Big Bad Wulff and I are pretty much on the same page. I have yet to find a reel that isn't serviceable for the fishing I do, regardless of price, material, or design. And like him, I've "had some nice ones". (And I believe I still do.)

I only own two reel designs anymore, though I do have different sizes/models of them: Hardy Perfects (including the Bougles) and Hatch Finatics.

For me those two represent the very best in traditional and modern reels. But the Perfects are truly the reels I love. Not because they perform any better. It's purely an aesthetic and functional issue for me, as I love the looks of the Perfects and I've used them for so long that my hand instinctively knows where to go to put finger pressure on the spool. With any other reel design, I'm all screwed up, and have to "think" about what I'm doing should the need arise to add some drag. Being rather "heavy for their capacity/size, and coupled with my propensity to use the smallest reel I can, they also happen to balance really well with the rods I seem to fish more and more these days: Bamboo.

---David