The Best Fly Reels for Trout

Buy the reel size that matches your rod weight: a 3/4 reel for a 3- or 4-weight rod, a 5/6 for a 5- or 6-weight. For most trout anglers that means the Piscifun Sword in 5/6; for a small-stream 3-weight, the Maxcatch ECO 3/4, which arrives with line already on it. Trout in creeks do not test a drag, so the reel's job is to hold the right line and balance the rod — and both of those are decided by size, not by price.

Reel size: match the rod, not the fish

Fly reels are sold in weight ranges — 2/3, 3/4, 5/6, 7/8 — and those numbers refer to the line weight the spool is built to hold, which in turn matches the rod. It is not about the size of fish.

Get this wrong and the rod feels wrong. A 7/8 reel on a 4-weight rod is a dumbbell on a wand — tip-light, awkward to cast, tiring in an hour. A 2/3 reel on a 6-weight cannot hold the line plus backing. If you do not know your rod's weight, it is printed just above the handle.

If you are still choosing the rod, start there instead: our fly rod roundup and 4-weight vs 5-weight comparison settle that decision, and the reel follows from it.

How much drag does a trout need?

Less than any reel on this page provides. A ten-inch creek trout will never pull line against a drag. On small water, the fish is landed by stripping line in by hand with the rod doing the work, and the drag setting is irrelevant for the great majority of fish you catch.

What drag is actually for is the surprise. Once or twice a season something considerably larger than expected takes the fly, turns, and runs. What you want then is not strength but smoothness — a drag that starts moving without a jolt, because the jolt is what breaks 5X tippet. Any of these reels does that adequately; the more expensive ones do it more consistently when wet and cold.

Large arbor vs standard arbor

The arbor is the center spindle the line winds onto. Large-arbor reels have a fat center and a wide shallow spool. Standard-arbor reels have a thin center and a deeper spool.

Large arbor wins on two counts. You retrieve more line per turn of the handle, which matters when a fish runs toward you and you need to catch up. And line stored on a wide radius keeps less coil memory, so it comes off straight instead of in springs — a real difference on the first cast of the morning.

Standard arbor holds more backing for the same size. That matters for saltwater and salmon, and not at all for trout, where you will never see your backing. Buy large arbor.

Balance, and why it matters on a 3-weight

A fly rod should balance roughly at the top of the cork grip with the reel fitted. Hold the assembled rod lightly with one finger under the grip just above the reel seat — it should sit near level rather than nosing up or down.

Light rods are fussier than heavy ones. A 3-weight rod weighs so little that reel weight dominates the balance, which is why a 3/4 reel on a 3-weight is not just about line capacity — a 5/6 reel on the same rod makes it feel like a different, worse rod. On a 5-weight you have more latitude.

This is the main argument for buying an outfit. A matched combo has the balance already solved. Our complete outfits guide covers those, and the starter kit guide compares buying a kit against assembling pieces.

Pre-loaded or spool it yourself

Pre-loaded reels arrive with backing, fly line and often a leader already fitted. For a first reel that is worth real money — spooling backing under correct tension, tying the backing-to-line connection and getting the line on the right way round are three jobs that are easy to do badly.

Spool it yourself when the line is the point. The line included on a pre-loaded reel is entry-level, and line does more for how a rod casts than the reel ever will. If you are buying a reel to pair with good line, buy the reel bare and read our fly line guide — that is where the upgrade actually lives.

Where the money should go

On small trout water the honest order is rod, then line, then reel. A good line on a cheap rod outcasts a bad line on a good rod, and a $35 machined reel does the reel's entire job on a creek. Spend $40 on the reel, put the difference into line, and the setup casts better than the reverse allocation at the same total price.

The exception is if you will also fish bigger water for bigger fish, where a genuinely good sealed drag starts to earn its keep. Our general fly reel guide covers arbor sizes and when an upgrade is worth it in more depth; this page is the trout-sized subset of that question. And if you are weighing a fly setup against spinning tackle for small streams, fly fishing vs spinning is the honest comparison, with ultralight spinning reels as the other route.

And if the next reel is meant to be the last one, the step up to a sealed drag and a machined frame is laid out in high quality fly reels — including an honest account of what it does not change on small water.

One fishery where the drag genuinely matters. Everything above assumes trout, where a reel is a line holder with a brake. Tributary steelhead run into the backing, which changes the reel requirement completely — the rod and reel pairing for that is in the steelhead rod roundup.

If you would rather choose a brand than a model. The best fly reel brands guide compares Orvis, Redington, Lamson, Sage, Piscifun and Maxcatch on drag type, machining and warranty.