Choosing the Best Fly Fishing Reel

There are many things to think about when choosing the best fly fishing reel on the market today. Whether the fly fisherman chooses and Sage or an Okuma fly fishing reel, there are still certain other general fly fishing reel factors that must be considered in order to make the appropriate choice. Novice fly fishermen should always consult experienced friends or relatives about their favorite reels and why, even borrowing the fly fishing poles and reels if possible to experience for themselves what they like in different brands and types of reels.

Choices to Make

One choice that the fly fisherman has to make about his fly fishing reel is what type of drag system he wants it to have. There are two basic types of drag systems available on most fly fishing reels. The reason the reel needs a drag system is that it stops the fly fishing reel from being stripped of line when a fish is pulling on it. If the line gets stripped off the reel, then it has to be detangles and reeled back in, which wastes time and fishing. It also helps to give resistance to the line so that when the fish takes the fly there is some tension on the line already, which is very important with larger fish. One type of drag system is silent and called a disk drag system. This one is not as common as the other, spring and pawl system which has a clicking sound as it works. The disk drag system is usually chosen if fishing for larger types of fish while the other, spring and pawl system can be used with smaller fish as well as the larger ones.

Another choice to make about a fly fishing reel is the type of retrieval system that the reel uses, which means the system by which the fly line can be retrieved after it is cast and let out, which determines how quickly the fisherman is ready for his next cast. There are capacity ratings on these retrieval systems for fly fishing reels, which are done by line weight. This determines how much fly line a particular reel can hold on it and the measurement is usually given in yards. There are three basic types of retrieval systems that are used on fly fishing reels. The automatic retrieval system is nice but is most expensive, since it allows the fly fisherman to press a button or flip a lever and the line is retrieved. A multiplying retrieval system is faster than single action but still requires work on the part of the fly fisherman, and single action is most common but also the slowest.