Fly Reel: Revisited

[Prairiegoat]

Heard all about fly reels on ice rods and made the jump this year. I start with 100 yards of dacron backing followed by lots of 10# mono topped off with 100 yards of 4 or 6# P-Line Floro. Gives me around 9" of line retrieve each crank. Have an Albright 3/4 and an Okuma 3/4 set up with 4# and 6# line. Got another Okuma 4/5 on the way. You won't see me going back to line twisting spinning reels.

The kicker for me has been in the three times out with the new rigs, the bite has been really slow, but my new 4# rig accounted for all the bites except two and all the trout landed. I set the drag at zero and just palm the reel. Cannot believe the greater control over the fish on multiple runs and its so nice not to have a coiled mess like I use to get when fish pulled drag on my spinning reels.

If you've ever watched your jig do the slow clockwise twirl followed by a slow counter clockwise twirl, well you stop that with the straight line off the fly reel. I don't know if that's the reason for all the bites I had or not, I just know I was getting bites and no one else was. And we were using the exact same jig.

Here's a video of a 19" trout I landed the other day. Sorry for the couple of expletives.

Just click on pic to view.

[snuffcan]

Nice Pgoat! I've been using a fly reel for 35 years, Unfortunetly it was only on rivers and streams and not through the ice!! Tried it for the first time the other day thru the ice, and I love. Agree with everything you said about it.

[Sullymon]

Nice man ... glad to see another fisherman joining the "club".  That was the first reason I started using fly reels too ... no spin!

[Dark Cloud]

Glad to see this thread from last year got ressurected... 

Heres a little trick I have been useing for setting them up. This way you dont need as much backing and keep things nice and lite...
Pick up some craft foam, should be less than a buck a sheet...

Cut a strip just as wide as the spool and get the length right then hold it with some tape...

No matter how perfect you cut the foam the line is going to slide down along side it. So I intentionally cut each succesive layer a tad more narrow...

After the reel is almost full then tie in some flyline backing and fill the rest of the way. Then 50-75 ft of the line your going to fish with...

And yes, that is a black SLV.  I ordered up a new TB "Stealth" with black wraps and orange trim wraps. Got to thinking how sharp a black fly reel would look. Took the reel apart and taped off where I didnt want paint to get. Bought some automotive spray paint and gave it a whirl. Many lite coats and she's holding up well...

[coboy]

Nice trout and video Todd! I didn't hear any expletives. Another great thing about fly reels is that there aren't as many moving parts.You can mill the reel down really light and still have a strong reel.
Couple that with a nice TB walleye rod with recoil guides and you would definitely break the grin factor.

[Sullymon]

Nice setup ... gotta love the quiversticks and Okuma SLVs.  I noticed a black SLV spool on ebay yesterday.

[adipose]

I have a question. Why not just keep the regular floating or sinking flyline on while ice fishing and just add your favorite ice line etc. onto the flyline? Some one....anyone?

[Homemade]

I have a question. Why not just keep the regular floating or sinking flyline on while ice fishing and just add your favorite ice line etc. onto the flyline? Some one....anyone?

Its done to shave some weight.

[adipose]

huh....didnt know flyline weighed so much.

[Prairiegoat]

I think it would have more to do with light line like 4# test slipping through the loosely spooled larger diameter flyline during fish retrieve, getting hung up and causing breakoffs. I've had this happen before when I put too much floro leader on my baitcasters that were spooled with braid.

[Sullymon]

huh....didnt know flyline weighed so much.

I think there are many reasons ... for one floating flyline would not work at all for an obvious reason ... it floats. Another reason is flyline is very expensive, with no benefit for tight-line ice fishing. Even if you had some sinking flyline it would not work well because, as mentioned, small 2, 3, and 4# test would indeed bury itself into the flyline, causing breakoffs   .  So when setting up a fly reel for ice fishing, it is wise to tightly wind the backing so this will not happen.  Dark Cloud used foam to cut down on the backing needed, which usually requires a LOT of yardage to fill the spool ... hence a lot of unwanted weight and cost. Great idea Dark Cloud! A spool full of backing is indeed a LOT of extra weight, more than you would think. Keep in mind we are using the reel for tight-line fishing which is completely different from techniques used for fly fishing. Another thing to keep in mind, you want your spool as full as possible to give you a better retrieval rate.  That's my own "take" on the whole thing anyway, at least from my own experiences.

[adipose]

Ok..so after reading this thread and converting my rod to include my fly reel i quickly came to the realization that ive got to hand bomb my line down to where i want to fish. Meaning i have to pull my line out of the rod/reel manually to get down to where i want to fish. It all seems like that was fine until i broke out the vex.
I quickly  spotted a fish on the vex but by the time i hand lined my lure down to the depth the fish was at , the fish  was gone. Now...had i been using my open face i probably would have had a better chance at this fish due to the fact that i can "drop" my lure very quickly to the fishes location. Just thought i would share this with others that are thinking about the conversion. Does anyone have a better way to get line on a fly reel out reel fast?

