I don't know if this is the place to ask, but here goes.

I want to try fly fishing for smallies next spring/summer.  I've been told a 6 or 7 weight rod would be best for this.  I have the 7 weight rod, but need a reel.  I want a decent one, but don't want to break the bank.  I know fly reels can be expensive, so I'm looking used, since I don't know how much of this I will do.  

I'm looking for advice on a decent reel to look for on the used market for a couple hundred dollars.  Any suggestions on brand and model would be greatly appreciated, along with features to look for.

 

Thanks!

 

Dave

What rod do you have?

 

I ask because you're going to want to try to balance the rod with the reel.

An inexpensive, heavy reel, like the Reddington Behemoth, will make a lighter rod/reel combo butt heavy and not a lot of fun to fish.

On the flip side of that, a reel that's too light will make the rod/reel combo tip heavy, which is arguably worse.

We also need your definition of "break the bank".  Fly reels span the gamut of prices, from cheap reels under $100 to $1,000 or more.  Going used can make that even more confusing.

Share what you've seen so far, and what you're going to be comfortable paying, that'll help.

You also have a decision to make about the line, and how you want to fish; and knowing what rod you have will help figure out what grain weight line to use (it's not as simple as just getting a 7 wt. line to get the best fit.)  

Are you going to want to fish topwater poppers?  Streamers subsurface?

I'm not sure where you're fishing, but where I live, a 6 wt. is the minimum size for decent bass flies, a 7 wt. is mid-range, and an 8 wt. is the all-around most useful.  I'm not trying to talk you into another rod, but be aware the the 7 wt. is going to have some limitations on size, weight, and wind resistance of the flies you'll be able to cast well. 

There's a "thing" in fly fishing where anglers like to use a rod that's not enough rod for the task...do yourself a favor and avoid that...it's a short path to frustration and lost fish...and ignore experienced fly anglers who tell you "All you need is a 5 wt.!  I caught a 5 lb. smallie on a woolly bugger on one."  Yeah, an experienced fly angler can do that.  Sometimes.  They don't tell you how many fish they lost along the way.

Off topic, but important: You're going to want to pinch your barbs.  Not for the fish, but for you and whoever you're fishing with.  You will stick yourself with a fly, it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when...there are times when you'll have 50 or 60 ft. of line out and on a cast...and gust of wind will push the fly into you.  A pinched barb mean it takes five seconds to get back to fishing.  Big hook past the barb can mean the end of the day on the water and maybe a trip to the ER. 

You're likely to hear that for fly fishing, all the reel does is hold line - this is true to some extent, because you'll never need to put a bass on the reel - you should always strip them in.  If a bass puts itself on the reel (I've never had this happen) that's fine, but never waste time and focus trying to put slack line back on reel when you have a fish on...that's you you lose a tight line, and lose fish...

...getting to specific reels: Lamson is a great choice, and relatively inexpensive, even new.  Their Liquid S is about $170 in the 7+ size you want and their Remix S is about $280 in that same size.  You can go up from there.

Great drags, light weight (often the lightest for any given size), durable, and very well made.

If you go used, you'll see lots of options, anything that's not beat up from a recognizable brand will probably be fine - but stay away from heavy reels.

That's probably way more than you expected, or wanted, but I've found that the way to get fly anglers to have fun and come back to the sport is to set them up for success.

I'm more than happy to answer more questions, fire away.

It somewhat depends on where you will be fishing and what the average size of the fish will be.  Seeing you are in Maryland, I assume you are looking at the Susquehanna river and surrounding areas for smallmouth.  I fly fished the Shenandoah for years with an 8 weight Scott Brightwater and a Sage reel.  With the size of smallmouth I was normally catching, I was good with that weight.  I also have a 5 weight but I didn’t want to have to finesse play the size smallies I was catching that much.  If no one here is versed in your location, I would call a local fly shop for pointers.  Good luck.  

There is very little reason to spend a lot of money on a fly reel, especially if you are inexperienced. All a fly reel does is hold on to the line. Expensive ones may be milled from a solid block of aluminum or titanium but it doesn’t matter. If you were tarpon fishing you might need a good heavy duty drag system, but even a big smallmouth in current can be handled with even a basic drag. Put your money in the rod, and decent line, not the reel. 

^^What he said.

1 hour ago, Scott F said:

There is very little reason to spend a lot of money on a fly reel, especially if you are inexperienced. All a fly reel does is hold on to the line. Expensive ones may be milled from a solid block of aluminum or titanium but it doesn’t matter. If you were tarpon fishing you might need a good heavy duty drag system, but even a big smallmouth in current can be handled with even a basic drag. Put your money in the rod, and decent line, not the reel. 

 

1 hour ago, OldManLure said:

^^What he said.

