Click and Pawl Fly Reels

What a click and pawl reel is

Open the side of an old-style fly reel and you find a small toothed gear fixed to the spool, and a pawl, a little spring-loaded arm, pressed against it. When line leaves the spool, the teeth slip past the pawl one by one. The result is the sound people associate with fly fishing, a rising click as a fish pulls line, and a gentle resistance that stops the spool from spinning faster than the line is leaving.

Mad River Fly Company describes click-pawl drags as the older design, used on traditional reels. That is accurate and not an insult. Plenty of anglers pick them on purpose, for the weight, the simplicity and the sound.

What you do not get is adjustment. A click and pawl reel does not have a knob, so you cannot dial in tension. If you want to slow a fish, the usual method is to press your palm or fingers against the exposed rim of the spool. That works with light fish. It is a poor plan for a fish that wants to keep going.

What the table covers

At our last check (October 2026), 35 reels on Amazon US are listed with a click-and-pawl drag. The rule for this page is that the drag type, as described by the maker, is click and pawl. In a few entries the drag type comes from the Amazon listing, not the maker's page, such as the Redington Classic Trout models, the Hardy 1939 Bougle Heritage 3 inch and the Daiwa and Pflueger entries. Those carry the listing mark in the table, which tells you that it is the seller's statement.

By brand, Hardy has 11 reels, Ross has 5, Redington 4, then Daiwa and Galvan with 3 each, Lamson, Pflueger and Shakespeare with 2 each, and one each from Orvis, Sage and Sougayilang. The line weights run from 0 to 8, and most of the reels sit between 2 and 6.

How to read the table

Every value carries a small mark underneath:

• Maker means the value comes from the manufacturer's own product page.
• Claimed marks a maker's own claim with no independent standard named.
• Listing means the value comes only from the Amazon listing.
• — means we could not confirm it. We do not guess.

The columns, for a click and pawl reel:

• Line weight. The range the reel is rated for. Four models (three Hardy and one Orvis) show a dash because they are sold by name, and neither the maker data nor the Amazon title states a weight. Look at the maker's page.
• Arbor. Of the 35, 12 list a large arbor, 3 an ultra large one, 4 a mid arbor and 2 a standard one, and 14 do not confirm it. Many traditional reels are narrow-spool designs, which is why so many show a dash.
• Drag. Click and pawl for all of them, by the rule of the page. Where a maker publishes a maximum drag, it appears as a number. Hardy and Shakespeare list 0.5 lb.
• Reel weight. In ounces, and it is the column I'd look at first on this page. Among the 28 reels with a stated weight, the lightest are the Galvan Brookie B 0-1 at 2.54 oz, the Lamson Purist II at 2.7 oz and the Redington Zero 2/3 at 2.7 oz, all per the makers, and the heaviest is the Hardy Cascapedia 6/7 at 8.4 oz.
• Water. Mostly dashes, since classic reels rarely say. Ross lists freshwater for the Cimarron Creek, Hardy for the Cascapedia 4/5 and 6/7.
• Warranty. A column that matters here, covered below.

Under each model name, the "More specs" toggle shows material, construction (22 are machined, 4 cast, and 2 composite), diameter, backing capacity and retrieve side.

Why choose a click and pawl reel

Weight. With fewer parts inside, these reels can be light. Among the models above, most of the lightest sit at or below 3 ounces. A light reel on a light rod keeps the balance point near your hand. That matters on a 2 or 3 weight, where a heavy reel feels like a paperweight stuck to the butt.

Simplicity. Fewer parts means fewer things to clean, and fewer places for grit to hide. There is no drag stack to take apart. For small streams where a good trout runs a few feet, it is enough.

Sound and style. A clicker has a voice, and a lot of anglers like it. Hardy sells models named for a year, such as the 1912 Perfect and the 1939 Bougle Heritage. I'd call that preference, not performance, and it is fine to buy a reel for that.

Why you might not

The drag is light and fixed. Hardy lists 0.5 lb as the maximum drag on its click-and-pawl reels, and so does Shakespeare. The makers are telling you the reel will stop an overrun and not much else. A fish that wants to leave will leave.

