Thread: New fly fisher - reel advice

Originally Posted by kiwijames

Nope. The drag is pretty important. Possibly the reel is in reverse as many can allow the handedness (not sure that's a real word) set the right way around. Some of the cheap reels do just sound shit. Being graphite will only makemit sound more shit. Palming a reel is a good way to manage a fish but drag just helps keep everything tidy. Shakespeare were a good English brand but I think they went downhill.

Don't think I even saw a fly reel with a drag in my early years. My current fly reel doesn't have a drag. It's a Loop, albeit very old. As someone else said, it's just a line storage device. If I was chasing kingfish or GTs, I'd want a bloody good drag, otherwise, not bothered. Are modern fly reels so smooth that you risk an overrun?