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IMPORTANT
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Beginning
Saltwater Flyfishing: Tackling Up: Reels
Our August 2001 contribution from Nigel Haywood
If you’re going to spend your days fishing around British shores, reels are likely to be the area where the gap between what you need and what you want is at its largest.
What you need is something able to hold enough line of the right size and a reasonable quantity of backing; have a large enough diameter to stop reeling in being a total chore; be corrosion resistant; and be light enough for you to be able to use through a tide. Some sort of check or drag mechanism which can be set to allow fish to take line at a pull of a pound or so is desirable.
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fine when the braking ability of a cork disc is not neccessary |
What you want is a high gloss anodised reel machined from bar stock aluminium, ideally in some really far-out colours, with a drag system capable of smoothly yielding line at any given strength of pull, and of yielding it without causing meltdown over a high speed run of 200 yards.
I happily justify buying the latter on a variety of quite spurious grounds. But really because these reels look nice, are beautifully engineered, and are wonderful to play with during the winter, evoking memories in a way that rods really can’t (they’re too long to swish about in my study, and tend to be rather fragile).
Yet a top quality fly reel isn’t going to let you down. If you are ever likely to go fishing for nasty brutish things in foreign seas, you need them. Fond as I am of my System Twos, I lost faith in them the moment a clicker dislocated itself on the run of a queen mackerel in Mozambique. No harm done, but it shouldn’t have happened, and I had visions of it whirring about inside ready to stick in something at the crucial moment.
But back to our own coastline. I’d go for a reel of 3-4” diameter, holding a 9 wt WF floater (not that you’re going to be using one - at least, not all the time. But it ensures that you can) and 150 yds of 30lb Micron backing. It can be wide arbour, or normal arbour packed with extra backing. The former is lighter, the latter might help if you hook a shark. Though it would take forever to wind in line on a near-empty spindle. Just remember: retrieve rate in a single action (i.e. non-multiplier) reel depends only on the diameter of the spool, and its width from side-plate to side-plate. “Rapid retrieve” is a concept thought up by marketing men. A standard arbour reel of the same external spool dimensions as a wide arbour will, if filled to the same level, retrieve line at the same rate.
I like a wide spool because it stores line in bigger coils, which are easier to stretch out before fishing. If you’re going to use monofil backing on a shooting head, this is especially important. In this case I’d go for 4” diameter at least.
Get something that doesn’t corrode. One day you’ll forget to rinse your reel out at the end of a trip, and it won’t be long before anything that can rust does. I once used a Golden Prince for mullet fishing. Whatever I do to the spool, the click-check cog continues to seep orange. No great structural damage, but not too pleasing aesthetically. Most reels these days are advertised as saltwater proof. Make sure the one you buy really is. Do your research.
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a drag of any sort |
Drags. I’ve had a 3lb mullet take me into my backing. Most other fish in this country have only taken line when I’ve deliberately got them on the reel. I don’t think you need anything dramatic. The best drag is probably your thumb. People have landed all sorts on Loop Traditional reels, which have no drag at all: you tighten up the bearings, which then impose resistance when a fish takes line, but also when you wind in. But there’s plenty of spool to thumb. A variant of this was described by Lefty Kreh, and used commercially by Vivtek reels in South Africa (who bought up all Grice and Young’s tooling for centrepins: the Avon Royal Supreme lives on as the Elops fly reel). This is a piece of leather attached to the reel frame, which you press against the spool rim as it revolves. Simple, and effective.
Otherwise
most disc drags are likely to be good enough. The offset disc used in
Orvis Battenkills, and the calliper used in System Twos and Abu Diplomats
are simple and effective. On high-end reels, the meaty discs, often involving
space age materials, which bear on the back of the spool or the back plate
of the reel, are a step up, providing huge braking surfaces. But you should
ask yourself, how much do you need? In America, where knocking copy is
a way of advertising life, lines like “40% more drag surface than
Brand x” are common. But if Brand x’s drag is entirely adequate,
this is pretty irrelevant. Remember, a lot of very big fish have been
landed on reels with a simple click check, or on Pfleuger Medalists with
holes cut out of their back plates to allow their spools to be thumbed.
A last point on drags. When you put your reel away, make sure the drag
is completely off. Most rely on some sort of compression. If you keep
them tight for long enough, the materials lose their capacity for recovery.
Result: drag gives up at vital moment.
A couple of words on the greatest shibboleth of all, bar stock aluminium. Don’t worry. Sure, it’s nice to think of a reel lovingly machined from a solid lump of metal. But it won’t necessarily be built to greater tolerances (if that matters), or be stronger, or more corrosion resistant. You only need ten minutes with a metallurgist to be convinced. But you do pay a lot more money, as the process is very labour intensive.
Anyway,
while considering the emperor’s new clothes, let’s look at one
more thing. Anodising. I love it. Reels get battered. Baked on paint comes
off very quickly. Anodising doesn’t. But even that makes little real
practical difference: my System Twos have swathes of paint missing, but
no signs of any corrosion as a result.
So what should you buy? I like reels made by BFR, mainly because they’re
made in Falmouth and I like to support Cornish industry. They’re
also excellent value for money, and pretty robust. Any Orvis or SA reel
marked “Made in England” will come from there. And they replaced
the check spring on my System Two with a stronger one instantly: it’s
just a case of finding another queen mackerel. So full marks for customer
service.
There is a huge range otherwise. Other British companies producing saltwater reels include Hardys (Sovereign, MLA) and Youngs (Sea Venture). Loops are excellent, once you’re used to them: light, and with very wide spools. At the top end there are loads of reels. Islanders (made in Canada), and Tibors are worth a look. I’m afraid I have a weakness for Abels, which I use just about all the time. Very expensive, very over-engineered, totally beautiful. And as good in the study as in the sea.
Beginning Saltwater Flyfishing: First, Find your Fish
Beginning Saltwater Flyfishing: Tackling Up: Rods
If you have any questions or comments regarding this article please visit our Saltwater Flyfishing Forum
Nigel
Haywood was brought up on the Cornish coast, and has fished in the sea
for as long as he can remember. He tied his first saltwater fly over thirty
years ago, and over the last ten years has focused almost exclusively
on the fly rod. He is writing a book, provisionally titled Flyfishing
the British Coast for Merlin Unwin