Here's my review of the Allen & Co "XL" Fly Reel:

On the Allen & Co Tackle website (http://www.allenflyfishing.com/), they have an "XL" large arbor fly reel that they sell for $75. When I first saw them, I thought they looked similar to the Cabela's SLA fly reels.
Recently, they ran an "email special" for folks who had signed up for their email updates. I'd been looking at the reel anyway, and at the special price, I couldn't pass it up. So, I ordered 2 of of 5/6 wt reels. The arrived last night.
The packaging wasn't fancy (but who needs another reel box?). Each reel came in its own reel pouch.


I didn't specify RT or LT hand retrieve when I ordered. Turns out I was sent one of each. I use RT hand retrieve. Even without instructions, it was a very simple matter to change the LT reel to a RT reel. Took me all of maybe 2 minutes.

You can check their website for a description of the reels features, so I won't duplicate that here. Granted, I won't be able to field test these until we get some open water around here, but here's my initial impressions.

I spooled one of them up with some backing (FYI, I've been told that Allen & Co is/will be selling orange backing line. This is a good thing, as it seems to be getting hard to find lately.) The line below I had purchased elsewhere, however.

The reel feels very solid and sturdy. It has a silent retrieve, and and a very pleasing sound when line is pulled out.
With the drag loosened completely, the spool will give line with fairly minimal pressure, but also isn't going to spin backwards on its own. I played with the drag tension knob a bit, to vary the pull required to release line. It seemed to work just fine. I didn't try to crank it all the way down. I'm sure there's a reason some people might fish with their drag cranked down, but I don't do that, so it did't occur to me to try it until today. Anyway, it seems like there is plenty of drag range to seriously slow even big fish if you want/need to.

In short, it is a good-looking reel that feels very solid. For the price it was hard to pass up, and I'm very glad I picked up a couple.
I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them, with the caveat that I haven't gotten to time/field test them yet.

Here's a couple more pics I took:








Also, I found the info below about Allen & Co, which lends them some credibility with making rods and reels:
Started several years ago making custom bamboo rods for friends. Later started making fly rods in 4pcs, 5pcs, and 7pcs (our travel rod). We also have others make our products in larger volume. After the fly rods got off the ground we started in fly reels. My background is in Tooling and CNC machining. I know and understand what it takes to make a quality product on a CNC machine. It's not just the cutting of the product. It's the design, material selection, tools used to cut the product, how fast the product is cut, and much more.