Do You Need An Expensive Fly Reel?

[Wildfisher]

Interesting video

[Stonepark]

Short answer .. no but they can be nice. 😀

[arawa]

Short answer .. no but they can be nice. 😀

Agree no; but I am very fond of my Sage Clicks (and I am embarrassed at how many of them I have )

[Wildfisher]

I like a good well made reel too, but truth is for most Scottish fishing and old Condex or Rimfly is all you need.   

[Hill loch gold]

I don't think you need 1 either but personally, i like having a decent reel on the end of my rods.

[Jon]

I fish for several UK species all with specific set ups. I honestly think the reel is far less important when fly fishing for trout than any of the other types of angling I undertake. And I really do mean FAR LESS important.

But.... who doesn't enjoy owning a well engineered, attractive fly reel?

[Wildfisher]

Interesting Jon. I'd imagine a good free running centre pin reel would be very important.

[Jon]

Interesting Jon. I'd imagine a good free running centre pin reel would be very important.

I suspect I'm about to give a very poor explanation of my comments! 

Scenario 1) I'm fishing a dry fly on a river. I cast in front of the fish, it takes it and then I strike. It's a wee trout of about a pound. I don't then really need a reel I can just strip back the line in front of me before landing the fish. A fly reel to me really is just a device to store line on when trout fishing.

Scenario 2) I'm fishing for carp or catfish that weigh anything between 15lb and 80lb. Due to the manner of fishing I need a baitrunner as I may be asleep when the fish bite. I'm then awoken to the situation and I have a fight on my hands with a fish that's much bigger and fights a lot harder. Here I need strong gearing and a decent drag in order to land the fish. Whereas in scenario 1, I could just pull the line back with my own arm etc.

Does that make sense?

[Wildfisher]

Does that make sense?

Perfect sense