Fly Fishing Beginners Guide Fly Reels

So, What do I need to look out for when choosing a Fly Fishing Reel?

When you come to choose your fly reel, you'll need to check that the reel will hold the correct weight of line that you have matched to your rod. All of the fly reels listed on troutcatchers will give you a guide to its fly line capacity along with how much backing line it will take. It's as easy as that really! Other options you need to take in to account is; its weight, the lighter the better! But do not compromise on the materials used - you don't want it falling to pieces when you have that over wintered Rainbow Trout peeling line from your spool!...

And talking of spools, make sure you have the opportunity to purchase 'spares' in the future, if you don't buy them initially. If just buying one spool, I would guess that the majority will load it with floating line, however as your hobby progresses you'll want sinking lines, intermediate lines and so on - your spare spools will hold these lines & make it easy & quick for you to change as required.

Fly Reels – Bit more Techy Stuff!

You’ll find there are two types of Fly Reels that most manufacturers design and stock. Die Cast & CNC machined.....

Die Cast – These are the reels you generally find in the lower price brackets, Die Cast is a mass production process of which molten alloy is placed into a mould. This technique has helped make the cost fly reels drop to today’s prices. Whilst Die Casts gives a great deal more flexibility to design, the negative is they are not normally engineered as well as CNC machined Fly Reels and can be vulnerable to damage if dropped.

CNC Machined – Fly Reels manufactured using this technique are stronger and more lightweight than Die Cast models. They can take a lot more wear and tear. The downside is the expense, the materials and manufacturing process make CNC Machined Fly Reels more expensive, however if looked after should last a lifetime. They are manufactured from a bar of aluminium using computer controlled machines, which produces really top end fly reels. Following this process the Fly Reel parts are anodised to prevent corrosion making them resistant to saltwater.