Small reels, small backing. Smaller diameter means less room for backing. The Hardy Lightweight Flyweight 2/3 lists a 2 weight line with 33 yards of 20 lb Dacron. The Redington Zero reels list 100 yards of 20 lb backing, which tells you how different the designs are. Read the capacity before you buy if your rod might hook something bigger than a trout.

Salt is a poor match. The page for saltwater reels is a different list. I'd keep click-and-pawl reels in fresh water unless the maker says otherwise, because the open gear and pawl are not normally sealed. The MidCurrent maintenance guide says sealed disc drags resist salt by design, and open mechanisms need rinsing and attention after each trip.

Retrieve is often not stated. Sixteen of the 35 list a convertible retrieve. The rest don't say, so check the manual.

Line weight and rod match

A reel's job is to match the rod. Orvis says your line weight should match your fly rod weight, and you can get by within one or two weights of the ideal. Mad River Fly Company notes that many reels accept about two weights, such as 4/5 or 7/8. That is how most of these models are labeled: Galvan Brookie B 2-3, Redington Zero 2/3 and 4/5, Ross Colorado 2/3 and 4/5, and the Hardy Cascapedia 4/5 and 6/7.

A click-and-pawl reel makes the most sense on the lighter end. A 2, 3 or 4 weight rod on a small stream pairs well with a 2 to 3 ounce reel. For a 5 or 6 weight, the all-round trout range, the table has Ross, Redington, Sage, Shakespeare and Hardy options. At 7 and 8 weight the click-and-pawl is rarer: the table has the Pflueger Medalist 7/8, the Shakespeare Cedar Canyon Click 7/8, a Sougayilang 7/8 and the Daiwa Rochhommore A 300A, with the Hardy Wide Spool Perfect at 6 to 8. A larger fish at those weights is exactly where a fixed 0.5 lb drag becomes a problem, so read the next section before you commit.

Warranty

The warranty column is one of the clearest differences between makers on this page.

• Hardy states five years from original purchase for the original owner, with registration within 60 days and a service fee for failures that are not manufacturing defects.
• Redington lists an original-owner warranty against defects in materials and workmanship for the Classic Trout reels and a lifetime warranty for the Zero reels, per the maker pages.
• Shakespeare lists a limited one-year warranty for the Cedar Canyon Click.
• Sage lists an original-owner warranty against defects in materials and workmanship for the Click.
• Daiwa, Pflueger, Sougayilang and Orvis, and one Hardy listing (the Wide Spool Perfect HRP235W), show no warranty in our data for these models.

Eight of the 35 reels show a dash in the Warranty column. Warranty is part of the price you pay, so a dash is a prompt to look at the maker's site, not to guess.

How to choose

1. Start with the line weight of your rod. Match it to the label.
2. Decide how big the fish can get. If the answer is small trout and panfish, a click and pawl is fine. If the answer includes steelhead or bass over a few pounds, use the trout fly reel page and consider a disc drag.
3. Check weight and diameter. Light is a reason to buy this type. If a model weighs 6 ounces or more, ask why you want a click and pawl at all.
4. Read the warranty. Original owner, registration and service fees are all different promises.
5. Check availability for your size and retrieve side. Many of these reels come in several sizes with the same name.

Our fly reels page covers the whole market, and the best fly reels page applies a written rule to the reels. For the opposite end of the simplicity scale, the automatic fly reel page covers the spring reels.

Brands in the table

Hardy leads with 11 reels, in the Lightweight, Perfect, Cascapedia, Bougle Heritage and Marquis series. Ross lists the Cimarron Creek and Colorado. Redington lists the Classic Trout and Zero. Galvan lists the Brookie, Lamson the Purist II, and Sage the Click. Daiwa, Pflueger, Shakespeare, Orvis and Sougayilang each contribute one or two. The full set of makers is in the brand catalog, and the pages for Hardy, Ross, Redington, Galvan, Lamson, Sage, Daiwa, Pflueger, Shakespeare, Orvis and Sougayilang describe what each sells.

A note on "classic"

Some of these reels are sold with words like heritage, classic and traditional. None of those words can be measured, which is why they are so popular in listings. A heritage design is one that has been around a long time, which says something about its history and nothing about its drag. The stated weight, backing figure and warranty will tell you more than the adjective (a reel can be classic and still weigh 8.4 ounces).