Cue the Coors Light jokes. Cue the corporate collaboration shade. Fly anglers love their purity tests and Ross Reels’ latest in an ongoing series of collaborations with brewing giant Molson Coors Beverage Company is bound to fail several of them. However, what it will also do is raise an estimated $100,000 for Trout Unlimited and — as part of an undeniably cool, added twist — tell you whether the river or stream you’re standing in is cold enough for you to safely fish.
Ross and Coors’ previous collaborations have revolved around the original Coors Banquet beer, the brewer’s original 1873 recipe golden lager whose signature stubby bottle still bears a retro-style label that’s similar, if not identical, to the one the beer was adorned with over a century ago. This latest collaboration, however, is based around Coors’ biggest money maker, one of the best-selling beers in the country, its both well-loved and oft-maligned “silver bullet beer,” Coors Light.
The Coors Light treatment is being applied first to Ross’s Cimarron LT reel, unsurprisingly finished in a luminescent silver, with its drag knob adorned with the Coors Light logo. The reel’s frame also bears the beer’s signature Rocky Mountain silhouette that also serves as an indicator of whether water temperatures are safe to fish for trout by changing color as the temperature changes.
If your mind just conjured up images of the Hypercolor shirt you begged your mom to buy you back in the nineties, you’re not alone. Nor are you off base in terms of the technology behind the reel. Much like your ill-advised 1990s fashion choices, the fly reel uses thermochromic pigments. According to a release by Ross Reels’ parent company, Mayfly Outdoors, “the reel introduces Ross’s industry-first, patent-pending ThermoChromic process, which uses temperature-responsive pigments to shift the reel’s mountain graphics to blue when temperatures drop below 70 degrees.” The company adds, “if the mountains aren’t blue, you probably shouldn’t be fishing that river.”
As noted, the collaboration will also generate $100,000 for Trout Unlimited by contributing additional funding to the non-profit organization’s Embrace-A-Stream grant-matching program, which fuels on-the-ground, volunteer-led stream restoration and conservation efforts. This latest collaboration will bring the total raised for Embrace-A-Stream by the Ross x Coors collaborations to $300,000.
Photo: Mayfly Outdoors.
“Embrace A Stream helps anglers give where they fish and be champions for the rivers and streams they love,” said Jeff Yates, Senior Director of Engagement at Trout Unlimited. “This partnership, and this kind of sustained, multi-year support is essential to TU’s mission to care for and recover rivers across the country for the benefit of the fish and communities that depend on them.”
This new collaboration also introduces a Coors Banquet version of the Cimarron Creek click-and-pawl reel and a Banquet-branded Airlight Aspire fly rod. All three offerings are available via pre-order as of January 15, 2026 — with Ross and Airlite promising more products still to come in the collaboration series.
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