Quote:
Originally Posted by professori
It is faster than trying to reel it in with a fish heading towards you, it is ready to cast once the fish is released (or dispatched) but most importantly, I can feel the fish and control the amount of pressure on it with a simple pinch of my fingers (and provide better control than any drag i set on the reel). Drag on a fly reel is so much different than drag on a spinning reel or level wind. With either of those two, the drag will allow a fish to take line, while you are reeling in. Not so with a fly reel and this is no small issue. Having the line in hand allows me to instantly adjust the drag from light to heavy, to free.
p.s. Unlike geared reels, the reel is designed to hold your line, not to gather it.
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Pretty much perfectly said.
Mills, the reel is very secondary. If you are looking at getting a better reel as a method of picking up the slack, you will lose a lot of fish. Majority of the time I have slack line at my feet or somewhere in the cast and I always use the hands first before even thinking about using the reel. In fact, if I then decide to reel in the slack once I see the fish I've pretty much decided that I'm not so worried about losing the fish. Just my .2 cents worth.