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I started with okuma fly reels and kept at it for a few years all the way to a free fall. black betty's, og 6061, eagle claws, cgi, spoolerI fish mainly for panfish but have to tussle with a cat or bass here or there. after 5 or so years of this transition, i moved back to spinning reels. there was 0 advantage and more disadvantages. unless we were in a shack none of them would free spool a 3mm tungsten without help. Their drags were mostly archaic compared to other options. my best friend never made the switch and i can't think of one time where "line spin" was the difference in him outfishing me. my buddy went on a guided trip with a guy who pushes inlines pretty hard all over the interwebs and tv and said the 2 days they went out the guy didn't have an inline in his hand once and they were fishing the exact conditions that would warrant one. I've seen a lot of the guys who started off using them, move back to spinning. In the end its a feel thing. There are some who it just feels right in their hand and I get that. But they were not for me. seemed great idea at first but in the end fell flat in my scenarios.
I used them for a couple years, have a couple eagle claws and a 13 decent (not a fan of the 13 fishing reel, all plastic) then went to basically all pflueger spinning ice reels. They are a good cheaper ice reel. After talking with a few guys last year i am going to give a black Betty freefall a try. My only complaint with the eagle claw is that it is hard to adjust your drag on the fly. Lost too many larger fish because of this.
My opinion is that the ice fishing world certainly seems to be a prime area for every new rod, reel, and gadget out there. The fish aren't the only ones that are getting hooked....
Never seen a swivel that will work with a tungsten on it even the 4 and 5mm. If there is let me know and ill buy some
First off, I own to much stuff.Jigging is not my primary go to, that being said, I own about 15 jigging rods/reels, I've gotba half dozen in lines, several of them Black Bettys, My newest one is an Allen Archer in line, that was a gift from my wife, for something made in China, it's a well crafted smooth reel.. I like it alot.I have a small Penn conventional that I use for lake trout jigging, its heavy but better than any of the finess reels made for ice fishing..I've got several old quantum rear drag spinning reels that get 90 percent of the jigging duty.
You mentioned that Ellen Archery reel a few times... I meant to check it out when we fished last season but forgot all about it. The pics I've seen look well made but maybe kinda tight to the rod grip? I just ordered a Pflueger president inline, big fan of the president spinning reels so figured that was a good choice for the 1st try at an inline reel.
We will just have to fish together so you can try it.. that is IF they let me over the boarder.