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[BC Fishing]

For fishing salt water about 5-15 full days each year AT MOST,
I'm trying to decide between:

1) Buying a top quality 600-650$ Reel: Hardy, Nautilus, etc.
2) Buying a decent 200-350$ Reel: Sage 2200-4200 etc
3) For 650$ I can buy 18 of 35$ reels that I can drown in the salt all I want and they will last me minimum 40 years!

The reel will be used for the occasional pink salmon & cutthroat hunt during the each season, as well as possible future vacations to the tropics.

Past experience with salt:
I used a brand new 35$ reel for 20 minutes in salt. An hour later, I came home, took it apart, rinsed it, dried it. 6 months of freshwater salmon use later, and dunking into fresh water, it was hard not to notice severe rust on the drag gear & drag clicker needle & spring. The drag needle has a chunk missing from the tip, covered in rust. Users of the flyfishing groups on facebook said it looked like the reel went through a LOT of abuse. (See pictures to judge for yourself).

After reading dozens of forums, this is the conclusion: many 300$-400$ saltwater reels are flawed, as the sealed drag actually leaks. Preventative soaking and lubing maintenance did not help.. so 50$, 50%, 50$ to send it back and back again to sage, etc, only to discard it and buy a new one.. What is your experience? What are your maintenance costs?

If I will buy a 300$ salt water reel to use 1 week in the salt, and have to spend 50$ or more each year to maintain it... isn't it just better to stick with a 35$ reel that handled the biggest of fresh water chum, EASILY....  and once it breaks, (in a year or longer) to buy a new one for another 35$?

I am tempted to spend 600$ on a amazing reel, however there are too many reviews out there that say its not much different in durability than a cheap one - just takes a year or two longer to rust. Worse, the drag often "seizes up" during the trip of your life time! I'm not sure you can just turn off the sealed drag on an expensive reel, or remove it entirely, like you can on a 35$ reel...

I had a 110$ Milano tournament rod that I upgraded to a 300$ Orvis Clearwater rod, and feel no difference in casting ability or fish catching. In fact, they both broke on me and had to be replaced (the first was my learning rod, so it had a few nymph impacts to the blank in its early days) (the second had the fly line wrap around the tip, and shear it off, while landing an angry fish!) Stuff breaks. It happens. I do assume that it's my fault, my luck, my bad habbits. I don't try to destroy equipment on purpose, however when it comes to hooking up with a fish, I will focus on fishing (correctly) but not babying gear... However, according to forums, an accidental extra dunk - or - two - in the saltwater does huge damage to a saltwater reel over time. A reel is a reel.. a mass produced hunk of metal... why does it cost more than an mid level custom built supercomputer? 

Is my thinking just "cheap"? Would a 300$ reel with plenty of preventative maintenance survive for a few years, or will it rust only 2 years after a 35$ reel would? Would I buy a 600$ reel and just have fun with it and soak it over night, or would I have to baby it while fishing from the beach or flats?

My cheap 30$ light spinning reel was used in the salt 10 years ago for half a dozen days, to catch my first Coho. I never washed it, never lubed it. It rolled around in sand, was submerged plenty of times.. Works like a charm to the day! No rust inside... Smooth, drag is perfect.. Yet a BASIC circular reel with 1 moving part rusted like that after 20 mins of salt and 6 months of fresh..

[Sr SQ]

Just my personal opinion of course but..........
I have used  fly reels for mooching reels for 25+ years in the salt so I have had much experience with many.
I agree with your point about the sealed drag units, my preference is for the open serviceable drags.
I dont mind pulling them apart annually and greasing/oiling them up.
Of the dozens of different makes and models Ive used over the years my Penn Internationals stand out as the best for 2 reasons.
1) Corrosion resistance - I don't know how they do it but absolutely none of my other reels have stood up anywhere close to the Penns ( most disappointed with Islander in that price point) against corrosion.
2) Drag - Penns come with silky smooth carbon drag washers right out of the box so no need to upgrade.

Cons would be
1) No longer in production, however they come up for sale fairly often in the used market.
2) Relatively heavy but I have not ever had to deal with quality issues like warped spools.

[RalphH]

I've done some fishing in the Caribbean and plus off the beaches here in BC. I've never had a problem with a $100 to $200 reel designated for Saltwater and gave them nothing more than a good rinse after a days fishing and a cleaning and lube job at the start of the season. Waters in the Straight are noticeably less saline than down south. Reels I've used include Scientific Anglers (SA2) Ross, Lamson, Loop (Graphite model), Redington Rise and pfleuger trion.  A lot of these reels come with a life time warranty others like the SA2 have a open drag system and are easy to service. Too bad the $ is so low but look for a good deal and spend some $ I think you'll do fine.

