Marshall Cutchin photo

‘I found this very interesting articale on the web and thought that you all might find it of interest.’

Stuart Illsley.  Eyebrook Tackle Shop

ON A TRIP THROUGH Mississippi, I once saw an elderly man catching catfish using nothing but a coffee can as a “reel.” Strange as it may have looked, his can accomplished a reel’s simplest purpose: it held his line. And for many fly fishermen, this is almost all a reel does. On the other hand, saltwater anglers sometimes need serious stopping power, and many big-game reels look like a brake array on a racecar. Between the coffee can and the engineering marvel is a whole range of technology that many anglers understand only vaguely.

When manufacturers proclaim the virtues of their drag systems in advertisements and catalogs, they toss around terms such as “startup inertia,” and “cork to Rulon,” and “fully sealed,” often without fully explaining what these things are and why they are beneficial to anglers. If you stop to think about it, these terms raise a lot of questions about how reels are built and how they work. I set out to address these questions and more. What I learned may help you the next time you peer into that glass case at the fly shop — you’ll have a better grip on why objects with such a simple purpose vary so much in complexity … and price.

Reel Differences

“Fundamentally, a reel is like a bicycle wheel,” says Waterworks/Lamson’s Ryan Harrison. “You’ve got a hub or arbor in the middle, with a larger wheel around the outside. In bikes, that larger wheel holds the tire, but on a fly reel, it holds line.” And the similarities don’t end there: “If you want to slow down a bike, you’ve got to have a brake, right?” continues Harrison. “Well, a fly reel’s drag is the brake.” And, just as a bicycle brake would flip you over the handlebars if you applied it too quickly, so too will a fly reel’s drag snap your fish off if the drag engages too suddenly.

When a reel is spinning very fast — as it would during a bonefish run — synthetic discs generate a lot of heat, which must be dissipated through the use of cork or by venting heat through the spool. photo by Zach and Lauren Matthews

“So what we need is a smooth brake,” explains Orvis’s vice president of rod and tackle, Jim Lepage. “And there are several ways to get to that point.” Historically, fly reels were designed with a “spring and pawl” drag, which worked by bouncing a triangle of metal (the clicker or “pawl”) along the teeth of a gear on the reel’s spool, tensioned by a small, inexpensive spring (often nothing more than a bendable metal strip pushing against the mechanism). That method accomplished the goal of slowing the spool — and allowed low-cost manufacturing with the stamping technology available at the time — but it didn’t slow smoothly, and the amount of pressure that could be applied was limited. “I was responsible for killing the old CFO click-and-pawl reel,” continues Lepage, “or at least, I gave the order. In reality, people just didn’t buy it when offered a disc-drag reel for the same price.”

Most anglers today are familiar with disc drag, because ever since the late 1990s it’s been the primary focus of reel design and advertising. Fundamentally, a disc drag slows the spool by friction, by applying pressure between two discs, usually one on the spool and one on the frame. That concept, simple as it sounds, is the source of almost all the myriad modern drag designs.

Why so much variation? Because disc drags create a lot of problems, which make for a lot of solutions. The simplest, but by no means necessarily cheapest, disc drag is probably the “draw-bar drag.” A draw-bar drag is characterized by two brake surfaces — often resembling flat, cork (or synthetic) doughnuts — with one on the inside of the spool and the other mounted inside the frame. When the spool is attached to the frame, these two doughnuts meet, and through their center goes the arbor — the central cylinder where you first start winding the line. Having the brake pads go around the arbor maximizes the area available for a braking surface, meaning the drag can be stronger, and distributes the drag surface evenly around the reel, reducing wobble and making the drag smoother.

The cork disc on the Orvis VO2 goes all the way around the arbor, creating a large drag surface, which also helps to dissipate the heat created by the accompanying Rulon disc. photo courtesy of Orvis

When the draw-bar drag is deactivated — that is, when the drag knob is loosened completely — the spool can turn freely inside the frame in both directions, because the pads don’t touch. Crank the drag down, and suddenly the reel goes easily in only one direction. How does that happen? When you twist the drag-setting knob, you are turning a screw, which is shortening the “bar” or central spindle of the reel, thus “drawing” the spool tighter to the frame (hence the name, “draw-bar”). As when you are tightening any screw, the friction between the two surfaces increases depending on the pressure you apply, allowing you to adjust your drag. And where the frame and the spool touch, you’ll find your two braking surfaces making carefully controlled contact to smoothly slow your spool without any breakable gears and pawls.

