Discovery Fly Reels
Brad Harris heads north with a budget fly reel from Rod & Fly.
While I’ve got a bit of trout gear, I had hardly anything suitable for a trip to Darwin. I didn’t even know what I’d be chasing really, other than barra. My experiences of barra didn’t involve blistering runs or too much backing, so I couldn’t justify spending a grand on a reel for a yearly two-week trip.
With a call to Mike at Rod & Fly and $189.95 extracted from my account I had a shiny 7/9 weight Discovery Large Arbor Fly Reel on my bench. For those sort of dollars, I was pretty impressed. It is fully machined from 6061-T6 alloy. No castings, no plastic. Even the handle is machined alloy. You get a choice of black or silver too.
The spool runs super smoothly, and is silent, which I like. It has a pawl-bearing at one end of the shaft, which engages a cork and teflon disk-drag system. This in turn has a big well-shaped adjustment knob which clicks as it is adjusted.
It’s a large arbor design and has plenty of meat where it’s needed in the frame. It’s not super-light, but not heavy either. Before going north I gave it a trial run for a month on my 6/7 weight, which balanced okay, and used it most of the time around Darwin. It was fine on my 8-weight for casting all day.
The fully sealed drag has given me no trouble and worked fine to stop barra and queenies. I was going to try it on a milkfish, but hadn’t loaded enough backing, so didn’t risk losing my line. I suspect it would have handled it though.
I also grabbed a few Dahlbergs and poppers from Rod & Fly, which I couldn’t be bothered to tie myself, and they all caught fish, so are clearly okay! I haven’t got a clue what sort of hooks they’re on, but I didn’t straighten or snap any, which is good enough for me.
I’m not a particularly materialistic or ‘gearsnobbish’ person, and I’m sure this reel will be perfectly fine for many years of my ‘occasional’ use. Sure, if I fished every day or weekend in the salt, it might be worth investing in a more proven brand, but I’m on a tight budget and this reel more than did the job.
Check out www.troutflies.com.au for pricing and ordering.