California Made Classic Fly Reels

[Ned Morris]

Many were made and only so many still out there. Here is my collection of 3. Love to see some of yours.

Orvis Odyssey+ III - Made by Rich Jacobsen in SoCal for maybe 7 years. Regarded by many as Orvis' finest reel ever made. Drag is incredible. I use it primarily in the Salt for Stripers and Bonito etc...

Thompson 100 - Just acquired this guy late last winter and finally going to give it a test run on the Yuba Friday. Copy of the Hardy Perfect. Made in San Francisco for only a few years in the late 1940's. Cannot wait.

Original Ross RR1 - My go to High Sierra Trout reel. Silent check is hard to get used to, but so well made and lightweight you get over it. These were actually first made in the Scott River Valley (Etna, CA).

All are no longer made and fairly rare, however are fantastic reels and definitely have the "Cool" factor just like a classic car. Love to see some of yours. Show us what you got! Anyone out there have a Peaker Billfish? Love to get one of those for my 9 wt. spey.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Teton reels where up around Angle's Camp in CA.

J Ryall reels was up that way.

Galvan reels is up that way too.

Abel reels is in southern Cal.

Hatch reels is down south too.......

.

[SeanO]

Very cool reels!

Hope to get a California one myself.

[Ned Morris]

Sorry Bill with the exception of J. Ryall (the junior is a sweet trout reel if you can find one) all of those are still made and easy to find/order and I don't classify them as classic. Just my opinion, but all are very good top quality reels made here in CA.

Salmonid - The Original Ross is not as hard as you think and price wise even one in good condition will cost you the same or even less than some of the reels Bill mentions above. Keep looking often on those auction sites (I just saw a RR1 with extra spool go for $250!) Not too bad.

[David Lee]

http://www.kiene.com/forums/showthread.php?18884-California-built-fly-reels&highlight=Stutz

[Ned Morris]

Ha I missed this one David but it was from 5 years ago. Nice! Guess I was on right track. Never heard of Stutz but I knew a guy who had a PHOS reel and he said it was a piece of junk. The Aussie gives the Odyssey high praise. I really would like a Peaker Billfish. Anyone have one out there they'd be willing to part with??????

[David Lee]

Ned -

Phos , junk ?? I heard they were really nice , though the process of getting the spools off was a bit 'different' .....

The Stutz was/is a fantastic reel . Bill Stutz and Dave Inks came up with the design , and Steve Abel did some machining on them , as I understand it . They are type-3 anodized (a curious Olive color) , disc drag , and had a great drag , adjusted by a urethane rubber sliding pad on the underside of the frame . The pad also acted as a brake when you pressed on it . There were three models , the Estuary (I had 3 of these , down to 2 now) which was 3 3/8 diameter , the Pacific (next size up) , and the Bearcat , which was the big one .

D.~

[David Lee]

9707970897099710

[Ned Morris]

Very cool David! Nice looking reel. I like the caged spool too as that is old school. The drag looks real impressive as well. My friend who had the Phos beat the hell out of his stuff and he claimed he had to clean it more often than not as the spool design let too much dirt and crap into the drag. Cool looking reel though. I can say my Orvis Odyssey+ is my favorite even though the Thompson is very very collectible same goes for the Ross. I think your Stutz is probably quite a collectors item as well