A nice surprise

[Frederick V. C.]

Fished a small local stream recently with my 8' GL3 3 wt. recently and had fun catching those pesky invasive Browns. Wanted a reel for my Diamondback 3/4 but not about to spend the cash for another Lamson or similar. Reasoning that for small stream fishing you really don't need all that, I bought a Maxcatch reel, complete with backing, line and leader. Turned out to be nice match for the short rod, balance point right in the middle of my hand. Also arrived the next day through Amazon. (About 42 bucks)

Field testing ensued today on a well known stream nearby. The water was 60 degrees mid morning and rose a bunch of small stream bred fish despite missing the majority. The reel did just fine though the crap leader was destroyed in short order as my technical skills ranged from impressive to dead on klutzy. The real surprise was when I went into desperate "one more fish and I'll call it" mode; hooked and airlifted a small trout. Upon closer inspection it turned out to be a Rainbow Trout with par markings, 5-6" long. A little further upstream another one took, almost identical. Synopsis: cheap *** reel did fine, rose a lot of fish, caught around a doz. all on top. and generally beat the hell out of this 70 year old body, but life is short so fish hard!

 

[Wild_Trouter]

Bigger surprise for me is that it sounds like you found some wild bows near Coatesville? As for reels on small rods, I don't spend a lot either. They are really a line holder and your prime quarry likely tops out at 12". I roll with Okuma Sierra S 4/5, Pflueger Monarch 3/4 for the small stream fishing. They work just fine and can take a beating when I inevitably bust my ***. I'd rather break one of those cheap reels over one of my Orvis Battenkills.

 

[Kyle]

nice day. you dont need some fancy high end reel to catch 4- 6" fish. i agree. with those fish all the reel is doing is carrying your line. you could catch them without a reel.

 

[Frederick V. C.]

Bigger surprise for me is that it sounds like you found some wild bows near Coatesville? As for reels on small rods, I don't spend a lot either. They are really a line holder and your prime quarry likely tops out at 12". I roll with Okuma Sierra S 4/5, Pflueger Monarch 3/4 for the small stream fishing. They work just fine and can take a beating when I inevitably bust my ***. I'd rather break one of those cheap reels over one of my Orvis Battenkills.

Actually I was about a half hour away still local to me. I've never seen small Rainbows with par markings in any streams near here.

 

[TimMurphy]

Dear Frederick,

I have a Maxcatch 7/8/9 reel on my Piscifun 7wt that I bought to use in a kayak or float tube not being willing to lose a Sage or Loomis rod and a $ 200.00 plus reel. I paid $ 100.00 for the full set up, both were $ 49.00. They work fine and my Maxcatch cassette reel that comes with 3 extra cassettes works fine too.

When fly lines hit the $ 100.00 mark, I figured why waste money on reels that never really get a good tug on them?

You got a nice extra bonus with the midget rainbows today too.

Regards,

Tim Murphy

 

[Frederick V. C.]

Dear Frederick,

I have a Maxcatch 7/8/9 reel on my Piscifun 7wt that I bought to use in a kayak or float tube not being willing to lose a Sage or Loomis rod and a $ 200.00 plus reel. I paid $ 100.00 for the full set up, both were $ 49.00. They work fine and my Maxcatch cassette reel that comes with 3 extra cassettes works fine too.

When fly lines hit the $ 100.00 mark, I figured why waste money on reels that never really get a good tug on them?

You got a nice extra bonus with the midget rainbows today too.

Regards,

Tim Murphy

Tim, on the subject of frugal fly fishing, I started using Maxcatch flouro tippet a few years ago after years of using Orvis Mirage, Rio etc. Slight fall off on strength (according to the manufactures) but 10 bucks for 55 yards is still a deal imo. Haven't had any problems with knots or breakage