It's Friday and this is a light-hearted question, please take it in that spirit...

I love playing fish off the reel, and when doing so I get a thrill from hearing the reel 'sing' as a fish strips off line. For the last few years I have been using Lamson Litespeed's which certainly 'sing', but rather loudly! I have recently purchased a couple of the original Ross Evolution 2's, another member of this forum tells me the sound they make as a fish runs is 'out of this world'. Hopefully I will find out for myself this evening!

My closest fishing friend never plays a fish off the reel, preferring to hand-line (and sometimes coming unstuck in the process when loose line gets caught on bank-side vegetation) personally I feel he is missing out on one of the best sounds in fishing. I notice that many other anglers do likewise. I can't imagine that I am alone in my love of the 'music' a reel makes when a fish is taking line.

If I am not, what in your opinion is the nicest sounding reel you have (or have owned), and what do/did you particularly like about it?

Andrew

I'm like your buddy - I prefer losing fish due to tangled lines

You like noise? check out Z-Reels. They even have a youtube video of the noise

The nicest sounding reel I have is a Hardy Marquis #6 Silent Check. Beautifully silent.

I have my Orvis BBS reels set to silent line-out, sadly there's no way of stopping the clicking on winding in.

Never did understand the 'Wooooooooo' factor of screaming reels, sorry.

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Best Regards

Peter

I to prefer the tangle angle. Even better if you can tread on it and get it wrapped around your leg . Positively gay playing it on the reel, a man plays it by hand .

However, on the odd occasion I've got the line trapped around something and the fish runs off, Hardy reels make the best sound I think. A screaming Princess is reel music.

Chris.

Andrew,

I don't think I'm the one who called the Evo 'out of this world', but I do love my evo's and big games. I don't need the noise and would prefer silent (my 7 wt is) but the evo is quiet enough to not be distracting. The more important thing to me is that it is smooth as silk. For that, the ross reels are sweet. Let us know how you get on with it.

As for reel vs hand, I prefer reel. No tangles, consistent drag, no slop. It is is a small fish with a lot of line out (and I'm fishing a lot of line out) I'll hand him back in so I don't have to strip the line off the reel again, but that's about it for me.

Thanks
Rick

I like to play by hand that way if a fish tears off and manages to get back on to the reel the sing is something really special

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Allan
Only dead fish go with the flow.

Alas, mine doesn't make beautiful "music" just a light clicking sound. I think I've actually lost more fish trying to get them "on the reel" than by having loose line on the ground. I now only play fish off the reel if they take all my loose line. Of course, if I had a reel that made music ... Wagner perhaps ...

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How poor a thing, sometimes I find,
Will captivate a greedy mind - Isaac Walton.

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*****©(

I prefer playing on the reel! Will never forget playing doradoes off the reel in Fujerah, boy do they make the reel sing, just watch your thumb as it can get a nasty whack when they run. Got to go back there hardest fighting fish I have ever had on a fly rod.

Bod

You haven't heard a reel "sing" until you've heard a fish stripping line off of
a Loop Classic . . . . . . . . . Wow, what a noice those reels make, music to any tackle tarts ears

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Illigitimi non Carborandum

I always thought that playing a fish "off" the reel meant playing the fish by hand with the line, and "on" the reel, meant using the reel only to control the fish. Anyone else got an opinion on this.
Billy.