[flyangler00]

Fly reel use is only recomended for shallow water angling, just for that reason... i use mine in depth no deeper than 10-12 ft.. i also like to put alot of backing on to keep line pick up at the max. i maybe put 50yds of mono on...

[Dark Cloud]

Ok..so after reading this thread and converting my rod to include my fly reel i quickly came to the realization that ive got to hand bomb my line down to where i want to fish. Meaning i have to pull my line out of the rod/reel manually to get down to where i want to fish. It all seems like that was fine until i broke out the vex.
I quickly  spotted a fish on the vex but by the time i hand lined my lure down to the depth the fish was at , the fish  was gone. Now...had i been using my open face i probably would have had a better chance at this fish due to the fact that i can "drop" my lure very quickly to the fishes location. Just thought i would share this with others that are thinking about the conversion. Does anyone have a better way to get line on a fly reel out reel fast?

I can get down about as fast with a fly reel as with a spinning reel. I grab the line at the rod tip with my left hand and pull out 3-5 ft of line and feed it down the hole. I did this for years with a spinning reel but with the bail open. I did this if I had some ice in the guides and fish on the screen - tryin to get back down fast. 
When i first started playin around with fly reels 4 years ago, I rarely fished them in more than 10-12 fow. This past weekend I was fishing them in 27. 

[newincudahy]

I agree, I cant imagine not being able to hand feed faster than the jig would sink.  Even with a bigger spoon. Just pull off an arms length at a time if needed.

[adipose]

i did find that if i let the drag off completely and as long as i had a med to heavy lure on i could just drop the lure into the hole and lift up rather fast, the reel would free spool on the lift. Still not as fast as the open bail on the spinning reel though. maybe it just me. hehe

[Townie]

Looking to convert my TB Perch into a fly reel rig; is Okuma's Cascade 4/6 Fly Reel an option? 

[Prairiegoat]

Looking to convert my TB Perch into a fly reel rig; is Okuma's Cascade 4/6 Fly Reel an option? 

Don't see any reason the reel wouldn't work just fine and that is one heck of an ice rod. Enjoy the new rig.

[AT3NCION]

I have the Okuma SLV 4/5 and love using it. The only thing about it I wish I could change somehow would be the knob. It's very small and as someone who doesn't fly fish it's something I'm not very used to. I've also thought of trying to find a way to modify the reel so that there is an arm on it to create a little extra torque when reeling in, but as of yet I've been too lazy and the pros outweigh the cons on trying to accomplish this.
Anyone know if there is a larger knob out there that could replace the stock one?

[frozengator]

I will be looking for one of these reels now!!!! Got to love Iceshanty.com so many ideas not enough funds LOL

[Sullymon]

I have a 4/5 SLV on me TB Perch rod ... awesome setup. Also a Quiverstick with a 2/3 Okuma SLV and a 28" Powernoodle with a Fenwick Nighthawk 3/5. I see Frabill has some new reels out that look a lot like the Okuma SLVs, but with a bigger cutout on the back and a nice big knob for a handle for $45 ... if you can find one!

[Sullymon]

i did find that if i let the drag off completely and as long as i had a med to heavy lure on i could just drop the lure into the hole and lift up rather fast, the reel would free spool on the lift. Still not as fast as the open bail on the spinning reel though. maybe it just me. hehe

I takes a little practice ... but I can certainly pull the line off my fly reel MUCH faster by hand than any spinning setup with an open bail. The only time I use spinning reels is for big spoons and blade baits. I much prefer fly reels for all tight-line jigging with lead or tungsten jigs ... no matter how deep. I keep my drag pretty loose, but not too loose, then palm the spool if I need to turn a fish or stop it. This method provides much better control than any spinning setup. Sensitivity is increased tenfold as well since the line feeds straight off the guides into the spool, unlike a spinning reel that goes through a roller on a rotor first. Now when I pick up an ice rod spinning setup ... it just doesn't feel right.

[Dark Cloud]

I have a 4/5 SLV on me TB Perch rod ... awesome setup. Also a Quiverstick with a 2/3 Okuma SLV and a 28" Powernoodle with a Fenwick Nighthawk 3/5. I see Frabill has some new reels out that look a lot like the Okuma SLVs, but with a bigger cutout on the back and a nice big knob for a handle for $45 ... if you can find one!

The SLV's can be found for that price and besides the handle, they are a much better reel in my opinion. The frabil was nice but for me they are too small except for short rods and the drag left something to be desired...