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Fishing Reel Reviews
I divided my fishing reel reviews in two main categories:
and
Then I added some subcategories:
...for...
 ...trout fly fishing reel reviews...
And then salt water fly reels (coming soon!) of course!
Moreover, I added a page where you can give your input on reels that you own and use:
... (write a note!It will help us all!)
Not to mention the award winning fishing reel listing which includes the major brands you can choose from.
Furthermore, here are some internal links of related interests:
From: "The American Game Fishes", by different authors, Rand McNally and Company, Chicago and New York, 1892.
Text by B.C. MILAN (the highlights are all mine)
"No Angler's outfit is, complete therefore, without a good
reel, and the better the reel, the more complete his outing
and his summer pleasure will be. As the heart is the seat
of life, and as perfect health depends upon its action, so the
reel is the most important part of an angler's kit, and the
success of his tours depends upon its good behavior.
 Nothing can be more annoying, and I might say heart-rending, than
to have your reel give way at a critical moment, when a
"champion catch" is tugging away at the end of your line; or
equally sad and terrible is it to have a handle drop off or a
screw work out and be lost, when you are far away from
shop and civilization, leaving you helpless as a "condemned
soul without claws," to watch the sport go on and gnash
your teeth in agony.
In order to avoid such misfortunes as above mentioned,
and to furnish the Angler with an article he can depend on,
a great deal of care and time, to say nothing of money, has
been spent to perfect a reel to stand hard use and rough
trips, and stay with him "from start to finish." In this broad
land of ours, a man can find a reel, like everything else, to
fit any purse.
There are many different kinds of reels made, of various
shapes and at various prices; but when you get one because
it is cheap, you must expect a very unsatisfactory affair, and
must prepare yourself for many a troublesome accident; for
a good article cannot be made cheap.
The cheapest is the common spool, with handle riveted
directly to spool-bar; and the bearings of the bar at center
of reel-plates. A good pattern of this form will allow you
to cast fairly well, but when you begin to draw in your line,
the trouble begins, for you lack speed. There are some
styles of this spool made though, tall and narrow; this
increases the diameter, and by mere size causes the line to
be reeled in quite rapidly.
The click-reel is of this style, being a spool with a perma-
nent click attached. This is used only for fly-fishing, vvhere
an easy, free-running reel could not be used, because the rod
is caught above the spool and the line drawn off and whipped
over the water.
Then there is the automatic reel. This implement
handles the fish literally on its own hook, and a sports-man
who loves to feel his fish, and whose blood tingles
when his rod bends and his line cuts the water, who revels
in that honorable, just feeling, peculiar to all true anglers,
when he puts his skill and generalship against the finny
beauty's pluck, endurance and strength, could never use and
enjoy this style of reel.
We have, in the next class, the multiplier. This class is
as numerous as the sands, and the price varies according to
material and workmanship. They are all made after the
same style and upon the same principle, viz: a wheel work-
ing into a pinion, the pinion attached to the spool multiply-
ing twice, four times, or even oftener. Some people are sur-
prised when they hear that a fine multiplying reel costs sev-
enty-five dollars or one hundred dollars; but when we explain
that these extra fine ones are made of coin-silver, with gold
slides and trimmings and jeweled bearings, the price does not
appear extravagant.
The material generally used for their construction is brass,
hard rubber, and german silver. By german silver, is not
meant nickel-plated — for this is only a brass foundation, plated
over with nickel, and after a short service, the latter rubs off,
leaving an unsightly looking surface; but german silver is
hard solid metal, the same color clear through, takes a high
finish, and is about the best material used for making reels.
A perfect multiplier requires as much care in its construc-
tion and as skilled workmanship as the finest watch; and when
you see an announcement that a firm is making an all-machine
article, and have done away with "the old-time hand-made
principle," you had better not go to this firm, for a lasting
companion.
In 1834, fifty-five years ago, I saw the need of a first-class
reel and one that could be relied upon, and that would always
be found in order, I was then at the watch-making business.
I spent several weeks at hard work, and at last finished a
reel of as fine workmanship as I was capable of doing.
This was made of brass. I had hardly finished it, when a
local angler who had experienced much trouble, came in and
at once bought it for twenty dollars. He used it for a long
time, and it proved so easy and so smooth, in operation,
and stood the rough usage so well, that several other anglers
came and ordered duplicates of it. So the "Frankfort, or
Kentucky" Reel was first made.
