If you could design a fly reel, what would you want?

gemiller

gemiller

Member
Joined
Jun 13, 2008
Messages
154
My boss owns a custom fishing reel business as a subsidiary company to his prime company(the one I work for) and makes spinning reels.

He wanted me to do some market research about what people want to see in a fly reel, if anything, that would make the "ideal" fly reel. Basically if you were to design a fly reel for yourself, what features would it have, how big, etc. Also if there's something you thought would be a neat feature whether it is feasible or not what would it be?

One of things I am doing (I'm the one that is going to be designing it at some point) is making a superlight 1-2 weight backpacking reel with no drag (palm only) just to take with in backpacking gear.

I had checked with dkile and made sure he was okay with me asking this here and he gave me the okay to ask since I am not really marketing anything.

Thanks everyone!
 

Take the word Sage off the Sage Click, lower price by $250, and I'm in.
 
gfen wrote:

Take the word Sage off the Sage Click, lower price by $250, and I'm in.
So deep down you do like Sage, just not the price?
 
Gemiller,
After spending a mint on disk drags and buying top of the line reels.Id prefer a Click pawl standard arbor ,and a Large arbor click and pawl would be great too.Im done buying disk drags it will be click and pawl .it theres any drag adjustment id prefer the Hardy perfect knob on the endge of the frame.Colors ,black matte , cerakote drab, and maybe custom name engraving or something,a reel pouch included preferably neoprene. Backing capacity of 50 yards tops.If you cant stop a trout with that and a lil palm pressure pack it in.
Tight Wraps & Tight Lines
Rick Wallace
 
What gfen said. My search for an afordable light in weight reel for light weight lines has proven unsuccessful.

peace-tony c.
 
Dear gemiller,

Let your boss pretend he is Heddon or Daiwa circa 1970 and have him make Hardy Lightweight knock off's like they once did.

Barring that, remanufacturing the 500 series of Sage/Hardy's would be a great idea. As would making a few spare spools for pre-1998 Ross Gunnisons. I'd like to add some lines for the Gunnisons I own but I'm not about to pay as much or more for a spool as I did for the reel when it was new.

Well made gear might go out of style but it rarely fails.

Regards,

Tim Murphy :)

 
Tim,
well said about well made gear
 
I am an artist and I like something with some style to go along with the functionality.
 
Bling. They got gold reels put some diamonds around the rim. I would seriously do this for schits and giggles but you know some goober would buy it.
 
Tim, my heddon hardy clone is one great little reel!!
make somethink along those lines, or something along these!

http://www.westslopefly.com/reels/kineya.cfm
 

Attachments

  • 200.jpg
    200.jpg
    15.7 KB · Views: 1
Biker,
no offense ,but i hate those handles on flyreels.i do however like the pillar look of a bogdan/saracione,peerless, reel.I'd rather have the looks of the perfect or the cfo intermingled with a classy s handle{knob on one end handle eon the other}.
 

Yep, I freely admit I like the looks, feel, and design of the Sage Click series. They're the right blend of modern design and classic appeal.

That said, the Redington drift is a sweet reel in the hand, too.

Honestly, if you want to make reels you're gonna have to do something interesting. There's plenty of low cost dime-a-dozen large arbour designs out there, and frankly, who cares about anymore?

But, clickers, colourful, artful designs in the porting, etc... that's where there is still room to shine.

Don't under estimate the draw of the classic Hardy Lightweight or Orvis CFO. Offering them out with eyecatching options would probably have a far more lasting impact than spooling up BeijengCo's lines to churn out another Allen-style design.

Those guys already that market. They're established. If you want to do it, come in out of left field.
 
I feel like I am on the right track, and all your assistance is great! One of things I told him is I would not be using disc drags at all (prior to this post anyway) because I don't like them ;) It's reassuring that this decision seems like it may be well received.

I thought about staying out of large arbor reels all together, and manufacturing all classic stuff.

Does anyone have any input on my no drag light reel idea?
 

People are suckers for the round line guard, btw. Doesn't need to be agate, even a round metal guard is a real eye pleaser.
 
Hardys or the ones THEY made for others.
Techies can have the Fawncy newbies as they don't fit my idea of a tradition based pursuit.
But then what do you expect from an end of the roader.
 

Define "techies."

If you mean the sort of people who apply the defination "tactical" to their fishing, you may be right.
 
Somebody that thinks a ten foot top of the line special use rod,special leaders,$500 waders,space age looking reels,and videos will allow them to compensate for lack of stream time in pursuit of the wily pea brain.
Harmless to the fish and good for the economy.
Most of us have been there so just funning.
I once got the bright idea of using bass anglers type of plastic worms on my fly rod-they are artificials'-
turns out the trout were fallfish.
 
not sure a no drag reel will work without click and pawl or something kind of spool check mechinism.Remeber if the line feeds out to fast you will know cuss words you never heard before=birdsnests suck. gotta have some sort of overspool check,thats why click and pawl is currently the least lil drag you can use or buy.
 
gemiller, check your PM's please... thanks
 
Dear biker,

I had a Heddon 125 for a while but I sold it. It was a really nice Hardy knock off.

Dear gemiller,

A lightweight multiplier reel light the smaller Hardy Princess version would be nice too. My buddy has one on his 5 weight and it's a really nice reel but they are getting much harder to find.

Regards,

Tim Murphy :)
 
Back
Top