I am a newbie, have been fly fishing in stillwaters for two yrs,I have had some instruction.I started off with a kit, chinese rod & reel& caught trout.
I have now a Loomis,orvis rods,but still using the Chinese reels.
This year I would like to get a better reel, but which one.
The Ads.dont give any sort of measurement,prices from£20 to over£400.
Any advice most welcome

you cant beat a bit of reeeeeeel porn i love em. sage, waterworks, lamson or if you are a reel tart a nice little ari. jon mcmillan.

In my ( very limited ) experience I'd say most reels are a fancy bit of metalwork to store your line on when not in use, apart from weight and size I can see no difference or not much use for a fancy reel. Then again I've been fishing for ten minutes so I'm sure someone will tell you different.

If the reel works .just use it.
Or do you need a name on it.

Jim

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The Fishermans Friend is the Flirty Fly,Fickle Food for Fleeting Fish.

A lighter weight is better for obvious reasons.

After that, for trout, it's all about being pretty on the rod. The only reason I use the drag on my reel is to stop the line spinning off the reel when I am wandering about.

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Carl

http://www.wandlepiscators.net/
http://teiseangling.co.uk/index.htm

TOMORROW THE TRENT COULD BE YOUR FISHERY! When are YOU going to JOIN THE ANGLING TRUST?

Oi, jon you been in my reel cupboard.
They are right, any reel will do, but it is nice to own a good quality reel.
I, like a good few others on here probably spend too much on reels, but you know what I don't care, it makes me happy.
What size rod is your Loomis and your Orvis, and what lines are you using weight wise?
S

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"A glint of sun has warmed the air,The flies will soon hatch out, To lure and tempt from their deep lair, The bonnie speckled trout." SKB tackle supporter. I love Furled Leaders.

Stillwater = vision koma

Likewise..too much and too many, Steven

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Roy

This last year I got b**llocked off of Young Fox ( Cliff's son ) and the Director of Sales at Pure Fishing for whom I consult - both said why are you using those old reels - answer they ain't busted yet !

So that's Graflites ( Chinese and no longer made ) and Pfleuger 1498's ( American and Japanese versions no longer imported ) both types very old . And a coupla 140D Rimfly Mags ( British ).

As long as they work when you need them ( so that's the odd big fish of the decade - the one you'd better play off the thing ) what more do you need ?
I will tell you that Tarpon needs a Seamaster - and they are serious money !

And yes , in the olden days when Ari was making in one of his incarnations I handled his UK Imports and still have a few - I use them floattubing tho . Like all expensive kit they are very pretty but probably little more use as a functioning reel than something excellently made in the Far East like the Pfleuger Trion series and its expensively badge engineered versions elsewhere available .

Arthur Cove had a penchant for the Mark 2 Wide Drum Speedex ( he liked playing off the reel as he didn't like losing fish in vast amounts of retrieved line round his feet ) nothing got it faster onto the reel than that multiplier for him .
Shakepeare's do a very cheap functional one ( multipler ) in Graphite these days .

But sadly there ain't many reels about now that are European/American only made .

So that's something else we collectively gave away in the drive for cheapness !

Steve Parton

I really like the Hardy Demon 3000 reel I bought last year.
Very easy to use, cheap spools, great drag system & quality precision-machined bling!
Only possible disadvantage is that for some people it may be a tiny bit too heavy.
Mine is on a 9' #5 Demon rod & I've had no such problems though.