![jayL](/data/avatars/m/0/398.jpg?1640368481)
jayL
Active member
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2007
- Messages
- 9,947
I currently use lamson, orvis, flylogic, and Abel. Adding a Ross soon. I have a foreign made tfo mk2 that I like as well.
wbranch wrote:
Swattie87 wrote;
"And I still think an 18" Smallie in big water (which I have hooked and caught) meets, or exceeds the reel testing capacity of a 20-22" wild Trout."
Believe me when I say that a 20" - 22" wild trout caught in a river with a flow of 800 - 1000 cfs is going to run more line, and backing, than any smallmouth on this planet. This isn't dissing smallies, I love them, but they just do not have the running traits of big wild trout.
I have caught a couple dozen 19" - 21" smallmouth in the Susky and while they fought great in terms of pulling (not running) and dogging by turning on their sides and being a bear to get into the boat I have never had a smallmouth run very much line and never , ever, even get close to getting into the backing.
I keep my drag set pretty lightly on my Lamsom Litespeed as I am mostly using 5X or 6X and I've had many 19" rainbows get into the backing in mere seconds. I've hooked 21" inch browns in "big water" that have put me into the backing 2 - 3 times with an initial run of all 90' of fly line and qnother 100' of backing.
Both of these browns put me into the backing in seconds and the bottom fish ran, from where he was hooked, about 200' and after retrieving all the backing and much of the fly line ran out again deep into the backing. So don't ever assume a large trout will not run hard and test the quality of your fly reel.
krayfish wrote:
+1 to WB. Big water trout typically smoke any smallie I've ever caught
The_Sasquatch wrote:
So here's a question. Why do the old Medalists and such hold up for so long? There are guys fishing with reels that are 50+ years old and cost them $25 new. I'm pretty ignorant on reels and the mechanics of it all, so please shed some light.
PS-Last week I was thinking about starting a "reel" thread in the gear section, just to get some insight into the different types of drag, etc.
At risk of dating myself, and sounding like and old fart - I really believe that many things were made better "back in the day"
pete41 wrote:
everything but cars- :-D