[flyrod]

I have Sage 6000 series fly reels, Hatch, Islander LX and Abel reels.  I like the sealed drag systems as it keeps the mechanism clean and clear of interference when you are playing powerful fish that are travelling up to 50 mph.  Islander with its cork drag system can stop a freight train but you have to maintain it every day if you are fishing in tropical warm waters. 
I have heard of far too many fishers who have bought a cheaper reel when fishing for salmon, steelhead and warm water species and have burnt their reels out.  If you are a serious fly fisher; spey, switch, SH for warm water fish get the best reel you can afford for the long haul and assurance that you won't have it break down while on a trip. 
A good used higher end fly reel is far better than a brand new lower end reel. 

[RalphH]

most of the lower end reels don't have a drag designed to do much more than apply moderate pressure on a large fish that run hundreds of yards. With a reel like that if you try to stop a large spring the drag may blow and likley won't ever be the same. With most of what you catch off the beach palming the reel should do. Certainly cutties & pinks do not require that sort of drag and neither do coho most part. If what you are looking for is a corrosion resistant reel that matches the drag your low $ coachman some reels < $200 will do it.

[stsfisher]

"The reel will be used for the occasional pink salmon & cutthroat hunt during the each season, as well as possible future vacations to the tropics."

This statement leads me to think you will be using this reel on a very limited basis? Occasional every couple of years for pinks, and occasionally for cuts. If you have the cash to buy a great reel then by all means buy something that will need very little maintenance to keep up. However if cash flow was an issue and you didn't mind doing a little maintenance after each use I see no need to break the bank.

Personally I don't own great gear for fishing occasionally in the ocean. I simply take care of what I have to ensure it works properly the next time out. Occasionally I have used fly reels meant for fresh water in the salt, when done it is a simple rinse and lube for another days use. Time is cheap!

[BC Fishing]

"The reel will be used for the occasional pink salmon & cutthroat hunt during the each season, as well as possible future vacations to the tropics."

This statement leads me to think you will be using this reel on a very limited basis? Occasional every couple of years for pinks, and occasionally for cuts. If you have the cash to buy a great reel then by all means buy something that will need very little maintenance to keep up. However if cash flow was an issue and you didn't mind doing a little maintenance after each use I see no need to break the bank.

Personally I don't own great gear for fishing occasionally in the ocean. I simply take care of what I have to ensure it works properly the next time out. Occasionally I have used fly reels meant for fresh water in the salt, when done it is a simple rinse and lube for another days use. Time is cheap!

Aside from using this reel for fishing large species in fresh water, I would use it occasionally in local & tropical saltwater. I agree with you: why buy a pricey salt reel when you can get by with a few days in the salt with proper maintenance of a freshwater reel". But what if I go on a two week tropical saltwater trip? Would the reel hold up with daily maintenance ( which I don't mind) or will a whole day in the salt do enough damage that waiting to do the TLC in the evening will ruin my reel by the end of those two weeks?

I would love to find out what reels (salt or freshwater reels) you guys are using in the saltwater, and how extensively, etc.

There just isn't enough proper information on this, I find. I found a tropical forum today where the flyfishermen complain that their Nautilus NVG rusts and the drag seizes up half way during a saltwater flyfishing vacation, and you MUST have a backup reel ALWAYS. A different forum suggests that freshwater reels with sealed drags are 100% fine in the salt, last decades and you shouldn't spend more than 200$ on a salt reel because there is no durability difference. Then, I spoke with Berry's Bait over the phone, and they assured me I don't need to do any maintenance on cork drags. What? This isn't right, not according to googley. (however I'm sure that one of us just mis-understood what the other was asking over the phone) Any cork drag manufacturer states that a cork drag will crack up if too dry or get destroyed by sand; cork drags cannot be sealed and require a lot of upkeep to keep it working. But a few others say that now there are new sealed drags with resin mixed with cork & mixed with... etc etc. Sigh. The sport fishing industry is such a mess! Some companies make 5wt line and call it a 4wt while others don't (same thing happens with rods). Thankfully there are some people who do comprehensive reel & rod testing to test what the manufacturers claim, for the sake of comparison to other reels.. But over all, it's quite undeveloped. Every speck of a 600$ smartphone is analyzed by thousands of people around the world but a 750$ fly reel is just "great" or "best" or "phenomenal"... They are all "phenomenal"!

I've seen a youtube video a while back of beach fishing for coho on vancouver island. The cameraman had a nice sage 2200-3200-4200 ish reel (I can't recall the exact one). He has a whole blog all about beach fishing in local salt waters.. He loves his equipment. Today, I'm reading about how the sealed drags on sage reels are garbage and let in salt water and rust within weeks.. So what caused one to stay in great condition and another to break in the middle of a once-in-a-life-time trip? How did the water conditions differ? more salinity? More dunking in the water? Wet backing never dried out? Hmm..

I've read another post on a tropical flyfishing forum about a guy who got a reel as a gift.. He found it top quality and assumed it was a 700$ reel and never had a second thought about it. He used it, he loved it, it was his #1. Several years later he searched up the model, and found out it was just 200$ ish reel! (Discontinued).

I'm just the type of person that loves knowing about the things I plan to use or own.

