[FlyFish Rep]

As I understand it, the heaviest loop reel will be the hd 9-13, with a weight of around 7 ounces. This would be awesome for someone using a winston 2bx spey, but for 9-10 weight that weigh up to 11 ounces wouldnt alot of people find them to not balance the rod well?

PS: if you want to see what the new loop evotec reels look like you can see them on ebay, for instance here is a evotec 9-13 for $425
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=23818&item=7163747205&rd=1
PpS: loop is a sponsor, right? The sponsor police arent going to send me a nasty email about my using the l**p word are they, or posting a link to a l**p dealer selling a l**p reel?

 

[spey machine]

.............haven't bothered too much with the NL(New Loop), but the OL(Old Loop) Danielsson makes the HD 11-14, which weighs 11.72 oz. on my scale. That is perfect for most longer, or heavier rods that need more weigh to balance them. It seems the reel can be a little too heavy and be ok, but if it is too light and the tip starts too drop too much, it can become pretty tiring over a long day.

 

[Dana]

I think there's too much made of the issue of balance with two handers. Having fished all sorts of two-handers with all sorts of reels over the years I haven't found balance to be really that important. Forward grip lengths on various rods are different, and it seems strange to me to call a rod/reel/line combo "balanced" because the setup balances in the hand somewhere toward the front of the top grip. I grip a two-hander either on the cork or forward of the cork, with my top hand lightly holding the rod and the butt section below my hand resting along my forearm. I find this to be a restful way to fish out a cast whether my rod is tip-heavy or not. Kush tends to use two hands on the rod a lot of the time, and he leads his fly more strongly than I do--using two hands makes this easier I think. We both use different rods and reels, but I don't think we've ever even considered balance. With reels capacity is the issue--as long as your reel has the capacity to handle your line and sufficient backing, you should be fine. If you are casting a 16ft 10/11 witha long belly line, you'll need a bigger reel to carry that line. Once you spool that reel up with backing and a line, the issue of balance will pretty much take care of itself.

Specific to the LOOP reels, while I do not have my new ones yet, there's very little difference with the balance point between the old 9/13 and 11/14 when placed on the same 15ft rod (a LOOP yellow in this case)--again, the choice would come down to capacity considerations. With gelspun poly backing, there's really no reason why the Evotec 9thirteen wouldn't be an excellent choice for most speylines. Once I get my reels I'll spool them up and report on what lines they'll handle. Regarding delivery time, I checked with the folks at LOOP North America and they are expecting them any time now. The new CLW reels are in and I picked mine up yesterday. They are beefier than last year's model and I really like the upgrades--enclosed frame, aluminum reel foot, upgraded handle and counter balance.

 

[spey machine]

...............Dana, are you saying that when you are letting the fly drift and swing, that you sometimes hold the rod with your hand above the cork, on the blank itself?

 

[Dana]

...............Dana, are you saying that when you are letting the fly drift and swing, that you sometimes hold the rod with your hand above the cork, on the blank itself?

yes, that's how I do it!

 

[Philster]

yes, that's how I do it!

Depending on how cold it is I often have the rod blank passing between my index and middle finger and the top of the cork butted up against those two fingers. Very comfortable and unlikely to have the rod yanked out of my grip.