Fly Reels

[dharris1969]

As we all know ther are ton of great fly reels out there. What fly reel would you buy if you only had 150.00 to spend?

[dharris1969]

As we all know ther are ton of great fly reels out there. What fly reel would you buy if you only had 150.00 to spend?

Forgot to add,
Med or large arbor
5wt line

[fish-on-bro]

I like the Redington CD fly reels. Been using them for years in fresh and salt and never had to send one in for repair. If you go to flyshopcloseouts.com you can pick up the CD for 89 bucks. Redington replaced the CD fly reel with the Rise fly reel. The Rise is about 159 bucks. This will give you something to chew on.

Fish-on-bro, out....

[darrin terry]

I disagree with Doc on this one. If going small, like a 3wt on down, standard arbor is fine. On 4-5wt rods, I like at least a mid arbor reel. On 6wt rods and up, large arbor all the way.

So, 5wt rod, I presume for medium to largish waters. Kern at higher flows, Kings, Merced, Stanislaus. Rivers with some larger fish, which may take longer runs on you? See if you can find a Lamson Radius 2. They've been discontinued, but are fantastic reels. Fully machined, incredible drag, mid arbor. And being discontinued can be had for a steal. I picked up one with two extra spools last January for about $220 total, including shipping. I use it on my 4wts, but it is intended for 5/6wt rods.

In fact, here, I'll make it easy. Move quickly. If its still there when I get home, I may buy it.

http://www.sierratradingpost.com/p/2249 ... d6-wt.html

Have fun!

[beachbum]

Lamson reels are my mid price favorite, and the one that Darrin posted is a great deal. I have 2 Lamson reels, and they have been all I wanted out of a fly reel.

[dharris1969]

Is the Lampson Konic lineup any good?

[castaway]

I am really curious about the Hardy Uniqua. Can get em for under 150.

Marryat CMR and Pflueger Trion are both outstanding modern reels. The Marryat is a regular arbor that I use on my 5wt. The Pfluger will never let you down, and is probably one of the best reels dollar for dollar that I have ever seen/used - very smooth mid-arbor, but a tad on the heavy side - you can use the 3/4 model on a 5wt.

That Lamson that Darrin posted looks really nice and light wt. I think the Konic series are the ugliest things I have ever seen.... but beauty is in the eye of the beholder for sure - I know a guy who uses it..never had a problem.

[darrin terry]

Yeah, good reel, but I'd still go with the Lamson or Guru. Being that they are both machined reels rather than cast, they will both be stronger. Besides, you can get the Radius for less than a Konic.

The Konic is cast, supposedly using some new technology that Waterworks-Lamson either develooped or bought, then coated and treated to make it stronger still. It's still not going to be as strong as a machined frame and spool though.

It's your money though.

[dharris1969]

I am really curious about the Hardy Uniqua. Can get em for under 150.

Marryat CMR and Pflueger Trion are both outstanding modern reels. The Marryat is a regular arbor that I use on my 5wt. The Pfluger will never let you down, and is probably one of the best reels dollar for dollar that I have ever seen/used - very smooth mid-arbor, but a tad on the heavy side - you can use the 3/4 model on a 5wt.

That Lamson that Darrin posted looks really nice and light wt. I think the Konic series are the ugliest things I have ever seen.... but beauty is in the eye of the beholder for sure - I know a guy who uses it..never had a problem.

The Konic is ugly for sure! The model at Sierra Trading post looks nice. Going to see if they have one at the store sometime this week. Was thinking of the Ross Flywater....

[darrin terry]

The Lamson Radius 2 is sold.

I am sure you can find it elsewhere though. I bought mine on eBay and paid a little less that one was listed at. Might still can find them there.

Just as well for my sake. I just bought an extra spool for my Galvan Torque T6 last night on eBay for $160 in green. It will go with my red-bronze frame, but I don't care about the mismatch in color. That will just make it easier to know which line I have in hand when rigging up the 6wt, floating or sinking for streamers.

[darrin terry]

Ross make some very good reels, but they have too much plastic in them for my taste. I've never heard of this being a problem, just something I don't like in a reel.

Hmm, $150…I guess I could suggested the Galvan Torque reels. But at over $300 it did seem a bit of a stretch. I've not had any buyers regret though…hmm.

Best of luck.

[midger]

There are lots of good reels for $150 or less, and it all depends on what your goal is. I just fished a Albright GP 3/4 for 3 days. Pretty nice reel for the price--large arbor, disk drag, holds 75 yards of backing plus a DT 3 weight line. Oh, and you could buy 3 of them for the $150 you want to spend. They also come in a 5/6.

Want a brand name one? Looks at the Orvis Battenkills or a Ross CLA. Both nice and around your $150.

Want a nice looking, great functioning stylish reel? Look for a Marryat classic 7.5 or 8.0d. It's a standard arbor, but they sure are sweet reels. They retail for around $325, but often come up on ebay for $150 or less. It's one of my favorite small rod reels (1-5 weights). These are actually my go to reels and I use a 7.0 on the lightest rods, a 7.5 on my 4 and 5 weights, a 8.0 on 5, 6, 7 weights when I need more backing (ie steelheading).

[RiverRat]

Buncha BLING BLING flyfishermen aren't we?

The Konics look better on the rods than in the showroom next to the bling bling reels.



I own the Radius on my smaller rods and they look beat to crud with silver chips and nicks in the black after two years of rock hopping on the Kern but they perform great.

Just bought the Konic for a 10 ft steelhead rod I just finished rebuilding and it performed awesome on the Lower Sac fighting strong fish and will do double duty on my Sage LMB rod. The drag was really smoooth on the big fish. I like the Konics because they aren't shiny and flashy on the stream. One less thing to spook fish.

But hey bling helps catch fish in some parts of the world...France maybe.

shane

[castaway]

Midger,

Could you post some pictures of your marryat classic with the guts exposed. I have the CMR, and they look identical?

I would imagine there is a difference with the drag system. The CMR uses a caliper with a tensioner... I would imagine the caliper pads could wear out over time... but I would be interested in the drag system on the Classic. Is it a cork drag?


Thanks
Bill

[leftfielder9]

Ross reels are amazing. I have the CLA in a 5-6wt and it's amazing. I also have a Lamson and it's good too. Either way you go you'll get a good reel.