Continued...
Those reels were responsible for a lot of excellent fishing, primarily in fresh water, but also some in the salt. Anyone who has experienced the raw power of a big fish on a fly rod, understands the importance of a good reel. Because fly reels only turn one direction at a time, if something goes wrong, the fight is over and frustration, and exaggerated fish stories, begin.
In most situations, even the best fisherman rarely fight fish that would push an average reel to its limits. There lies the problem. Many people can buy an inexpensive or average reel, beat it up or and never realize the value of a quality reel until they get into the fish-of-a-lifetime. Just this past summer I witnessed one of these situations while fishing for steelhead. As three of were fishing, my friend, fresh off a trip to Alaska fighting silver salmon, hooked into a steelie and just as the reel whine started to peak,it ended abruptly with a "snap" as the fish continued freely downstream with his fly.
As we kindly kidded him about the quality of local fish, he said "I hadn't got into a fish like that for a long time." He had, as was expected, a good reel and one that had landed many salmon up north, but in this case the fish got farther into his line than previous fish and the tangle caused the line the snap. About 30 or 40 minutes later he was back in the water and better prepared. The point of my story is that even with a good reel in the hands of an experienced fisherman, things can go wrong. The odds get worse if you choose a cheap reel.
To be continued
