Classic Fly Reels

If you happen to be an angler who enjoys fishing older rods, you probably like to pair them up with a classic fly reel. Many do, anyway. What is a classic fly reel? Well, I suggest you not attempt finding a consensus on some kind of definition. It will just hurt your head.

I do gravitate toward fly reels that have a design with a classical aesthetic, although the age of a reel is not a mandatory factor for me. Through my eyes, a classical-looking reel is one that has visual cues mimicking one of the following reels: Hardy Perfect; Hardy LightWeight; Bauer MacKenzie; or an Orvis CFO fly reel. Those reels are certainly classic models, and any contemporary reel with a similar aesthetic appeals to me, and is locked into my fly rods often.

While I will occasionally lock in a modern large arbor reel that has been milled to a feather-like skeleton, I prefer classical-looking reels...especially when I'm pairing a reel to a classic fly rod.