How come the reel can still turn in one direction when the spool is now sandwiched to the frame? A good question: the entire drag assembly is engineered to turn with the spool, but only in one direction. When the spool tries to go the other way, a clutch engages, locking the frame-side brake pad tight to the frame and forcing the spool side pad to turn against it, under friction, thus generating drag. On some reels, you can hear this clutch bouncing along as an incoming click.

Disc Problems

None of that is very complicated once you get the idea, but reel manufacturers have encountered some problems, especially when the reel is under heavy drag at high speed. The first of those is heat. In higher-end reels, “heat is an issue because it can liquefy the grease and materials around the bushings or bearings, the surfaces the reel turns on,” says Nautilus’s Andreas Mustad. “So we have to develop ways of blocking the heat. Our drag uses cork as a hot-pad. The cork surface backs up our carbon drag, which is strong but generates a lot of heat, and that hot pad bounces the heat back out into the spool itself, away from the bearings. The spool then acts like a giant heat-sink, allowing it to dissipate.”

Another issue with high-performance drags is maintenance, which affects whether the drag can be sealed or open. Ryan Harrison explains: “Cork drag is great stuff: it’s smooth, compresses nicely, and has good friction. But it has a downside too; you have to maintain it.” Cork is actually a tree bark, and cork drags include some rubber bits to hold them together. Cork drags thus require regular applications of an appropriate lubricant to keep the organic material from drying out and cracking. Because it must be maintained, cork must be accessible, requiring an open design, with the drag surfaces visible inside the body. If sand or other material gets between the brake pads, you’ve got a problem.

The standard click-and-pawl design is easy and inexpensive to manufacture, and it provides plenty of smooth resistance for most trout fishing.

As Bauer Reels’ Jon Bauer explains, even water between the pads affects performance. “Any time water gets between spinning, flat discs, it is going to interfere. Most makers address this problem with grease to seal water out or slot designs to channel water away, but it can be a problem.” Many manufacturers have developed sealed drags, with the brake pads contained within a sealed cylinder, usually protected by rubber O-rings. These drags are maintenance-free and are not subject to hydroplaning or grit issues, but in order to be so, they have to sacrifice all materials that might require regular checkups, which means no cork.

Sealed designs allow the entire drag array, including the spool’s brake pad, to stay on the frame; the system is complete only when the spool is reattached and locked back to its brake. Thus, if you pop the spool off, you won’t see the brake surface itself but rather the sealed back of the spool-side pad. Unlike with the cork drags, which open for maintenance, these systems hide their parts. Although the mechanical principle employed by these drags to tighten their brake surfaces is the same as on the draw-bar design, most manufacturers prefer to call them “drum” or “sealed disc” drags. The distinction lies in where the drags keep their brake pads. On a true “draw-bar,” the pads are large discs visible between the spool and the frame. On the “drum drag,” these pads are smaller, contained within the arbor of the reel. As a result, many drum drags lack the sheer stopping power of the draw-bar, although they may make up for it in other ways.

Synthetic-drag reels most often employ carbon, Delrin, or Rulon plastics (or some
combination of these materials) as brake surfaces, backed up by a spring system to maintain tension. Rulon and Delrin are both extremely dense composite plastics, based on fluorocarbon and nylon, respectively. “They last more or less forever,” says Orvis’s Lepage, “and you don’t need to maintain them since they are self-lubricating.” On the other hand, neither one compresses, so the “ramp up” or increase in tension from when the fish begins to take line to when it hits maximum drag isn’t as smooth. That means an increase in “startup inertia.”

What exactly is startup inertia anyway? Any surface that drags, from fly reels to airplane wings, is measured by its “friction coefficient.” A fly reel that has a friction coefficient of zero would have no start up inertia, no resistance to movement, meaning that the second a fish began to take line, the reel would start rotating as smoothly as if it were at top speed. Unfortunately, we know from Physics 101 that objects at rest like to stay at rest, and reels are no different. In fact, no reel has zero startup inertia, although some designs boast very low (almost negligible) numbers. On the other hand, some materials, such as carbon fiber, have high coefficients of friction — good for stopping power, but bad for startup inertia. Designers are constantly balancing these two factors.

Tibor’s Ted Juracsik, an acknowledged guru of cork-reel design, explains cork’s low startup inertia like this: “Cork drag is made of granules, and there are voids between them. Unlike with Rulon or other synthetics, which are solid, [the voids] give the cork somewhere to go when you apply pressure. If you set ten pounds of drag, and the fish hits the reel running, with synthetic he is immediately going to encounter ten pounds of drag — the full setting. With a cork drag, there is a period of ‘ramp up’ when he’ll initially only get five pounds of drag, then seven, then ten, because the cork granules compress into the voids under the initial load, then return to their full size [and drag strength].”

