Drags

I find it interesting that a question about what type of fly reel drags are out there turns into a top end saltwater reel/world record debate.

Once it became clear that SA was going to shelve the Charlton Reel I decided I had better pick one up before they were truly gone. An 8550 w/spey spool for use on one of my big two handers.

The reel is very well made in most respects. However it is done with CNC equipment, it had better be well machined. Compared to a hand made Bogdan, well, there is no comparison. Bogdan wins 20 times over.

But for the purpose of a heavy duty saltwater reel, what does the Charlton bring to table?

A sealed drag. So what? If you are using the reel on a boat there should be no reason for it to be submerged.

Charlton's also have end play in the fancy radial mechanism that serves as the clutch and tool free spool removal. When trying to wind in line you can both feel and hear the spool moving side to side. For the money this reel commands I find this 'flaw' unnacceptable.

My last beef comes down to the drag itself. Yes, it is a beast of a drag. But it is hardly 100% repeatable. Case in point- you tighten the drag 3 or 4 'clicks' from a setting then reduce the drag knob back to the exact original position. The pressure is not the same. It is noticeably different. This 'new' setting inconsistantly moves around. The only way to reproduce the repeatable drag is to back the knob all the way off and then return to the setting. It wouldn't bug me except this is one of the 'touted' features. Something else I have noticed on a few different reels using sealed carbon fiber drag material is that there is quite a bit of start up interia in the low drag range. Not break away torque, but more drag at low RPM's than when the reel starts to get moving. For freshwater fishing this is annoying as the low end drag settings will allow over-run without supplementing a fair bit of palming to compensate.

So its not perfect. From all the hype I expected a bit more.

All my gripes aside this is one potent SW reel with one main purpose in mind: Big Game. But so much better then the other 'top end' CNC made, exposed oiled/greased cork, hand assembled reels that it's responsible for so many world records??? Nope. That has far more to do with the reel's 'status symbol' then all out performance.

William



[This message has been edited by inland (edited 10 May 2005).]

[Jeff Brown]

Inland,

It is obvious you do not understand the mechanics of your own reel. Any side motion of a Charlton is not a flaw, in any event does not exceed .015" or five times the diameter of a human hair. The spool was DESIGNED to float on the 7/8" diameter spindle bearings. Unlike the miriad of open faced cork reels on the market, Charlton did not design the spool to be a component of the braking mechanism. As such the spool is not sucked up against the reel frame to create quasi drag and mask the slop between the spool and bearing diameters. The spool bore in the 8550C is held within 500 millionths of an inch of the bearing diameters. The Charlton drag is it's own precision multi-disk, double sided, full contact disc drag system housed within the reel frame itself. It is driven independently by an internal shaft riding on bearings as large as most makers spool bearings. The shaft is driven by the "fancy" zero lash clutch to which you refer. The feature you call a flaw is what a mechanical engineer would call brilliant. The claim the drag does not noticably repeat flys in the face of every comment ever posted on any board concerning Charlton. The drag settings on a Charlton reel repeats within maximum 5% regardless of the direction the knob is adjusted. An incredible spec when one considers a draw bar reel with which one never knows which lap the drag knob is on due to the endless turns required to change drag settings. In the case you described, 4 "clicks" on a Charlton drag knob represents only a 5% change in drag setting as there are 80 detent "clicks" when adjusting from zero to full drag. If the drag never adjusted at all when "clicking back", it would still live up to this rigorous specification. But what is more amazing is that an angler can "noticably" detect a 5% change in drag. I cannot speak for carbon fibre drags used by other manufacturers, but I can for Charlton. If one can demonstrate that their 8550C exhibits startup/brakaway/inertia (or whatever mis-nomer they chose) drag difference between running and starting dynamic line tension exceeding 3%, I will offer to purchase the reel at fair market value. This includes your reel Inland. I did not try to hijack this thread folks. I only answered in reply when Charlton was mentioned. I believe the comments are germain as Charlton developed a drag system using carbon fibre disks that proved to be the standard by which other makers measure their performance. I own many other reels which utilize different means to produce drag and would hate the thought of parting with any of them. Within their limitations they are all fine reels, Bogdan, Abel, Tibor, Henschel, Steelfin, Loop, etc.. They're just no Charlton in ANY respect. Inland, if you are interested in selling your reel, PM me.

[This message has been edited by Jeff Brown (edited 10 May 2005).]

Jeff,

If my post came across as I was totally disrespecting a Charlton reel, I apologize. They are superb big game reels. Quite possibly the best made to date.

If you would like to discuss this further I am more than happy to talk via email or PM to keep from cluttering the board with a mundane debate over micro details.

William



[This message has been edited by inland (edited 10 May 2005).]