My first fly rod had a down locking reel seat. After all it was an old Eagle Claw fiber glass thing in a beautiful shade of Pi** yellow and I was ten years old. I took the old rod for a walk down my old home stream last spring and I can now remember one of the real pains about that rod. I kept unscrewing the ring and the reel would fall off.

As far as I know that is the main reason to have uplocking reel seats. However, it was way cool to fish my old home stream with my first fly rod again. At times I could almost see my old dog Laddy following me down the trail.