Those made for local anglers found their way abroad, and
a good trade has been built up on this class of reels. Anglers
have found that a reel that is high-priced at first, proves
cheapest in the end, for those made away back in the thirties,
are good to-day, and have been in constant use ever since
they left the shop. There is only one way to make a pericet
whole, and that is to make each part perfect as you go. In
the first place, you should get your metal rolled hard till it
springs like steel. The caps and plates are then cut from
this. Never should a casting be used; it is too soft, and a
smart fall may break your cap, and render this part of your
outfit useless. Bars are turned from the same hard material.
Next, your gearing must be adjusted so that you feel not a
bump, but a steady roll when the handle is turned and the
weight is put on. The pinions must be of properly tempered
steel, and the wheel of hard-hammered brass. Thus, all
your parts gotten out, they must be put together with
great care, so that when the thing is complete, it runs noise-
lessly and smoothly, yet the spool is free from shake or
vibration.
The secret, in a long-lived reel, is the gearing. This must
be made to absolutely roll. If there is the slightest friction
the evil will continue to grow with use, and soon you will
have a regular coffee mill. This is the part that requires the
greatest skill in its construction.
The truest machinery will occasionally produce an imper-
fect tooth. After we have made our wheels with the latest
and best gear-cutter, also our pinions, every pair is tested
and the least bump or jar is taken off with a file by hand.
This requires experience and knowledge, and herein lies the
superisrity of our hand-made gearing. We expend more
time and labor on our gearing alone than is used to m.ake
a complete machine reel; but after this is done, and done
correctly, you are equipped for a life-time. We make eleven
sizes, from 00 to 9. The 00 is one and one-fourth inches in
diameter, and the 9, three and one-half. Nos. 7, 8 and 9
are for Tarpon-fishing and heavy sea-work, while o and 00
are fancy sizes, and too small for much heavy angling. Nos.
2, 3 and 4 are the sizes most used. We attach a click and
drag so that our reels can be used for bait-fishing, fly-fishing
or trolling.
A reel requires a great deal more care than many of them
receive. We frequently get them in, for repairs, that have
been used ten or twelve years, and that have never been
oiled. A reel is a delicate piece of machinery, and requires
oil and care accordingly, if you would get the best work out
of it. Properly, it should be cleaned and oiled every fall,
after the fishing season is over, and every spring before it
begins. With a little care, one can clean the reel himself,
and save time and money.
First get a screw -driver, small
enough to fit the screws on face-plate, then take the handle
off first, next remove the top screws, then the bottom screws.
Never touch the alarm and rubber screws; let them alone
and they will take care of themselves. They are so arranged
that you can get your cap off and not interfere with the
blocks. So, be careful, for this is where you are likely to
get into trouble, by taking out alarm and rubber blocks and
not being able to put them in properly. It is best, as already
stated, to let them alone. Now you have all the screws out
of the cap, and you find the cap refuses to slip off. See if
you have the rubber off; if you have, that is the cause; for
the rubber block is under a spring that is screwed to the
in-side plate, and holds your cap fast; so slip the bottom, so
that the drag is on. Now try', and if you cannot pull the cap
off put one of the top screws in the outside hole, in the one
it came out of; don't screw it in, simply put it in as far as it
will go, and then tap the head with the butt of your screw-
driver, and your cap will drop off. Now take out the screw
in the end of the top-bar, and your end-plate will come off,
and your reel will be in pieces and ready to clean. Get a
tooth-brush and some alcohol, and clean every part, and
then take a piece of pine, sharpen the end and put in the first
holes at the ends of plate and cap, cut off the lock dirt and
put it in again, and again clean it till the stick comes out
clean. Clean inside of wheel in same way. After you have
your parts all bright, you are ready to oil. The great mis-
take made, generally, is in putting in too much oil. By
doing this, you clog your spool and it will not run. Put one
drop of good sperm oil in the first hole in plate, one in cap,
two on pinion that reel runs on, one on end of drag-pin, and
three on the teeth of the brass wheel at different points.
Now put the parts up just as you took them down, and your
reel is as free-running as when new. Do this every fall and
spring, and a good reel will last fifty years.
No matter how tight-fitting your reel may be, you should
clean and oil it after fishing in salt water and not every day,
but after each salt-water trip, it should be cleaned and oiled,
for nothing injures a reel so much as salt water. It fairly
chews up the steel parts, so the salt water should not be
allowed to stand long on a reel.
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