Selecting a fly reel for trout fishing has become, like many things in fly fishing, a somewhat unnecessarily complicated adventure. The problem is, reels have gotten so well-made, so functional, that you almost have to know what you are looking for. In the old days, reels held the line, your spare hand was the drag, and that was it. Tippets almost always broke when fighting an unusually large trout, and the rare one you did haul in was a great cause for celebration.

Well things are different today. Drag systems have changed, there are retrieve ratios (always buy 1:1 for trout), and everyone carries around an extra spool or two to change lines when conditions change. As is the nature of all information posted on the Big Y Fly Co. web site, we are here to try to simplify the whole thing.

Fly Reels Function

First, lets start off with the function of the reel. Well the first thing a fly reel was ever designed to do, was to hold the line. Keep it in a nice, convenient, compact location, where we can strip it out as we need. Then we wanted the reel to