There’s something about classic fly reels.
For years I fished with classic fly reels. While those old reels are still in my collection, they made it out of the rotation for a while. I got focused on catching big fish and got tired of losing them because my reel wasn’t up to snuff.
I started getting interested again after landing a nice steelhead on my buddy Jeff’s hundred year old Hardy. I can’t drop that kind of cash on a reel right now but I have found a few nice old reels on eBay which were undervalued. Some of them for less than twenty bucks.
One of them was so full of dried mud it would barely turn, but after a good scrubbing and some grease it was running like a sewing machine. With that on my mind this post from The Fiberglass Manifesto caught my eye.
Cameron offers some good tips, and links, on cleaning and caring for old fly reels. If you’ve been buying, or just looking at, vintage fly reels it’s well worth a look.
CLEANING CLASSIC FLY REELS WITH THE “BULLDOG TREATMENT”
Louis Cahill Gink & Gasoline www.ginkandgasoline.com hookups@ginkandgasoline.com Sign Up For Our Weekly Newsletter!
Thanks, and, while I wouldn’t go back to a fiberglass rod after almost 70 years of flyfishing (dad gave me a metal flyrod at the beginning), I love my old Hardys just for the noise they make. Sort of a spiritual sound when a fish makes a good run, including a steelhead or salmon on a “double-wide” Hardy Bougle from the 1930s.
Above, I should have mentioned that when cleaning a reel, you need to strip off the line and backing. The site flyanglersonline (FAOL) has a really clever line holder you can make for a few bucks. And, it takes line quickly. Search for “line winder” by Richard A. Lewis.