First Fly Rod, Reel and line Questions??

Hello,

I recently purchased my first fly rod, a 5wt 4 piece. Now I need to
find a reasonably priced reel to go with it. Most of my fishing will be
for trout on small to medium sized streams in the Pacific Northwest.
There will also be the occasional lake and pond fishing for trout and
bass.

My questions a

1.) What is a good reel for a college student on very limited budget?
I'd like to keep the price of the reel under $50. I see alot of
pflueger reels priced inexpensively($30). I've also seen A redington
in my price range. I plan on upgrading at some point, so I can have a
back up rod or one for friends to use. My main concern is to be able to
some serious fishing from now until winter.

2) Do I need a large arbor reel? Would you mind explaining what that
is?

3) I've read that a good quality line is more important than the reel,
is this true?
What would be a good line? I can probably drop another 40-50 bucks on
this.

4) Which type of line would you reccomend? Weight Forward or a double
taper.

Thanks for reading all of this and thanks in Advance for any responses,

Dwayne

Erratic Grouse wrote:
Hello,

I recently purchased my first fly rod, a 5wt 4 piece. Now I need to
find a reasonably priced reel to go with it. Most of my fishing will be
for trout on small to medium sized streams in the Pacific Northwest.
There will also be the occasional lake and pond fishing for trout and
bass.

My questions a

1.) What is a good reel for a college student on very limited budget?
I'd like to keep the price of the reel under $50. I see alot of
pflueger reels priced inexpensively($30). I've also seen A redington
in my price range. I plan on upgrading at some point, so I can have a
back up rod or one for friends to use. My main concern is to be able to
some serious fishing from now until winter.

Take a look at the Okuma Sierra reels. I own three of them and have been
very pleased with them.


2) Do I need a large arbor reel? Would you mind explaining what that
is?

I've never used one.


3) I've read that a good quality line is more important than the reel,
is this true?

IMO, yes. Almost everything is more important than the reel. About all
the reel does is hold your line.

What would be a good line? I can probably drop another 40-50 bucks on
this.

4) Which type of line would you reccomend? Weight Forward or a double
taper.

Are you trying to cause trouble? ;-) I prefer to DT. When one end wears
out you can turn it around and use the other end. Two lines for the
price of one. I'm cheap. (You can always cut it in half, too.)


Thanks for reading all of this and thanks in Advance for any responses,


No problem. HTH.

Russell

"Erratic Grouse" wrote in message
ups.com...
Hello,

I recently purchased my first fly rod, a 5wt 4 piece. Now I need to
find a reasonably priced reel to go with it. Most of my fishing will be
for trout on small to medium sized streams in the Pacific Northwest.
There will also be the occasional lake and pond fishing for trout and
bass.

My questions a

1.) What is a good reel for a college student on very limited budget?
I'd like to keep the price of the reel under $50. I see alot of
pflueger reels priced inexpensively($30). I've also seen A redington
in my price range. I plan on upgrading at some point, so I can have a
back up rod or one for friends to use. My main concern is to be able to
some serious fishing from now until winter.

2) Do I need a large arbor reel? Would you mind explaining what that
is?

3) I've read that a good quality line is more important than the reel,
is this true?
What would be a good line? I can probably drop another 40-50 bucks on
this.

4) Which type of line would you reccomend? Weight Forward or a double
taper.

Well, all of the experts (and many of them really are) seem to be busy
elsewhere at the moment, so I'll give you a couple of idaes as a warmup. A
disc drag mechanism is a good thing to have on a fly rell.....not absolutely
necessary for small to medium trout, but good nevertheless. And you never
know when you're going to run into something bigger, right? Okuma used to
put out a reel they called "Sierra" for about what you're looking to pay.
Don't know if they still make it, but it or something comparable would do
you well. A large arbor reel is one on which the minimum diameter of the
spool that the line gets wound on is much greater than that of the standard
reels, say, roughly two to four inches as compared to less than an inch. Pi
x diameter says the large arbor will spool up line a LOT faster. Again, not
necessary. But, it doesn't hurt, either. Weight forward vs. double tapered
is an eternal and eternally silly debate. It really doesn't matter. Can't
help you with brand or model selection.

Thanks for reading all of this and thanks in Advance for any responses,

You're welcome. You'll get a lot of other opinions. Take none of them too
seriously. Fly fishing, like anything else is something that you will
like.....or you won't. Absent some truly bad luck or decision making (I
mean phenomenally bad!) gear selection as a newby will have little to do
with it. Learn to do whatever the equipment you choose will allow you to do
and you can't go wrong.

Oh, and don't be surprised if this discussion goes off on a bit of a
tangent........it's been known to happen.

Good luck.

Wolfgang

Wolfgang wrote:

know when you're going to run into something bigger, right? Okuma used to
put out a reel they called "Sierra" for about what you're looking to pay.
Don't know if they still make it, but it or something comparable would do
you well.

http://www.okumafishing.com/products...rra/sierra.htm

"Erratic Grouse" wrote in message
ups.com...
Hello,

I recently purchased my first fly rod, a 5wt 4 piece. Now I need to
find a reasonably priced reel to go with it. Most of my fishing will be
for trout on small to medium sized streams in the Pacific Northwest.
There will also be the occasional lake and pond fishing for trout and
bass.

