reels?

[@Clive]

The reel is the least important item imo unless you are going for exotic blue water species. There is however a lot of personal pleasure to be gained from owning a high quality reel even if it is only used as a line holder. As a general knockabout reel the Okuma Airframe is bullet proof, salt water proof and cheap as chips. It has a good drag system too. Not that I needed it for this exotic brown water species from t'Umber

 

[no-one in particular]

The reel is the least important item imo unless you are going for exotic blue water species. There is however a lot of personal pleasure to be gained from owning a high quality reel even if it is only used as a line holder. As a general knockabout reel the Okuma Airframe is bullet proof, salt water proof and cheap as chips. It has a good drag system too. Not that I needed it for this exotic brown water species from t'Umber

View attachment 27045

That looks like a nice reel, I guess lighter than a rimfly. Is that a big Dab or Flounder maybe? caught on a fly!?

 

[@Clive]

I doubt that it is lighter than a Rimfly. It has the cassette type system so you can buy spare spools for it. The fish is a flounder. I used to catch them on brown Woolly Buggers that look like ragworms and a home made lure that resembled a blenny.

 

[no-one in particular]

Great, does look like a ragworm, might make one myself, twitch along a sandy bottom, we get quite a few soles in the summer, might get one of them. cant get ragworms only lug and they are getting expensive, £4 for 10 now and often only frozen.

 

[@Clive]

This is off the web, but I tied something very similar and used them to good effect in the estuaries where I called it a Blenny Fly, and in trout rivers where I called it the Bullhead Fly. It fishes hook point up and doesn't get caught up on debris as much as the Woolly Bugger. It is fished very slow across the bottom.

 

[no-one in particular]

That looks like something I could use, have some shallow sloping sandy beaches, a twitch along the bottom, could pick up anything, interesting. thanks I will investigate.

 

[Philip]

I bought my first rimfly reel back in '73 when I first took up fly fishing.
They have done yeoman service over the years and as said they are "line holders".
I now have three, with no reason in my mind for a reason to change, they work fine!

Thats pretty much my out look too, I still have a couple of them which I got back when i was a kid.

Before those the only reel I had that was big enough to take all the fly line was an old boat fishing multiplier so I used to use that on the little fibre glass fly rod (I am not making this up) ...totally silly but I didnt have anything else.

 

[no-one in particular]

I have three, all marked differently, Leeda, BFR 75 and one just marked Intrepid Rimfly. they all feel basically the same. I think I have another one stashed away somewhere. My only thing against them is they all feel a little heavy on the rod, I would pay more for a lighter one and with a bit more features maybe but these all cost a fiver second hand and that's with fly lines which all seem OK to me. basic reels but they are good enough for what I do which is just basic stuff.

 

[no-one in particular]

I knew I had another one, funny how they are all different, this one is a Intrepid Regular, cannot see any difference to the other Intrepid!