Mike,
Your Marquis 8/9 reel was discontinued by Hardy and obtaining additional
spools for it may be difficult. Maybe other posters can help. For more info
search Ebay and Yahoo and you'll find 3-4 current and 3-4 past auctions and
descriptions for what fish this reel is designed to catch plus other
references to it I did not see spare spools sold.

Multiple spools are important to a fly fisherman because he can switch from
floating line, to floating tip line to various sinking lines just by
switching spools with pre-wound line and save the cost of buying extra
reels. This allows you to have for example a 9 weight rod with a 9 weight
reel and a 9 weight line which is a matched outfit. Then when you want to
switch from one fish to another all you have to do is to switch spools -
keeping the same rod and reel. It also allows you to easily switch from
floating line fishing to sinking line fishing. It is not time effective on
the bank of a river or lake to sit down and unwind one type of fly line and
wind on another!

Your 8/9 reel is the classic weight for bass and steelhead. It will hold
bass taper fly line and will hold enough backing to handle most fighting
steelies. This means you will not be limited on the size or weight of big
bass bugs or heavily weighted steelhead flies you need to cast. This reel
can also be used for some salmon and sal****er species but is on the light
side for others. It probably also can be downsized to hold 7 weight line
like Forty said and used for lake trout fishing and the big open trout
rivers. It's probably going to be too heavy to match with a light weight
rod to cast small wet or dry flies to trout.

Mike lots of fly fishermen tend to gravitate over time into three main
weight categories for fly fishing. The first is a light weight group for
small rods and small reels. Then the middle weight category is for most
fish and most rods and line weights. The third category is one with the
heavy rods and lines for larger fish and heavier flies. Possibly weights
fall out as follows: light 4-5, middle 6-7 and heavy 8-9. I'm starting my
grandson in the 7 weight category for a variety of reasons but mostly
because it's the easiest for him to learn to cast with a lighter rod and
reel.

My recommendation is:
1. Go to a fly fishing shop and buy a medium priced 7 weight reel, 9 foot 7
weight travel rod and a 7 weight floating line. Go fly fishing for trout,
bass and panfish.
2. Expand your fun by adding spools for sinking tip and sinking lines and
go fly fishing and enjoy and learn.
3. If you can find additional spools for your Marquis and if you choose to
use it instead of keeping it for the memories, go to a fly shop and buy a
high end 9 1/2 foot 9 weight travel rod and go after steelhead and big bass.

Good luck!
John

PS: In 58 years I've NEVER caught a crappie on a fly rod. Perhaps others
can help.



"Mike" wrote in message
om...
OK
On the back of the reel it says:
Across the top: Marquis 8/9
Across the bottom (in cursive style script): Made by Hardy Bros Ltd
England

So what have I got here? Is it something I that can handle bass and
crappie, as well as trout?

Thanks again for the help!

If you guys have any favorite websites and/or books that you think
would be good for a beginner I'd really appreciate it!