A fully sealed disc drag keeps out water, sand, and grit, plus it requires no maintenance. However, this means the drag cannot use cork, which must be lubricated occasionally. photo courtesy of Nautilus Reels

A solution many manufacturers have hit on is to use both cork and synthetic together. Lepage explains, “Our V02 reel has a cork disc and a Rulon disc, which gives you the smoothness and lubrication of the synthetic along with the low startup inertia and heat dissipation of cork.”

Springs are very important in maintaining drag tension, and not just with synthetics. Cork drags have springs, too, because the cork itself isn’t thick enough to give a wide range of drag settings under its own compression. On many reels (both cork and synthetic), these springs take the form of Belleville washers, little cup-shaped discs that face each other and can be compressed with tension. Other designs use conventional springs under the drag knob. “When you’ve coaxed out your washer or spring tension and pressed them about flat,” explains Lepage, “cork gives you just a little more compressibility, so you get a wider range of drags, although not much.” Synthetics can’t do that, because they aren’t themselves compressible like cork.

So which is better, cork or synthetic? After all, some of what are widely acknowledged to be fine reels, made by the likes of Tibor and Abel, get by without synthetics. The answer is: it depends on how much you’re willing to put into the reel. “To get the most out of cork,” says Albright’s Jim Murphy, “it’s all about lubrication. With ideal lubrication, I don’t think you can get better performance out of a drag than with cork.” To get ideal lubrication, however, you’ve got to put in the maintenance time. Because not every angler wants to become a shade-tree reel mechanic, the per-fish performance level maybe better for the average angler with synthetics such as Rulon or carbon, because they are zero-maintenance.

Reel-Life Needs

So far, most of the discussion has been about the high-end stuff — reels designed to withstand the blitz of a running tuna or marlin at 50 miles and many thousands of rotations an hour. Even under those conditions, reel designers today admit their products are often over engineered. “Honestly, you could hook a car to one of these and you’d have to have like eight thousand yards of backing to kill it,” says Nautilus’s Kristen Mustad.

The Waterworks/Lamson conical drag is an attempt to create a large drag surface that can be sealed and is small enough to be housed within the hub of the reel. photo by Zach and Lauren Matthews | www.itinerantangler.com

What about your average trout or bass angler? Do they need these high-end drags? “Well, disc drags are really smooth,” says Orvis’s Lepage, “and anglers have almost unanimously voted for them at this point by buying them.” However, disc drags on trout reels aren’t usually as robust as those on saltwater, and almost no trout reels use cork. “Why would you want to stop a train with a cork drag while you’re trout fishing?” asks Ted Juracsik. How then are most trout drags designed?

Many trout-sized disc drag reels sacrifice overall drag surface — a consequence of being smaller to begin with. That’s okay, because you don’t need as much braking power for trout, but manufacturers still like to achieve noticeable drag levels. Kurt Van Wyck of Sage explains, “With trout reels, you don’t need as much drag, but you also aren’t subject to as much speed. That means you can use carbon fiber for a brake without worrying so much about heat, thus getting back some of the stopping power you lose when you cut the pad size.” Sage’s 2500 Series reels use small, stacked carbon and steel plates, rather than one big donut, to fit a larger drag surface in a small reel frame. “When you increase the tension, those plates are crushed together, increasing friction.”

The draw-bar design is another feature you won’t see as much on trout reels. “Draw-bar drags are heavy,” says Albright’s Jim Murphy, “and while you can work around that, there are lighter — and cheaper — ways to design a trout reel.” Cost is a major factor here. One option is the smaller drum drag, where the brake pads are sealed under the arbor rather than between frame and spool. Another category of drags — the gear drag — is often employed in trout reels. These provide plenty of stopping power for trout, and since their parts can be stamped out en masse, the reel is less expensive. Gear-drag reels usually feature a smaller set of disc-brake pads, but instead of being around the arbor, you’ll find them out to the side, under the tension lever you adjust on the outside of the frame. You can spot such drag systems by that lever out of line with the arbor, or by the toothed gear-wheel on the inside of the spool. It is this gear-wheel, which fits into a matching gear attached to the drag lever, that slows the spool down.

Thus, to clear up a common misconception, both gear-drag and draw-bar/drum-drag designs are “disc” drags. The draw-bar’s disc brake is visible as the large donut around the arbor or, on the drum design, as a noticeably oversized cylinder you cover with the spool, but the gear-drag’s disc brake is usually smaller, hidden behind the lever mechanism. Because of their smaller surface area, gear drags usually are not as strong as draw-bar or drum drags.

