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When I learned to fly fish from my dad over 60 years ago, he told me the reel had no function but to store line.
Later as an Orvis store owner, and avid fly fisher, I ran into a lot of people who insisted on having very expensing reels.
I used Hardy’s & Orvis reels for many years. 5 years ago, I noticed a Hardy reel on one of my rods was getting ratty looking, corroded, and beat up. Though it still worked.
I’d seen a lot of cheap, but machined and nice looking reels for a while & decided, what the heck for 40 bucks and bought a Chinese Piscifun reel. That thing was/is as good and smooth as any reel I’ve ever used. Still is and I have them on several of my rods now. They all work fantastic. Light smooth & flawless.
I put that beat up old Hardy on eBay and it brought enough to buy 6 of those reels.
Is this blaspheme? 🙄

For the large majority of trout fishing, a reel is indeed just a line holder and often nothing more. Most trout fishing doesn't require any drag. Most of my trout reels are click/pawl style Abel TRs or Ross Colorados. I have a couple disc drag trout reels on my streamer rods where I have a better chance of tangling into a fish that may need drag, but largely not needed. Click/pawl reels also sound the best to me.

In the salt, a reel is often more important than the rod. Having a quality drag to stop hot running fish is important. Sealed drags seem common, but the gold standard is the old draw bar cork style drags ala Abel, Tibor, etc.

Nope its not. Its up to everyone what they want to fish with or what they are happy with. Just like with rifles and scopes. Some guys arent happy unless they are shooting a top of the line setup for $3500. Other guys are happy as a pig in the mud with a $500 setup. Everyone has different things that satisfy them. Whatever I spend I want to be satisfied with the money spent. Tight lines…

There are alot of low cost serviceable reels on the market. I have 4 ross gunnison on my 4 5 and 6 weight trout rods. I recently bought a hardy salmon 1 for my athos 6/7 switch rod for 80 bucks from FFO in spirit lake. Bought a medalist 7/8 bar stock for 30 bucks including a serviceable 8 weight line and backing

I have more piscifun reels than any other, to include TFO BVKs and Reddings. They are beautifully machined and work fine for my fishing. They have sealed drags and I wouldn’t hesitate to use them on big fish. I have them from 5-10weights.
They are a little heavier than other reels but for the price difference I can deal with it.

Blasphemous? No. They're just reels and your father wasn't wrong about trout reels.

That being said, I work really hard at buying my hunting and fishing (and woodworking etc) stuff that is built in the US or at least friendly countries.

I've never asked but I wonder if Hardy would have rebuilt that reel for a modest cost?

I was in our local fly shop recently. Owner was telling someone who wants to get into fly fishing he needs to drop at least $150 on a decent real. My late stepdad who taught me to fly fish used nothing but a Pflueger reel. He caught a lot of fish in his time.

To each there own as long as you enjoy it. Keep a tight line.

I might add I bought the gunnison on ebay. Look like new for less than 100 bucks.

Bought on ebay a Shakespeare automatic years ago that was new in the box, even had line on ii.....for $25 bucks. Made like the Martins that go back to the 50's I believe. Use it for bream fishing local ponds with poppers, crickets, etc. Smooth, quite, and perfect for way I use it.

https://i.postimg.cc/15bgkMmY/A1-B6-AC36-DF81-426-C-9630-4-C66-A9956481.jpg

I’m also a buy American guy too, all things being even close to equal. It’s getting tougher though.

Ah, the old automatic reels. Dad loved those things. They did balance those old heavy glass rods. And fishing in places where your line was often tangled in weeds, they were nice.

Are any fly reels even made in the US anymore?

I think one or two is assemble here with Korean or Chinese parts.

Abel, Aspen, Nautilus, Tibor, Ross, Galvan, Lamson but in a lot of cases it's only the high end ones that are and I suspect that you're often right about the parts and they are really just assembled here.

I had an Orvis CFO-III break a decade or so ago and sent it back to them. They replaced it and I was shocked to find a made in China sticker on it when the new reel returned. I contacted the fly-shop to express my dismay. The manager was apologetic and said he understood and they sent me one of their limited edition English made one's on the original design. Looking at the Orvis site now I see "made in USA" engraved on the CFO-III so perhaps a change occurred.

It probably depends on what you fish.

My fly fishing is 100% steelhead and browns on Great Lakes tributaries. I need a drag for those steelhead so a reel has some value beyond holding line for me.

I happen to like the Lamson Konic series for such work.

Keep in mind I am at very best a novice to fly fishing but I recently went to Cherokee with some coworkers who are far more experienced with fly fishing than I. I have a maximumcatch (which is the same thing as the piscifun) and one of my coworkers had an orvis battenkill. I used his for a little while because I wanted to see what the difference would be and I honestly didnt notice hardly any difference.

Of course like anything else on this site, pride of ownership does play a role. As far as function goes, I think any reel can get the job done to some degree, but you arent going to wow anybody with the amazon reels.

Yep, as an Orvis store owner, I loved the fly fishing snobs who wouldn’t be caught in a stream with anything less than a Hardy or Orvis high end reel on a high end Winston or Orvis rod. Those guys paid the rent. 😂

As for drags, I’ve rarely used them and I fish salt water and bass here in FL. But the few times I’ve used one, the piscifun drag worked fine.
Tarpon and long fast running redfish put a bunch of stress on a drag, and they worked as good as any high end reel I ever used.

Yes to all of the above. The only fly reels I have ever been disappointed in were the Scientific Angler SA 2 series. Bought two of them in 7-8 size with two spare spools for my first Alaska salmon trip for silvers in the 90's. The drags on those reels were like a disc brake, with cork pads clamped on either side of the disc. Worked really well when dry. If you got them wet, Katie bar the door--they would grab and slip and grab again. Luckily, I was fishing a 10 lb tippet so the grab didnt matter much. The slip was bad, however, and more than once I had to try to palm the rim to slow the fish down. Still have them--never fished them again, but would feel bad about selling them to someone who didnt know their faults.

I’ve got an old Ross Gunnison I bought out of the Sidney, Nebraska Cabela’s Bargain Cave about 25 years ago. Think I paid $40 bucks.
Use it mostly for Bass fishing. It’s been one tough SOB.

For Rainbows and Browns in CO & NM I prefer the Ross Evolution series on most of my Sage Fly Rods

Piscifun, working in Alaska, last summer..

Buy one that balances your rod! and check for warranty.

I like to fish with the old stuff, or gear built like the old stuff. That means, to me a small pile of Hardy reels (the newest one being 40 years old now) to go on the vintage bamboo (and some new bamboo). Even when I took to the stream recently with a delightful 2-wt graphite travel rod that a good friend gifted me, it wore a 60 year old Hardy reel.

Is that snobbish, no because I gain comfort in using them and can't care what other people think. Not being a man of means, I have often "gone without" so as to afford such tackle. (Don't even get me started on the guns in my life.) When I bought my Hardy Perfect back in the 80's, I couldn't afford it but I bought it anyway. Since then I've used it hard, a lot, and it's as good as the day it was made. Aside from it now being worth more than I paid for it, after countless hours on the water, it's a prime example of getting what you pay for. Quality lasts.

Sorry, but I avoid knowingly buying anything made in China. I don't care if it's the best thing ever and comes with a cute Chinese hooker to tie my flies.

I would be interested in any reel that had that feature