SMELT

[stevenmang85]

Just drove by second bay of gull and noticed an eerie green glow coming from the middle... Spooky... ALSO. Trying to decide between 2 straight line reels. The frabill 101xla and the blue eagle claw reel. Anybody have hands on with either? May the ice gods wake from their slumber cuz I'm dying over here....

[3300]

that glow in the middle, maybe that's the god of smelt delivering.

[chilly-willy]

time to get the kayak or boat out and do some smelting forecast around here is not looking that good...

[Wgorby]

I just sold a Frabill 101 combo....those reels are 1:1 gear ratio, unless your fishing in 10fow or less they are tough to use IMO.  I did however check out the new Frabill 371 inline reel....holy cow what a smooth reel (22" of line retrieval per 1 turn on the reel), pick one off the shelf and hand spin the spool, I think you can count to 100 before it stops spinning.  Try that with the 101 or the Eagle Claws.    Kinda pricey at MSRP of $69, but you can find them cheaper on the interweb.

Can't wait to chase me some smelt on Gull....might be March before that happens with this warm weather but it will happen....I hope.

[smeltbuster]

Steve, I picked up 3 of the black Eagle claw reels last year,& they have been great !  I even put one on an ultra-light, this past spring & used it for flatline trolling for crappies, it worked great, for that too. If you want to check one out, PM me ,  w/  no ice  , no deer tags  , & duck season closed  , I can probably find a few min. to let ya check the reels out.

[stevenmang85]

Yea. Could call on the gear ratio... Think I'm going with an eagle claw.  Phil! Was wondering when I reponse from you was gonna pop up . The blue ones are better reviewed than the black ones. So I may go with one of them. Thanks for everyone's comments! Hope we can get on some ice here soon!