Some manufacturers, such as Sage, are pushing the limits of traditional gear-drag design, turning the spool itself into a gear with the addition of machined teeth. Coupled with the use of carbon fiber discs, this design allows a light, open large-arbor reel to still have a strong drag.

And, let’s be honest, there is still a place in today’s world for the traditional click-and-pawl reel. Hardy’s Lightweight series has been going strong since the middle of the last century. Its standardized parts, simple structure, and ease-of-repair have made it a perennial favorite with small-rod aficionados, especially since its lack of a heavy disc drag keeps the weight down.

How do you tell these reels apart just by looking at them in the shop? It’s easier than you think. A draw-bar reel will have the drag knob dead-centered. If you pop the spool off, you’ll see either a cork or synthetic brake pad, or the back of the sealed drag. A gear-drag reel is easy to spot because of its off-center drag adjuster, usually a knob or lever near the bottom of the frame. Open one up to find gear teeth attached to the spool (or machined right in). Finally, the spring-and-pawl drag is conspicuous for its clicker (and lack of anything else) inside the frame.

Whether you’re looking for the perfect fly reel, an heirloom to be treasured, or a beater to take out with those grand-kids, it’s in your best interest to know a little about the designs on the market. Perhaps more than with any other fly-fishing products, reels are subject to a cost-benefit analysis, and it pays to be honest with yourself. Do you need a saltwater “stop a train” drag for trout fishing? Probably not, but then again, some day you might. Is it really worth saving an extra 50 bucks to buy an el cheapo saltwater reel that might fail you at the worst time? Maybe — depends on whether you’re feeling lucky. For myself, I buy the best reels I can afford for the tasks I plan to give them. And if I overkill a little, well, that’s part of fishing too; the surest sign of the ever-optimistic angler is usually right there at the base of the rod.

Typically, four factors determine which fly line is the right choice: fly size, the species and the size of fish you are fishing for. (Part 1) Fishing conditions, and your skill as a caster (Part 2)

Factor 3: Wind and Temperature

Sometimes the fish and fly size will indicate a certain line weight, but conditions where the line will be fished will play a large role in choosing size. For example, bonefish flies are typically small and light, and the fish are not usually very big. 5- or 6-weight rods and lines are certainly adequate for most bonefishing, but conditions often require anglers to cast across or even into the wind. The heavier mass of a 7-, 8-, or 9-weight line makes the wind less of a challenge.

Wind also means that many of your casts will be shorter. Lines designed for shorter, faster casts — especially in saltwater — typically feature a shorter “head,” compacting most of the line’s weight into the front of the fly line. These lines typically also have a front taper designed to ensure good fly turnover and delivery. Many of these lines are made to be slightly over-weight for their given rating, another feature that speeds rod loading and delivery. If you don’t have access to one of these specialty lines and plan to fish in tough conditions, a good alternative can be to fish with a line one size higher than your rod.

The other climactic condition that should influence your line choice is temperature. In very hot, tropical weather, plastic-coated (PVC) lines can become quite soft — causing them to tangle more — and limp, causing them to not shoot well. Many lines are designed specifically for tropical heat, with harder coatings and stiffer cores that perform best in the temperature ranges found on bonefish, tarpon, or permit flats. On the other hand, these same lines become stiff and wiry when weather is cold, so don’t make the mistake, for example, of trying to use a specialty bonefish line while fishing for stripers in cold weather.

Factor #4: Caster Skill

More often than not, you’ll be well served by considering the distance that you plan to cast when choosing a line. Most fly line packaging will tell you the length of the various sections of the fly line and other information, such as whether the front and rear tapers are gradual or more extreme. Pay attention to the length of the head — the front taper, belly, and rear taper combined — where most of the weight of the line is concentrated. Your first goal is to match the line’s head length to your typical fishing distances.

For short casts and the kinds of conditions in which most of us learn to fly fish, the lines head length isn’t all that important because it will rarely be out of the rod anyway. Double Taper (DT) lines work well at short range. At short range, little hauling or shooting of line is done, so how the front taper delivers your fly is the most important thing to consider, whether the line be WF (“Weight Forward”) or DT. However, few of us have the luxury of knowing that all of our casts will be short, so head-length decisions should be made based on the other casts that will be made.

For casting at moderate distances, WF lines with longer heads and lines like the classic “double-taper” work well in most situations. WF lines with short- to medium-length heads are good because they can be carried to a comfortable distance and then shot to the target. This saves time and false casting. DT lines work fine too, but they don’t shoot as well, so the caster needs to be skilled enough to carry more line in the air. In some fishing applications, like stream fishing for trout, line control is very important. WF lines with short heads don’t allow line control beyond short ranges, so go with a DT line, or WF line with longer head.

