Fly Fishing Reels

Yesterday the fishing season at our little river began, and i was lucky to have a day off and go fishing the whole day. During the winter i built my second self made split cane fly rod.
It is a "Hardy Palakona CC de France"-Taper, with weight class 6, and it is 8 feet long. Together with my Bo Mohlin Baby Trout and a DT 6 line its a great combination and casts wonderful.
After breakfast with a few other fly fishers we walked to our river and started fishing. The conditions were not good, because the water was still high and the weather forecast said rain and a little snow.
We fished till lunchtime, but no one was lucky and caught anything, except one that got a little trout.
But after lunch we changed the location to a place where the water was more calm, and after half an hour of fishing the first surprise:

This pike was about about 63 cm long and it was really fun to catch it with my new split cane rod.

About 15 minutes later i hooked another pike a few centimeters bigger than the first, and my father in law caught an even bigger a few moments later:

The big pike was about 83 cm and more than 3 kg. So after a bad start this was an awesome first fishing day and i really enjoyed it.

Our little river is under normal conditions a trout river, and pikes are very uncommon, but these must have come with the high waters from an upstream dammed lake (water reservoir).
Due to the fact that we expected trouts, we didn't use steel leaders but only a 0.25 mm monofile leader and a small streamer. Without the smooth action of a good bamboo rod i think we would have lost all these fishes.

Following my series of classic fly reel pictures i like. After the famous ABU Delta, here is another great ABU fly fishing reel:

The ABU Record Standard

The Record Standard was manufactured by ABU under the brand of ABU and Pebco (Model 5). They were similiar in design and specifications and were build in Sweden from 1942 to 1965. They had a capacity of 100 yards of backing under the flyline.

ABU Record Standard Front	ABU Record Standard Back
ABU Record Standard Side

On the backside it is labeled with "RECORD Standard", "MADE IN SWEDEN" and "A.B. URFABRIKEN SVÄNSTA", that means something like "A.B. Clock Manufacturer Sweden".
It is not in mint condition, but hey it is pretty old.

If you are looking to purchase a ABU fly reel, have a look at our ABU fly reel page.

Here is my latest beauty, an awesome fly reel made by Bo Mohlin of Sweden, a fantastic reel maker, whose reels are absolutely comparable to Bogdan or other high end reels.
It is a Baby Trout class #5 - #6 and weighs about 145 grams. It is a perfect trout reel with a click drag and a very elegant S-handle.
Here are some pictures:

The frontside:

The backside:

The reel fits perfectly into the very, very solid leather case:

With this post i'm starting a series of reel pictures from fly reels that i love because i think they were milestones in reel development or design, or maybe simply because i like them.
The reels are mine or from friends or family collectors and fly fishers.
I want to start with a reel manufacturer from sweden (in former times from sweden i think) that is better known for his multireels - ABU.
The first reel in my little series is a ABU Delta 3, it' a really great design for a fishing reel and the only one i know that is triangular.

Here are some pictures of the ABU Delta 3:

ABU Delta 3 Front	Abu Delta 3 Back

It is not in mint condition, but hey it was pretty cheap at a flyfair meeting in Holland for about 25$.
If i remember right, there is one bigger model of this reel, that is called "ABU Delta 5".

If you are looking to purchase a ABU fly reel, have a look at our ABU fly reel page.

Henschel Millennium Edition

Short introduction: Ian, a reader of this blog dropped me a mail that he wants to sell two special fly reels, interesting for collectors.

This is the first one:

Pictures of the fly fishing reel Millennium manufactured by Henschel.



It was manufactured to commemorate the millennium and was limited to 100 pieces.
As you can see this is number 100 and is inscribed with a name.

You can find more info on the reel here.

Key features:

Millennium Edition

Specialities for the Millennium-Edition in 2000:
Aluminium-parts black hardanodized
All exterior stainless parts 24 carat gold plated
Gold colored engraving

This reel has the foot forward, very seldom, thats a real gem.

If you are interested to buy this reel, drop me a line and i will forward your mail to Ian.

The mayfly hatch has just begun at our little river, and dry fly fishing is fun again.
Here is a photo of a not so huge (about 14") brownie i caught this evening.
Please excuse the poor quality, but the photo was taken with a phone.

Brown trout