What do you know about this Orvis reel?

[bigslackwater]

A friend of mine has a thrift shop and hooked me up with a used Orvis Clearwater III reel. It says "made in england" 5/6 line weight. There is no drag. It does have two adjustable clickers so you can make the real operate with one click, two clicks or no click. Very simple. The reel seems very small for 5/6 so I put a bunch of backing on it and put a 2wt line on it. I'm Going to use it with a 6'6" 2wt as my brookie rod. I figure I wont need drag anyway for smaller fish. Does anyone know why this reel doesn't have a drag mechanism? Also, does my plan sound like a good idea?

 

[DGC]

The click is the drag. Many caliper checks are like this, as are many spring and pawl designs which is what you have. The Orvis Clearwater is likely built by BFR (British Fly Reels) which is where Orvis used to make its reels as well as various models of Cortland and probably a few others.

In the old days the idea of the drag was to simply prevent overun, not provide drag, as whatever drag that was applied was accomplished by rod angle and feathering the line in you fingers or against the grip. Frankly, for most of my fishing this is still my preference. If I regularly fished steel, Delaware River 20-inchers, carp or salt, i.e. anywhere a bigger fish may run hot, then a better drag would be a a good idea.

Many spring and pawl designs such as yours copy the Hardy check or are variations on it and do allow you to add or reduce tension, but usually in a limited way. If there is no tension adjustment on your reel, you may be able to rotate the pawls so that the pay out is tighter than wind in, but that would be it unless you fiddle with the springs themselves which is a tricky proposition.

 

[bikerfish]

if it's the reel I'm thinking of, it's the same as the cortland rimfires, and it's a simple, serviceable reel that will give you years of use.
If it's marked 5/6, then yes, it will hold a 5 or 6 with backing. it may not look like it because it's not a large arbor design that so many are used to seeing these days.

 

[Shock]

Click and Pawl reels are great. Just use your palm against the spool rim to increase drag if you need it.

For the clickers (pawls), one should be on and one off. That is how you switch from left hand to right hand retrieve. The pawl should engage when you pull line out not when you are reeling line in.

I "splurged" on a Cortland Rimfly (same reel) when I was in college and it is still in my bag today with a DT 5wt line on it. I use it with my Fenwick Glass rod when I get on a smaller stream. The only issue I had was the foot is riveted on and it came loose after a fall. I just put a little JB weld on the rivet and it was good as new.

Enjoy,

Shock

 

[gfen]

pawl direction influences which is retrieve and which is playout. the bottoms are independently beveled to indicate bias.

each might be set to a different bias, or both may be set in the same bias and turned down to increase or decrease resistance.

in some cases, each spring has a different resistance with no adjustment allowing control through varying the pawl, or pawls, used. your reel is not like that.

 

[bigslackwater]

I took some pics. Thanks for the info. It doesn't seem like I can get the click to only work on the pull and not the retrieve. Unless there is something I'm missing it looks like it has to click in either direction. Depending on which way I set it the click does seem to produce more drag in the pull direction than the retrieve.

 

[bigslackwater]

also It does not say 5/6 like I previously stated...dont know where I got that! The only indication of size is the sticker on the inside, which might have been the line that was last on the spool. In this pic I have WF2F on it.

 

[Shock]

Gfen may know more about the pawl settings than me but there will still be a click both ways just less resistance when reel line in if they are set correctly.

I also have an Orvis Madison which is like yours but has a small amount of drag adjustment via a knob on the backside.

The size was on the foot, in the rivet hole. I believe that the sizes were similar to other Orvis Reels.

III being 4/5 line (3" spool) and IV being 6/7 line (3 3/8").

Shock

 

[gfen]

each spring may have difference resisstance, but in this case likely not. you have either no resistance (both up), half resistance (one down), and full resistance (both down).

observance and experimentation will dictate the direction the pawl(s) must face in to provide more resistance in payout versus retrive.

again, look at the bottom of the pawl, and notice the cuts are uneven. the side that has more cut off offers less resistance when its rolled that way, ergo that is the side tha tyou want to face the "back" of the reel when you retrieve.

 

[ryguyfi]

For all the posting you've been doing lately Gfen... maybe your sig line isn't so applicable... ;-)

 

[bigslackwater]

Thanks for the help! It does say III in it so now I know what size it is... I paid $15 for this reel so I'm pretty happy with it! I think it will do great as a brookie/small mountain creek reel.