For fishing that requires longer casts, your casting skill will largely determine what line design will work best. If your skills are average, a line with a short- to medium-length head will work best. If you are a skilled caster who can carry a lot of line in the air, using a line with a long head will enable you to throw farther. There is a downside to lines with long heads though: they take longer to cast. More false casting is required which means the delivery cast will be delayed by a false cast or two. If your application is one that often requires quick casts (e.g. tarpon or permit), choose a line with a short head regardless of your casting skill.

For lots of different reasons, fly fishers often end up using rods and lines that aren’t well matched to their skill levels. Very stiff or “fast-action” rods tend to get more marketing play these days, and they’re great for experts wanting to cast long distances but typically a poor choice for casters who don’t have excellent timing. The same holds true for fly lines. There are a number of lines on the market that are designed for expert casters and for advanced techniques that are required to fish specific conditions. Long-distance casters might search out very long heads to which they will attach a running line, but lines built for extremely long casts may make medium-length casts more difficult. An expert with bamboo rods might want a very fine taper, but lines that can provide pinpoint accuracy at short range for an expert angler might make loading the rod a challenge for the novice fly fisher. There are over 2,000 unique fly lines available to today’s fly fishers — enough to match any situation and casting style. Just keep in mind that novice anglers often won’t usually benefit from highly specialized line designs.

I am indebted to Bruce Richards who originally wrote an article on Fly Line choice that I found on the internet

GIVEN THE CHOICE between having a very good fly line and an average rod, or a very good rod and an average line, nearly all experts would choose to have the better line. And for good reason. The line is what actually carries the fly to the target and delivers it. It’s easy to adjust your casting stroke to accommodate differences in fly rods, but if your line won’t shoot through the guides, or float or sink as it should, or carry the fly properly, you’re going to have a long, frustrating day on the water. So, how do you know what is the right fly line for the fishing you do?

Typically, four factors determine which fly line is the right choice: fly size, the species and the size of fish you are fishing for. (Part 1) Fishing conditions, and your skill as a caster (Part 2)

Factor 1: Fly Size

In most cases, the first thing you need to do when choosing a fly line is to consider the flies you will be casting. (In reality, that should be an important part of choosing your rod also.) It’s the mass of the fly line that will carry the fly, so if you will be throwing big, heavy or wind resistant flies, you will need enough power in the line to carry them. If your line doesn’t have enough “power” (in real terms, mass) to carry the fly through the air, casting will be difficult at best, and certainly not much fun.

Fly lines are rated by weight. The larger the line number, the heavier the line and the better it will cast large flies. Very light lines, of say 3 to 6weight, are suitable for small trout flies, typically up to about size 12 hooks (the larger the hook size number, the smaller the hook). 5-6-weight lines are the most commonly used sizes for rivers and small still water trout and work well with flies on hooks up to about size 8. A fly line’s taper, which I will describe later, can expand that range some. Line weights 7-9 are most commonly used for large still water trout and fish such as bonefish, bass, 1/0.  Lines 10-weight and heavier are reserved for big fish, and often big flies. The rods that match these lines are stiff and powerful and are capable of throwing these heavy lines long distances, and they carry big flies well.

Factor 2: The Fish

Although fly size is the first thing to consider when deciding what weight rig you should have, the fish you plan to pursue can have a big impact on your choice. A good example would be tarpon.  Tarpon flies are typically not very big or hard to cast — most could be easily cast with a 7 or 8-weight rod and line. But landing a one-hundred-pound tarpon on one of those medium-sized rods would be a huge challenge, so a much stiffer rod is normally used and they need bigger line sizes. While most bass can be easily landed on a 6-weight rod, the flies anglers cast for bass are often very large and wind-resistant which means you have to go to 7 or 8 weight rods which  takes the work out of the casting without being truly out of scale with the fish.

Night fishing for trout is another unique example. In this case “overlining” — using a fly line that is heavier than rated for a rod — offers distinct advantages. Typically night fishing is done at close range and with big flies. Since casting distance is short you’ll typically fish with less line outside of the rod tip. Going up a line size, or even two, can help the rod load in close and can also help turn over the big flies.

(There are even a few applications where using a line lighter than recommended makes sense. Extreme distance casting is one. A skilled caster might be able to carry a lot more line outside the rod than the rod designer ever planned on. This means that the weight of the line outside the rod tip is much greater than optimal for the rod. Going down a line size or two, when sixty to eighty feet of line are in the air, allows the caster to throw a tighter loop, and with more speed.)

Part 2 will follow next week.