I wrote up a few with some summaries, see what you think and what your favorites are? With so many out there I think for most it comes down to look, price and drag for the bigger reels.
The good ole Pflueger Medalist !!! The ones that I have used over the years have been trusty, and stood up to a real beating !!! For this poor ole fly fishing cowboy, all that matters is what properly gets the job done, and done right !!!
I used to be an Abel man, but I have since found the Danielsson reels, (They were the manufacturers of the old LOOP reels and had done [COLOR=red]ALL of the manufacturing of the LOOP reels. LOOP only did the marketing, and jacked up the price, and are now made in Korea.) The drags have almost no start-up resistance and are as smooth as silk, while still maintaining the stop anything strength.[/COLOR] DickM.
I love click and pawl reels the most.
My favorite “modern” reel to fish with is the old CFO’s with the click and pawl. English made of course.
As for pretty reels to fish with, my favorites are the old skeleton reels. I just with they were a bit smoother. Great on a cane rod.
I also love my J.A. Forbes Thistle. Great looks, heavy enough to balance a cane rod and smooth as silk click and pawl action.
I too have a soft spot for Pflueger Medalists. I’m working on collecting a sample of each model in good to great shape. So far I have a 1492, 1494, 1495 and 1495 1/2 (round line guard and sculpted pilars, almost 100% finish in great working condition - got it for 3 bucks a few weeks ago).
Anyone familiar with the history of the Medalist: a while back I acquired a spring-and-pawl 1494; I know that the drag version was introduced in 1937, but was the spring-and-pawl version discontinued at the same time?
I do like spring-and-pawl reels and own a few Hardys (LRH Lightweights, Princesses, St. Aidan, St. John, Marquis, Perfect, Marquis Salmon II). Other favorites include the Ross Colorado and the Islander IR as well as the above-mentioned 1494 Pflueger Medalist.
For me the ones that I fish are my obvious favorites. Although for many years my favorite paper weight was my 1993 McNeese A/R Permit reel. Due to a missing part that I had no luck getting from the manufacturer the reel sat dormant, literally acting as a six hundred dollar paper weight. So in the category of pretty, but pretty useless, it took the top spot.
Enter Abel and Tibor, both have been fabulous to own and use. Yet a couple of years ago I decided to thin out the corral and so the Tibor’s being the fewer in number found new homes. As did every Lamson / ULA reel I owned. It was an investigation of Abel’s online parts diagrams that led me to ordering a part from them that got the McNeese up and running again, for next to nothing. Thank you Abel.
So of the twenty plus reels I own, by numbers Bauer would be first ( 3 to 8 weights ) followed by an almost equal number of Abel’s ( 6 to 10 weights ), a distant third would be Orvis ( 6 to 8 weights ). Lastly, because I’d sold so many of them over the years and I believe that like the Gunnison, they are a part of fly fishing Americana. I picked up a Ross Cimarron this year. Now that little reel and it’s click-ity clack-ity drag is flat out fun ( reads: old school ).