Choosing your reel for fly fishing

By John Xavier


Best Fly Lines focus is on giving you the best tips and tricks for Fly Fishing and to help you improve your fishing game. So with this article we want to discuss the basics of choosing a Fly Fishing reel and which is the right one for what you intended to do.

Fly fishing reels basically do two things. Firstly they store the fly line, secondly they provide drag against a fish as it fights once you land it. The majority are made from aluminium, but you need to be sure to check the quality of the reel - some cast moulded aluminium reels are made cheaply, and can break more easily than solid block models. Beyond that, two different types of reels exist for the fly fisherman: the Spring and Pawl, and the Disc Drag reel.

The Spring and Pawl Fly Reel

This is the most common fly fishing reel. Its advantage is the fact it offers for a quite clean, even pull-out as lighter, far more sensitively-mouthed fish (like smaller sized trout) can draw on the line. Significantly when working with lighter tippets, this sort is a great selection, considering the fact that it shields the tipper as lot better.

The Disc Drag Reel

Here is the more recent variety of reel, made much like a disc brake on a car or machine. These sorts of reels are good for larger species or greater fish, as they can more very easily exert a more robust tension after a much bigger fish has attacked. Their most important disadvantage is that they tend being not as sleek and smooth as the Spring and Pawl reel. For the majority of fishing conditions, this is often probably immaterial. But on certainly smaller panfish species, smaller sized or more cautious trout, the Spring and Pawl reel is probably the way to go.

With only two types of reels to choose from, you might want to consider trialling both to find which one suit you better.




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