[jackie]

I recently purchased the new Redington Behemoth reel which I use as a reel for salmon and I also recently took it down to Mexico for two weeks of fishing for roosterfish and other game fish. The reel handled fish very well and after a simple rinse out with fresh water after each fishing trip it is still as smooth as can be. For a $110 for an 8wt  it is an excellent price for a great reel, and for myself as a teenager where I cant spend that much money it didnt break the bank. If you are looking for a great all round beach reel for occasional pink and cutthroat fishing and even using it for coho and chum I would highly suggest this reel. It comes with a lifetime warranty as well and redington claims it has the strongest drag in its class which doesnt hurt as well...

[BC Fishing]

I would like to share this reply with everyone:

"Reel selection for this particular fishery can be a bit of a catch 22. For the fish we encounter up here there isn't a huge need for a 600 dollar reel with a freight train stopping drag, but at the same time you don't want a reel that will be destroyed by the salt after a couple of outings. For quite a few years I fished mostly cheapish reels in the salt. I eventually settled on a Redington Rise because it performed well enough, wasn't terribly expensive, and most importantly because I live thirty minutes from the Sage/Redington factory and getting warranty service is super easy. That was a great reel that put a ton of fish to the beach for me but it didn't handle the salt particularly well. About once a season I would have to return it to the factory because the salt would rust out the innards. This wasn't a huge deal for me since i live so close but replacing a reel once a year would get old if I had to send it somewhere. Last year I splurged and got a Nautilus CCF X2 reel and I can't say enough good about it. The construction is rock solid and the drag is incredible. It handled two adult chinook off the beach this year with ease, one pushing 30 lbs. The biggest difference I've noticed though is how it handles the salt. During salmon season I fish just about every day and I am brutal on my gear. My rods and reels live in my truck and never get rinsed. After fishing this reel hard for over a year now you'd be hard pressed to know it wasn't brand new when opening it up. Not a spec of corrosion anywhere. That has impressed me greatly. One other factor to consider is if you will ever use the reel for bigger, harder fighting tropical fish. If that was a possibility then spending the money on a quality reel would probably be a good investment. If I were only going to fish this area ten days a year I probably wouldn't spend a ton. I'd most likely look at something like the Lamson Guru, Orvis Battenkill, Redington Behemoth, or maybe even something like a Pfleuger SLV. I've seen all those reels land a ton of fish around here, none would break the bank, and all will provide great customer service. I wrote a beach fishing article for my blog and I touch on gear a little bit in the article. You may find it helpful. Feel free to let me know if have any other questions.

https://saltyflyfishermanpnw.wordpress.com/2015/12/15/silvers-in-the-surf-a-beginners-guide-to-fly-fishing-for-coho-off-the-beach/

I am using the 8/10. It's a bit heavier than the 6/8 but it hasn't bothered me at all. I really like versatility out of my reels because I fish a ton out of my boat as well where I'm generally using shooting heads consisting of long running lines and heads of T14 or T17. I use this same reel for these setups so I wanted one with a bit more capacity. If all I was gonna do was fish the beach Id probably consider the 6/8, though when I hooked the large chinook I mentioned above I was very glad for the backing capacity of the 8/10.

. Anyway, I really don't have any experience flying with fishing gear. I do have friends that travel quite a bit and from what I understand is kinda as you mentioned..... None of them like to check their equipment for several reasons. I know guys who have brought small travel rods as carry on and not had a problem. Not sure about reels, I wasn't aware that they would be banned or that line must be removed. The one thing that most of the guys i know seem to do a lot is to ship their gear to their destination ahead of time using insured UPS or whatever carrier. Obviously this would only work if you had an address to send it to, but the benefits would be it would be cheaper and you could make sure all your gear arrived safe and sound before heading out yourself. Probably not feasible with a random family vacation somewhere but you never know you may be able to talk to a resort of a guide or even a shipping company to arrange something. Just a thought. Sorry I can't be of more help there!"

[chief]

I suggest you take a look at the following sites www.coltonfly.com. I have the Torrent model for several years for fishing in Baja of the beach and blue water. Value is exceptional and was better when the $ was near par ! Also currently on sale . Customer service is excellent regarding answering questions you may have. Also check www.allenflyfishing.com Kracken model which I use on spey/switch of the beach and rivers. Also on sale now.
As far as transporting rods by air  goes I have built my own rod case for fly & spin rods using pvc pipe/caps and check it as oversize. Also taped a couple of rod cases together and checked them as  oversize. If the flight goes via USA then Homeland Security will always open them and check the contents and leave their calling card ! No issues with me over many years flying to/from Cabo . Have also carried fly rods in their individual cases as hand luggage in the cabin 

[ajransom]

Cheap and plastic reels may seem like an attractive option (because they are cheap!), but in saltwater, you definitely want a good drag system. You dont need to spend massive money, but something rated for salt water with a good drag. No matter what reel you buy, ALWAYS give it a good rinse with fresh water.

Spending a bit of coin on a good reel, will save you money in the long run. If you look after it and rinse and dry it well, it will last a lifetime.