A Primer on Fly Fishing Reels

If you are getting into fly fishing, it is easy to lose yourself in the great debate on rods and flies. Not so fast. The reel is just as important, so here is a primer.

The fly fishing reel is a work of art. In fact, the first one was patented in 1874 by the epic master of fly fishing - Charles Orvis. His family has been making fly fishing equipment in one form or another since them. As technology has improved dramatically, reels have also become more sophisticated. That being said, they still are comprised of some fairly basic components.

There is a major difference between fly reels and bait reels. Fly reels require more of a touch on your part. Casting is undertaken by laying the line out while controlling the line with your non-casting hand. It can take a while to get the hang of it, but the important thing to understand is the reel is not really a device that just lets you swing away like you would with a non-fly rod.

The original fly reels were really simple. They served only one real purpose - to bring the line in. They offered no drag, which meant you could do some serious damage to your hands if you snagged a larger fish. A drag mechanism is used to slow or stop the line from feeding out when a fish takes the bait or, in this case, the fly.

As fly fishing has become more popular, people have started looking for bigger game. This created a problem since most fly reels were not really tailored to taking in a beast. If a large fish struck the fly, the line would real out without any way to stop it other than to hold the line or wear gloves. The new reels now incorporate breaking mechanisms that solve this problem. The mechanism create friction on the line to either slow down the line feed or stop it completely. These reels have to be used with specified rods. If you try to bolt one onto a traditional rod, they tend to snap since they are not really designed to carry such loads. At least mine have!

So, what type of reel should you use. It depends. Many feel the new reels with breaking mechanisms are a break from tradition. The answer really lies with you. Give both a try and make your own choice.