My questions a

1.) What is a good reel for a college student on very limited budget?
I'd like to keep the price of the reel under $50. I see alot of
pflueger reels priced inexpensively($30). I've also seen A redington
in my price range. I plan on upgrading at some point, so I can have a
back up rod or one for friends to use. My main concern is to be able to
some serious fishing from now until winter.

You are bound to have some decent flyshops in your area. I'd drop-in on one
of them and look at some of the reels. Or simply Google reels and view
hundreds, if not thousands. I have nothing against Pflueger (sp?), but the
old ones I have are quite heavy and much to heavy for the rods I use to fish
for trout, on small NC streams.

2) Do I need a large arbor reel? Would you mind explaining what that
is?

Not for any trout I could catch on my small to medium streams, but someone
is likely to say otherwise. Large arbors are primarily used for big fish
fishin', as they will take in more line in one turn of the spool than your
standard reels, I believe.

3) I've read that a good quality line is more important than the reel,
is this true?

Yes, IMMHO! You need to know how you plan to fish: dry fly, nymph,
streamers... I primaily use double tapered floating lines of good to
excellent quality, for my dry fly fishin. Some folks like to use a
weight-forward line. If you are nymphing in deep waters or lake fishin',
you may want a sinking line. Sinkin; lines come in varying degrees of sink,
so you really need to know just how you plan to fish. You could do as I do
and by an extra spool for the reel you purchase and line one with floating
line and the other with sinking line.

What would be a good line? I can probably drop another 40-50 bucks on
this.

Cortland is a reputable dealer, as is Orvis. I'm sure others will have many
good suggestions, as well.

4) Which type of line would you reccomend? Weight Forward or a double
taper.

Personally, I'd start with DT, as I think it is more forgiving for the
beginner. It worked for me!

Buy some books on casting, flyfishing, and any other aspects that you might
think will be helpful. See if your local flyshop rents theie videos.
Search the WEB for knot tying sites, fly patterns, casting
instructions...there is a world of good on the internet!

This is a favorite site of many: http://www.sexyloops.com/

If you Google "Flyfishing" you will get approx. 31,000,000 hits, so start
your search early and stay up late!

Op

Thanks for reading all of this and thanks in Advance for any responses,

Dwayne

On 7 Mar 2006 14:47:54 -0800, "Erratic Grouse"
wrote:

Hello,

I recently purchased my first fly rod, a 5wt 4 piece. Now I need to
find a reasonably priced reel to go with it. Most of my fishing will be
for trout on small to medium sized streams in the Pacific Northwest.
There will also be the occasional lake and pond fishing for trout and
bass.

My questions a

1.) What is a good reel for a college student on very limited budget?
I'd like to keep the price of the reel under $50. I see alot of
pflueger reels priced inexpensively($30). I've also seen A redington
in my price range. I plan on upgrading at some point, so I can have a
back up rod or one for friends to use. My main concern is to be able to
some serious fishing from now until winter.

Orvis makes a fairly good beginner's reel, The Clearwater, for under
$40. Also, the Battenkill for about 80. The Redington should also be
good.



2) Do I need a large arbor reel? Would you mind explaining what that
is?

A large arbor reel holds more backing than a normal reel. On a five
weight rod, I don't think you need a large arbor reel. (The arbor is
the part of the reel (spool) that holds the line and backing. Also, a
large arbor reel requires fewer turns of the crank (handle) to bring
in the line.)

3) I've read that a good quality line is more important than the reel,
is this true?
What would be a good line? I can probably drop another 40-50 bucks on
this.

4) Which type of line would you reccomend? Weight Forward or a double
taper.

Sci Anglers, Rio, Cortland all make good lines for about $50. If you
use a double taper line, you can reverse it and use it twice as long
as you would a WF. If you keep it clean (soap and water) and don't
abrade it on rocks, logs, etc, a DT should last you four or more
years. There are those on this forum that will tell you it will last
longer, but they're cheap *******s to begin with.


Thanks for reading all of this and thanks in Advance for any responses,

Your welcome. Good luck. Post what you decide.

BTW, what rod did you buy? Name/model?

Dave

"Dave LaCourse" wrote in message
...
A large arbor reel holds more backing than a normal reel.

I think there are different types of large arbor. If just the center hub is
bigger, it would actually hold less.

"jeffc" wrote in message
...

"Dave LaCourse" wrote in message
...
A large arbor reel holds more backing than a normal reel.

I think there are different types of large arbor. If just the center hub
is bigger, it would actually hold less.

http://p218.ezboard.com/fflyfishingt...picID=35.topic

On Wed, 08 Mar 2006 04:13:48 GMT, "jeffc" wrote:


"Dave LaCourse" wrote in message
.. .
A large arbor reel holds more backing than a normal reel.

I think there are different types of large arbor. If just the center hub is
bigger, it would actually hold less.


Unless it is much wider, as are all of my large arbors.

On Wed, 08 Mar 2006 04:13:48 GMT, "jeffc" wrote:


"Dave LaCourse" wrote in message
.. .
A large arbor reel holds more backing than a normal reel.

I think there are different types of large arbor. If just the center hub is
bigger, it would actually hold less.

I have several large arbor reels (Bauers and Loops) and they hold less backing
than the corresponding small arbor reels for the same line weight. I think this
is pretty typical.
--
Charlie...
http://www.chocphoto.com