I agree...except for weight.

I Like to use the example of two affordable reels in the size needed for bass: The Reddington Behemoth at 7.5 oz. and the Lamson Liquid S at 5.2 oz.

Both are solid, good performing reels that provide good value, IMO...but that extra 2.3 oz. (more than 44%) can make a big difference in how the rod/reel combo feels in hand, and how it casts.

It's important to note that a reel can be too light resulting in a tip-heavy rig...that's arguably worse than a butt heavy one, though neither is good.

For a person new to fly fishing, spending a couple hundred $ to lose a bit of weight on the reel isn’t a good value. It can be difficult to become proficient at fly fishing and many who try give up before long. A cheap rod is much harder to cast and you’d give up much sooner using a cheap rod while an inexpensive reel even one a bit heavier won’t make casting harder, at least it didn’t for me. A $50-$60 reel will give you good performance. Reels at that level are often plastic and don’t weigh as much as metal reels at much higher prices. If you find you really enjoy it, and you want to step up, you haven’t spent much. 

4 hours ago, Further North said:

What rod do you have?

 

I ask because you're going to want to try to balance the rod with the reel.

...getting to specific reels: Lamson is a great choice, and relatively inexpensive, even new.  Their Liquid S is about $170 in the 7+ size you want and their Remix S is about $280 in that same size.  You can go up from there.

Great drags, light weight (often the lightest for any given size), durable, and very well made.

That's probably way more than you expected, or wanted, but I've found that the way to get fly anglers to have fun and come back to the sport is to set them up for success.

I"m more than happy to answer more questions, fire away.

Thanks for the input, everybody!

I said I have the rod, but that is not quite complete.  I have an NFC 7-weight C6O2 4-pc blank that I'm having built.  It should be a very light weight rod when done.

 

I will likely fish the Shenandoah river in Virginia for starters.

 

I will take a look at the Liquid and the Remix, and others.  Please keep ideas, suggestions, and tips coming.

 

Thanks again!

 

Dave

1 hour ago, Scott F said:

For a person new to fly fishing, spending a couple hundred $ to lose a bit of weight on the reel isn’t a good value.

 

The difference between the Reddington Behemoth (~$160) and the Lamson Liquid S (~$170) is $10.

It's why I like to use them as examples.

 

1 hour ago, Scott F said:

It can be difficult to become proficient at fly fishing and many who try give up before long.

 

I agree 100% - it's why I try to get people to set up a balanced rod/reel combo from the get go.  Much easier to cast, particularly for a long day.

 

1 hour ago, Scott F said:

A cheap rod is much harder to cast and you’d give up much sooner using a cheap rod while an inexpensive reel even one a bit heavier won’t make casting harder, at least it didn’t for me. A $50-$60 reel will give you good performance. Reels at that level are often plastic and don’t weigh as much as metal reels at much higher prices. If you find you really enjoy it, and you want to step up, you haven’t spent much. 

Cheap rods are a nightmare, and have driven more people away from fly angling than just about anything else at the beginning of the trip.  I keep one around to have beginners cast after I've started them on a good rod - just in case they're tempted to go buy one at a big box store.

Heavy reels absolutely make a big difference.  Most people don't get this until you hand them a properly set up rig after they've been casting a butt heavy one.

I'm not a fan of the plastic stuff - one drop and they can be a day ender. 
 

28 minutes ago, DaveT63 said:

said I have the rod, but that is not quite complete.  I have an NFC 7-weight C6O2 4-pc blank that I'm having built.  It should be a very light weight rod when done.

Good choice - both of the custom rod builders I use use a lot of North Fork blanks.

...I have a 6 wt. one-piece (which will likely test out as a 7 wt.) being built right now.

 

30 minutes ago, DaveT63 said:

I will likely fish the Shenandoah river in Virginia for starters.

I've heard good things about that fishery.

Have you decided how you're going to fish?  

By that I mean topwater (poppers, gurglers, divers, etc.) or subsurface (streamers).  How you set up your rod for each to get the best results is different...just like with conventional gear.

A cheap reel with a spare spool. You need two lines so 2 spools is excellent.

I've been tying and throwing for 7 yrs or so.

If you use Facebook, there is at least one group specifically for smallmouth fly angling: Smallmouth Bass On The Fly.  It's a solid group, pretty well moderated, less than the normal amount of bickering.  At about 32,500 members it's big enough to offer a lot of info.

For a person starting out in Fly fishing there's a FB group called "Fly Fishing for Beginners."  Very tightly moderated much like BassResource is - currently at over 58,000 members, plenty of whom fish for bass 

Bulldog1935 is a good source of information concerning this topic.

I fly fished since a teenager and spent a lot of time back packing into the Sierras fly fishing for Golden Trout using 5 power rods and cheap reel, the cost more then the reel.

