Hi Steve! I read that article you're talking about, but I don't remember where, sorry. I just wanted to chime in and give you my two cents regarding my perception of the validity of these criterion in freshwater.
When I read that article, I too started wondering about various reels. But then it occurred to me that, as line is peeled from the reel, the effective diameter of the arbor gets smaller and smaller, requiring significantly more and more force to continue pulling line from the reel. (Try this, you'll see what I mean.) So, if you intend to set your drag and not worry about it during the fight, then it must be set sufficiently light to account for this "diminishing effective size of the arbor" effect. That required, light initial drag setting renders the "startup inertia" criterion moot, in my opinion.
I've also never test-driven a reel that didn't have sufficient "dead weight stopping power" to make that initial, sufficiently light drag setting. Thus, I think that criterion is moot as well.
So, given the quality of just about ANY reel you're likely to encounter in a fly shop, I have since concluded the article has no real-world validity and is probably just more industry hype.
-- Mike
Chuck Norris has already been to Mars; that's why there are no signs of life.
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