Need a fly reel for pike fly fishing? More a must have then a need to have. Seriously you need a fly reel and I will tell you which one is the right one.

What features does it need to have? Firstly you need a big reel to hold more or less the heavy fly lines. Heavy is relative, so a standard 9wt reel will do the trick. That’s more or less everything a fly reel for pike fly fishing should do. You don’t need a ultra powerful drag. You don’t need hundreds of meters of backing capacity. And you also don’t need an ultra lightweight reel, nor any other super special features like anti reverse, etc..

All this are these must have features we like. And I like them! We all like them! A nice, fancy, super cool designed, smooth fly reel is for me a really essential asset for a fly reel. It feels totally different fishing with a masterpiece of engineering. But we don’t need it.

Did you ever had a pike that took you into the backing? I can hardly believe. A pike that takes as much line that you see the backing knot running through your guides must be absolutely the holy grail of pike fly fishing. I never hooked a pike that took even more line than the slack line I had stripped of the reel. Yes there are people that like their reel screaming and let the pike swim around for some time but that’s not fair to the pike. I fight my pikes hard and give them no more line then really needed. This also reduces the stress for the pikes and also the risk of mortality after release. This obsoletes one more thing, the amount of backing. Backing in this respect is more a design element than a must have.

Coming back to the drag. Its not the most critical thing for us but a smooth and sealed drag can’t be denied. Firstly pike fishing is sometimes in also in salty Waters, and there can be always a bigger one hooked that is of course much more comfortable to fight on the reel than the line around your legs.

And when you do have the chance of heading out for salty adventures like bone fishing you will enjoy our high quality reels we love to use even if we don’t need them.

greets
Philipp