"slenon" wrote in message
...
I happened to see one of the Echo reels yesterday. It appears well made.
The fit was good and the spool was quite easy to dismount and remount.
The
drag looked quite adequate in the 6-9 model that I was playing with. The
retrieve was smooth. For the money, I'd say it is worth considering.

The fragility of graphite is noted, as Osmo states. The guy who showed me
the reel uses them for guide customers down in Naples. He seemed to think
they were sufficiently durable.

I did the vast majority of my first fifteen years of fly fishing with a $20
graphite real.....including three seasons as a genuine trout bum in which I
logged roughly a thousand hours per year in the water. I never really liked
it all that much for a variety of reasons, but I still own it and it's still
as functional as it ever was. I can't say the same for some metal reels
that I liked better.

Wolfgang