On Wed, 12 Nov 2003 15:24:50 -0800, "Dan" wrote:

I posted here three weeks ago for advice on the subject of my old Fenwick #7
rod and taking up fly fishing. I have been doing some reading to get up to
speed in the interim. Now I want to elicit opinions on a reel comparison
and I figured this would be the place to ask :-) Which reel would you
recommend (for trout) out of these two, an Orvis Clearwater and an Orvis
Rocky Mountain?

Also, I'd like to thank all who posted responses to my original thread.

One guy suggested I find a fly shop with "a couple of scruffy characters
drinking coffee" and have them sell me some line and flies and install the
line for me. Well I went, but I won't be going back. I took my 30-year old
rod and walked into a place in Los Angeles that specialises in fly fishing
and the the experience made we wonder whether I really wanted to take up fly
fishing at all. Now I don't know whether it was because I wasn't actually
waving a credit card at him or because it was nearly closing time, but the
guy looked at me like I was something on the underneath of his shoe. I will
not go back there if I have to drive an extra hundred miles to buy flies
and a reel.

Thanks for letting me vent, and for any opinions on my reel choices,

Dan Hugh-Jones




We've all been there. There's a fly shop about 60 miles north of us, the only
one within about an hours drive. It's in heavy duty tourist country. I've been
in there twice. Both times I was given the once over , followed by the kind of
look I used to get from some of my first wife's rich relatives ( a strange look
combining condescension with antipathy) and then ignored. Phooey on them.

As far as the reels go, the Rocky Mountain is probably a bit heavier than the
Clearwater and may balance your fiberglass Fenwick a bit better. Also it has a
better drag IIRC (the Clearwater still has the plain, unadjustable click and
pawl,right?).

g.c.