How to Choose A Fly Reel | MUST WATCH Before Buying

hi Ben here from Trident fly fishing and today we're going to talk about how to choose the right fly reel every single time while choosing a fly rail is a lot easier than choosing a fly rod it can still be daunting and confusing if you're beginning angler and that's why we're making this video today but if you're really really new to the sport you might be a little bit confused about some of the terminology for those of you that fit into that category we've got another video called fly reel Basics with a link in the description below that really goes over in great detail the absolute Basics and Essentials of everything we're going to talk about today from Arbors to drags and more so if you're confused watch that video first now let's get on to how to choose the perfect fly reel and we've got a lot of great beginner content coming out so don't forget to subscribe to our channel so you don't miss out on any of those great videos we're going to talk about five factors that are help you choose the perfect fly reel every single time Factor number one is size you're going to want to match the size of your reel to the size of your rod and the size of your fly line and for us fly fishermen that means matching your line weights so if we take a look at this Ross animus here it's going to say four slash five right on the box and that's going to correspond to a four weight and a five weight line and that's pretty standard as most reels will have two or even three line weights that they'll work for now some other manufacturers don't make it quite as easy as Ross does to determine which size reel you need this hatch for example is called a nine plus which you might think is for a nine weight reel but in fact this reel here is more of a 10 11 maybe even a light 12 weight reel so you're definitely going to want to check your specifications and make sure you've got the right line weights before you decide on which reel to buy now for most of the fly fishing that you're going to be doing and for virtually all the freshwater fishing that's all you're going to really need to think about does your fly line fit on your reel however if you're getting into saltwater fly fishing you're gonna have to start thinking about backing capacity and while we've got a great video that goes into a lot of detail on how much backing you really need for any given situation Link in the box below a quick rule of thumb that's going to save you a lot of time is you're going to need about 150 yards for smaller salt water species and an address species that's going to be your Bonefish your redfish your steelhead things like that and if you're a big game angler you're probably not watching this video anyway but suffice to say you're gonna need a lot more backing than that now the second Factor you're going to want to consider as you're picking out your next reel is weight and by that I mean the physical weight of the Reel and this one's pretty easy for any given size that you've already chosen pick the lightest reel that you can afford lightweight reels create lightweight setups and they're just a lot more fun to fish with take this hearty Ultra click here it's one of the lightest fly reels on the planet and it's going to be perfect for dialing in those two and three weight setups if you've been doing your research on fly reels however you might have come across something called balance and while the forums love to go into lots and lots of detail on balance I'm here to tell you you really shouldn't worry about it and while I've got another Link in the box below that goes into great depth on why you shouldn't care about balance just take my word for it buy the lightest reel you can and that leads us to factor number three which is drag and when it comes to drag you really have only one decision to make and that is where you're going to be fishing if for fishing in fresh water or for other small types of game fish drag is really not much of a consideration click Paul reels like this Hardy are going to be fantastic for those applications even though they have zero drag whatsoever of course you might prefer a drag but let's face it you're not going to be dialing it down to five or six pounds or whatever your reel goes to ever on the other hand if you're fishing in salt water or for bigger game You're Gonna Want a strong sealed drag the perfect example of that is this hatch iconic if you turn this drag all the way down to generate a lot of stopping power you can barely turn this reel and better still this reel is going to be well sealed so it's going to keep all of that salt water out of the inside of this drag and that's going to leave you with a reel that requires virtually no maintenance but you might be asking yourself how do you know if drag is sealed well the easiest way is to go look on the manufacturer's website but let's face it not all sealed drags are created equal so if you want a drag that's really really sealed check the website and then make sure you've got a drag that kind of looks like this with no exposed Parts because if there's nothing exposed there's nothing to corrode and nothing to get water inside of that housing Factor number four is Arbor size and if you haven't watched our fly reel Basics video yet that's going to be this ring right here I like to think of it as the outer edge of the whole inside of a donut and without going into too much math you're going to want to make sure that you've got the largest Arbor that you can afford and we want a large Arbor because that's going to increase our our line pickup and line pickup is going to make a lot of difference for you on the water now if you're a freshwater angler you might be thinking hey I don't really care about that but the truth of the matter is even if you're not fighting really big fish line pickup matters and all you have to do to test that hypothesis is go out make a few casts with your old fluger medalist then reel your line back up then do the same thing on a large Arbor reel it's so much faster and saves you so much time on the water if you are fishing for big game however that large Arbor and that fast line pickup is just going to give you a huge Advantage during that fight and last but not least our Factor number five is actually three mini factors it's look feel and ergonomics you're going to want to buy a reel that you're happy with that looks great and that you're comfortable fishing with for freshwater fishing that's all it really matters for saltwater fishing however I like to have a reel that's got a nice large handle one that's really easy to grip and a drag knob that's easy to grip because if I have to tighten that drag in the middle of fighting a large fish I don't want to be funneling around with it and there you have it now you know how to choose the right fly reel every single time now we haven't gone into spare reels because we've got another video on that but it's also a little bit more of an advanced topic if you still have questions you can give us a call at Trident at 888-413-5211 or email US 24 7 at support tridentflyfishing.com and we'll help you dial in the perfect reel for you don't forget to leave a comment in the box below and tell us what your favorite fly reel is I'm Ben thanks for watching we'll see you next time thank you

Channel: Trident Fly Fishing

Views: 16,376

Keywords: how to choose a fly rod and reel, fly reel, best fly reel, choosing the right fly reel, how to choose a fly reel, fly fishing reel setup, fly fishing reels explained, fly fishing reel how it works, cheap fly reel, fly reels, fly fishing reels

Id: J5uCtYGmc8E

Length: 7min 15sec (435 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 03 2023