My wife has MS, and can’t use her left arm or leg. As you can imagine, this makes reeling in her fly rod difficult. She casts well, and fights fish well with her right hand (she is an amazing woman), but reeling is becoming harder. I want to get her a high-quality automatic reel that will reel in her extra fly line with just the push of a button on her right hand. I’ve seen the older models, but they look archaic, and seem way heavy for my newer graphite rods.
Does any company make an automatic reel that is lighter and machined like the modern fly reels we’ve become accustomed to? Does anyone have any other ideas on how to make her fishing time better? Thanks as always,
Jude
Late to bed,
Early to Rise,
Guide all day,
Tie more flies! www.customflys.com
Check out the Vivarelli “automatic” fly reel. It’s not automatic in the old, very heavy sense. There’s no big, coiled spring involved. The reel has a lever, activated by the little finger of the rod hand, that reels up loose line. Since it’s made of an industrial carbon compound it’s also quite light. It’ll take some getting used to for someone used to a regular reel, but I sure like mine.
I believe Dan Bailey has them - but they’re not cheap. Something like $250. At that price I admired but didn’t buy. Googled the Vivarelli name over a period of time and found one at a Canadian store for ~$100. That’ was more like it so I bought it.
I still like it.
And I admire both of you for your perseverance in pursuing the good fishing life.
Thanks for the info Bill. Does the Vivarelli reel in all the line continuously, or do you have to keep pulling the lever up and down to retreive line? Also, would the lever be hard to reach for a woman with smaller hands, and still hold on to the rod well? Thanks,
Jude
Late to bed,
Early to Rise,
Guide all day,
Tie more flies! www.customflys.com