I fly fish a lot, and have been tying flies and building rods for years. Apart from heavy or salt water rods, I’ve never given too much thought to reels though, and usually run them on the cheaper end for 5wt and under. A relative who was hardcore in his younger years fishing in Appalachia recently passed away and I inherited these guys. Just wondering what I’ve got here. All Hardy, Orvis, and Abel from years ago with one or more extra spools for each. I’ve been told accompanying rods are en route and I’m terrified….
Posted by MeanFruit3418
5 Comments
The man had taste. That’s all I got
Wow, what a jackpot. Many of those reels are the cream of the crop and prized by collectors. The Hardy’s are all stellar machines, and a really nice find with that gold Flyweight.
The dollar value alone is into the $200-300 range per reel (save the Pflueger, depending on where/when it was made)
Upper left Abel super series, maybe narrow spool. Excellent, cork drag reels.
Upper right Pflueger Medalist, simple and relatively cheap but that is still a nice one.
Middle right Orvis CFO, looks like late 90s early 00s, geared disk drag. Those years they were actually manufactured by Hardy if recall correctly.
Left middle and bottom two are all Hardys from the Lightweight series — they tend to name them individually for each line size.
Those reels range from $100 for the Pflueger up to maybe $600-700 for the Abel and perhaps the others if they are particularly collectible.
All genuinely nice reels. Would fit from a 3 weight to maybe a 6 on the high end. Definitely trout reels; in the Appalachians probably mostly used for brook trout.
Ask on Classic Fly Rod Forum if you want more details.
Very very nice collection of trout reels Able has a drag that can handle any fish that can be caught <6wt
This relative of yours chose wisely during his time.