, if the blades dull, you can get replacement ones. I see no point in nippers without replaceable blades but like most things in this industry, you get what you pay for. If you want a $20 pair of clippers you can get some but do know that you are getting something that is essentially disposable. Here you are getting a product worthy of your investment. Another pet peeve I have with nippers is when their blades are designed to cut blade point to blade point. This can work well when new but also leads to future alignment issues and will make the product useless once the cutters do not line up perfectly. A better design for a nipper is to have a single blade that cuts against a level surface. Hatch obviously took this into account and designed their nipper to have an anvil style of cutter. This will keep them effortlessly cutting line even after many years of getting banged around on the boat. It also greatly improves the efficiency in cutting materials like braid or backing. When you have a level surface like the the anvil style design of Hatch’s Nipper 2, it allows the cutter to easily sever the individual strands of braid as it basically serves as a flat cutting board. I have personally used the nippers in both fresh and salt water and found them to smoothly cut anything in their path.

Another couple of added features incorporated into the design are a hook eye cleaner for when you got a little careless with that extra epoxy and a “Knot Tension Post”. The Tension Post doubles as a spot to hold your small flies while rigging but also to use while cinching down your knots. Every set comes with a paracord lanyard that is the most easily adjustable lanyard I have used. Available in 4 different colors, they are machined and assembled in Vista California.

There is something to be said about possessing products that you have confidence in and that is how I feel about everything I own from Hatch Outdoors. If I were to describe these nippers in a word, I would pick “Reliable”. They are built to withstand abuse as they will continually to do their job. For more information on the Nipper II, watch the video below or visit your local Hatch Dealer!