I also used the same fly rod reel and line occasionally for bass fishing. My choice of flies were appropriate for my rod, reek, line etc.

 caught hundreds of Smallmouth bass to 4 lbs in Ontario Canada using my trout fly rod reel using dry flies and wooly buggers. The Mcginty bee size 10 was very effective and used a tapered tiplet 3 lb test. Smallmouth love flies!

IMO your 7 weight rod is more then needed unless you plan to cast big bugs/poppers.

Tom

PS, I was told a 9 wt rod was needed for bass…..BS.

12 hours ago, WRB-2.0 said:

IMO your 7 weight rod is more then needed unless you plan to cast big bugs/poppers.

Tom

PS, I was told a 9 wt rod was needed for bass…..BS.

A 7 wt. is most certainly not more than needed - it's in the middle of the range for the best fly rods bass fishing, which is 6, 7 and 8 wt. rods.

A 5 wt. can work, though it lacks power to cast bigger flies and land decent fish quickly...it severely limits the size, weight, and wind resistance of the flies you can use, limits the conditions we can effectively fish in...and while it's OK for an experienced fly angler on bass, it's definitely a poor choice for a beginner.

"Use enough rod" is a thing, and it's particularly important for beginners.

A 9 wt. will work, but it's really for bigger flies.

...FWIW, we catch a bunch of smallies - usually big ones - every year on musky flies cast with 10 wt. rods.  This one ate a 10" black Buford...



...and this 22" largemouth ate a pink and brown musky fly about the same size:

There is a on line retailer called Sierra Trading post.  They discount heavily and have a selection of good to high quality fly reels.  Well 16 today...

FM

 

https://www.sierra.com/fishing-reels~d~188/

A lot of what weight rod you use will depend on the location you fish and the size of flies you’ll be using. I use a 3 and a 5 weight in the New with small poppers/streamers and  fish up to about 3 lbs. I use a 9 for throwing streamers and deer frogs around cover for lmb. A 7 is almost certainly fine for most river smallmouth. Get a decent reel and spend some money on an appropriate line. A casting lesson (or two!) with your rod is the money best spent.

I threw an 8wt on the Chesapeake Bay for Stripers and learned very quickly not to Palm the reel.  😂

33 minutes ago, TOXIC said:

I threw an 8wt on the Chesapeake Bay for Stripers and learned very quickly not to Palm the reel.  😂

That sounds painful...

 

I subdued a 30+ lb striper below Ft Loudon dam on the Tennessee River on a 9 weight and a fly the size of a small chicken. I did not do that regularly, mostly schoolies. I probably had similar palm burn.

We kept a 9’ 9 wt fly rod with Sage reel with a drag using anchovy streamer flies on our off shore tune/marlin boat to catch Dorado ( Mahi-Mahi) occasionally for fun and dinner. Dorado on a fly rod are amazing fish that run fast and make high spectacular jumps. The reel needs a drag for big fast game fish, fresh water bass imo are not power fast swimmers and drag is optional.

Tom

 

15 hours ago, VolFan said:

I subdued a 30+ lb striper below Ft Loudon dam on the Tennessee River on a 9 weight and a fly the size of a small chicken. I did not do that regularly, mostly schoolies. I probably had similar palm burn.

Got a nice smallie down there the other day 

Thanks again for all tips and feedback!  I will try my best to put them to good use.

 

I have looked at the Liquid and Remix reels.  I think I will go with one of those.  They sell them in a 3-pack, with the reel, two spools, and a protective bag for them, which is likely the way I will go.

 

As to HOW I will fish them, I will let the guide fill me on on that.  I will have the spools filled for either topwater or other, and swap out as needed.

 

Hearing the stories has gotten me excited for next year!  

 

Dave

@DaveT63 When you get good at smallies, you can bump up to pike and musky.

Today's trip:

 

 

...and I lost a 40+.

 

Pretty good day for late season.

5 minutes ago, Further North said:

@DaveT63 When you get good at smallies, you can bump up to pike and musky.

Today's trip:

 

 

...and I lost a 40+.

 

Pretty good day for late season.

That looks like an awesome day!!

15 hours ago, DaveT63 said:

That looks like an awesome day!!

It didn't suck...

The eats from the tiger and the pike were great - the tiger came over the top of a slightly submerged log and clobbered the fly right on top of the water; the pike eat was one of those full speed t-bones that moved the fly sideways 3 ft. in half a second about 5 ft. in front of me.

Decent temps in November are always great days to get out.

We're supposed to see 62° today, but I have an appointment at 3:30 so won't be able to get out.

Six wt.

 

largies, Smallies and pan fish.

 

And one intimidating Gar Pike.