Your fly fishing reel does more than hold your fly line.

Like in everything else, quality matters when it comes to selecting the right fly fishing reel.

Using low quality fly fishing reels can cause you to lose the fish of a lifetime. This is especially true when fly fishing with light weight tippets. If your new to fly fishing you might be overwhelmed at the huge selection of fly reels on the market. With prices ranging from $25 to several hundred dollars, you need all the information you can get to make the right selection.

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Selecting a fly fishing reel

With an endless supply of choices on the market in every price range, how do you decide on the fly reel that is best for you? That's a good question. Let's look at the different types of fly fishing reels on the market so you'll be better informed about what you should look for when shopping for a fly fishing reel.

The Drag

The drag on fly reels provide tension on the line. In other words, the drag controls how hard or easy it is for the fish to strip off line. If you only catch small trout or perch, the drag isn't very important. But if you get hooked up with a big Wyoming brown trout (Which can easily happen), the drag becomes a vital part of your success. When a lunker starts pulling line off your reel, the fly fishing reel and it's drag system becomes the most important part of your gear.

The spring and pawl drag fly fishing reel

The spring and pawl drag system is a good choice for most trout fishing. This system allows for light but constant tension as the line is being stripped off the reel, which is ideal when using light tippets. The spring and pawl drag allows the line to be stripped off smoothly, without any jerking. A jerky drag will break a light tippet and cause you to lose fish.

The downside of a spring and pawl drag fly fishing reel is that it is not as effective for handling big fish. If your fishing takes you to places where you have a shot at bigger fish, a disk drag fly reel would be a better choice.

Disk drag fly fishing reels

Disc drag fly reels are an excellent choice, especially for handling bigger fish. like large trout, bass, steelhead, salmon or saltwater fish. The disc drag fly reel is designed to give a smooth, constant pressure on the fly line without locking up and is ideal when catching large fish.

This type of fly reel uses materials that basically act like the brake on your car. A pad inside the reel can be adjusted up or down, this pad applies more or less tension to the fly line. The downside of a disc drag fly reel is that the tension can be a little more uneven. This isn't an issue in most cases. Unless you're using 6x and 7x tippets and fishing for trout where even the slightest change in tension can cause a tippet to break. For most Wyoming fly fishing, a good disk drag fly reel will serve you well.

Now that we've discussed drag systems, let's take a closer look at retrieve systems.

Fly fishing reel retrieve systems

Most fly reels are single action reels. On a single action one turn of the handle makes one complete turn of the spool. The most popular fly fishing reels for trout are single action. And for good reason! They're durable, don't have a lot of parts to break and simple to operate.

Another type of retrieve system is the multiplier. On a multiplier, one turn of the handle might equal three turns of the spool. This kind of fly reel is great when fishing salt water or for steelhead. Fly fishing that requires a lot of line out and dealing with big fish is where a multiplier will shine.

The downside of using multipliers is that they have more parts that can break. For most trout fishing a single action fly fishing reel will be a better choice.

Match your fly reel to the line and rod

When selecting a fly reel you want to buy right size fly reel. The reel should be the correct size for the fly fishing line you are going to use. In other words, a reel designed for 8 or 9 weight fly line is going to be too big and heavy for a 4 weight fly line and fly rod. You'll want the fly rod and reel to be balanced so the size of the reel is important.

Other considerations

Other things to consider might be, are extra spools available? If so are the easy to change. Fishing conditions can change around every bend on the stream. A well prepared fly fisher will have several spools with different types of line ready to go.

You may need to change from floating line to sink tip to get to that lunker you saw laying in that deep pool. Maybe you come across a deep clear lake that will require a full sinking line. Regardless, it's a good idea to carry an extra spool and it should be quick and easy to change.

Since most fly reels are left handed, you might want to make sure the reel can be changed to a left hand reel. Even if you are not left handed, if you intend to let anyone else use your reel, this might be convenient.

Quality

You get what you pay for! This is just as true with fly fishing reels as it is with most things. A high quality reel will last a long time and help you catch more fish. A quality fly fishing reel can make the difference when it's time to land that once in a lifetime trophy trout. Since you never know when that trophy is going to take your fly, consider starting out with a good quality fly reel. You'll be glad you did!

In summary

Now you've got a little background that should make it easier to select a good fly fishing reel. A fly reel that is matched to the type of fly fishing you do and matches up with your other gear.