Saltwater Fly Reels

What the rule is, and what it lets in

Salt is hard on gear. It gets into bearings, crusts on drag parts and does its slow work on anything that is not sealed or rinsed. A saltwater fly reel is a reel built to cope.

The rule on this page is simple: the maker's own page says the reel is made for saltwater, or for both salt and fresh water. We do not infer it from a listing, a bright color or the word "tarpon" in a title. In our data the maker states the water type for all 47 reels.

That rule has a consequence you should know about. Eight reels are described as saltwater: the Sage Enforcer 9/10 and 11/12, the Lamson Hyperspeed M8 and Centerfire 12, the Echo Bravo 7/9, 8/10 and 10/12, and the Maxcatch Sparta 7/9. The other 39 are described as all-water, which means a maker calls them suitable for salt and fresh. Many of those are light reels for 2 to 6 weight rods, the Lamson Guru and Liquid, the Sage Shift, the Ross Animas and the Galvan Torque among them. They suit a trout rod and a flats rod alike if the maker is right. A reel on this page is not necessarily a reel for tarpon. It is a reel its maker is willing to put in salt water. Read the line weight before the label.

Line weights in the table run from 2 to 12. About half of the reels start at 7 weight or above, which is where most saltwater fly fishing lives, and the rest sit lower.

How to read the table

Every value carries a small mark under it:

• Maker means the value comes from the manufacturer's own product page.
• Claimed marks a maker's own claim with no independent lab or 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 this page:

• Line weight. The range the reel is rated for. Most are two weights, such as 7/8 or 9/10. A few of the Echo and TFO reels have line weights from the listing only, so look for the mark.
• Arbor. Large for most, ultra large for some, such as the Lamson Speedster S and Liquid Max 10, and the Ross Animas. Saltwater reels tend to have larger arbors for backing, according to Mad River Fly Company.
• Drag. Disc carbon, conical (Lamson) or an unspecified disc. A sealed drag appears as "sealed" under the value. Thirty-two of the 47 list one.
• Reel weight. In ounces, and it ranges from about 3.3 oz for a 2 to 4 weight Lamson to 10.8 oz for the Sage Enforcer 9/10.
• Water. Saltwater or all-water, from the maker, for every reel on this page.
• Warranty. Different for each maker, covered below.

Under each model name, the "More specs" toggle shows material, construction, diameter, maximum drag where published, backing capacity and retrieve side.

Sealed drags, and why they come first

If you remember one column, make it the drag. Mid Current's maintenance guide puts the difference plainly. A sealed disc drag resists salt by design and wants a rinse each trip and a service every few years, usually by the maker. An open cork drag is not sealed, so salt can get in, and the owner has to strip and re-lubricate it. One needs less from you.

Sealed discs are the norm in this table: the Sage Shift and Enforcer, the Lamson Guru, Liquid, Speedster and Hyperspeed, the Greys Tail AW and the Maxcatch Sparta all list one. Some Galvan Torque and Ross reels do not state a sealed drag in our data, which does not mean they lack one. It means we could not confirm it. If sealing matters to you, and in salt it should, check the maker's description of that model before you buy.

Strength matters too. Where the maker publishes a maximum drag, you can see it in "More specs": the Sage Enforcer 9/10 lists 15 lb, the Greys Tail AW 9/10 lists 12 lb and the Tail AW 7/8 lists 9 lb. Compare those with the 0.5 lb on a traditional click-and-pawl reel, and you can see why the click and pawl reels belong in fresh water.

Arbor, diameter and backing

A bigger fish runs farther, and backing is what you have behind the fly line when it does. Capacity depends on the spool size, so the numbers under "More specs" are worth reading. A few from the table:

• Sage Enforcer 9/10: 10 weight line plus 200 yards of 30 lb backing. The Enforcer 11/12 lists a 12 weight line plus 300 yards of 30 lb.
• Galvan Torque T-8: 8 weight line plus 200 yards of 20 lb micron backing.
• Ross Animas 7/8: 7 weight line plus 180 yards or 8 weight line plus 160 yards.
• Greys Tail AW 9/10: 10 weight line plus 100 yards of 30 lb Dacron.
• Lamson Guru S for 2 to 4 weight: 4 weight line plus 60 yards of 20 lb backing.

These are maker figures and they use different backing types, which is why a yard count alone is not a fair comparison. Micron backing is thinner than Dacron and packs more yards onto the same spool. Use the figure for the line and backing type the maker names. Our backing capacity guide goes into the arithmetic, and the fly reel size guide explains the weight labels.

Matching a reel to your rod

Orvis says your line weight should match your rod weight, and you can get by within one or two weights of the ideal. For salt, the common step is up: heavier rods, bigger flies, bigger fish. Our saltwater fly rods page and the 8 weight fly rod page show the rods, and the guides on redfish, tarpon and what weight rod for redfish say what those fish tend to require. I will leave the species advice to them, since it depends on the water.

If you will fish both a trout river and a flat, an all-water reel for 5 to 8 weight is the obvious meeting point. The table shows Lamson, Sage, Ross and Galvan options in that range.

Warranty

Salt makes warranty terms worth reading.

• Sage states an original-owner warranty against defects in materials and workmanship for the Shift and Enforcer.
• Lamson states a limited lifetime warranty for the original owner, covering defects in material or workmanship, with repair or replacement.
• Ross states a limited lifetime warranty, original owner, authorized-dealer purchase, repair or replacement only.
• Galvan states a lifetime warranty for the original owner, covering parts and workmanship under normal use, purchased from an authorized dealer with registration or proof of purchase.
• Greys states 12 months.
• Echo states one year from purchase for manufacturing defects.
• Temple Fork Outfitters states its lifetime warranty on the NXT Black Label reel.
• Maxcatch and the TFO Power III show no warranty in our data.

"Lifetime" means the life of the original owner, with conditions, and almost never includes damage from use or neglect. Salt damage is the kind of thing a warranty may call neglect. Read the wording before you buy and again before you send anything back.

Care after salt

Care is the second half of buying a saltwater reel. The MidCurrent guide gives a short routine:

1. Rinse gently. A light spray of fresh water. The advice is to spray, not blast or submerge, since a hard stream can push salt into the bearings.
2. Rinse the spool. Hatch's guidance, quoted there, is to remove the spool and rinse it under moving fresh water.
3. Dry fully. Then put it in its pouch. A damp pouch keeps corroding the reel after you have gone home.
4. Back the drag off. On a cork drag, a drag left cranked down can lose its tension and come back weak.
5. Service as the maker says. Sealed discs are typically sent to the maker every few years. Cork drags are stripped and lubricated with the specified lubricant, and too much oil can make the drag slip.

Gary once put his reel back in its pouch wet and left it in the car. The pouch and the reel have been in a long, quiet relationship ever since. Salt is patient, and it does not need your help.

Brands in the table

Lamson leads with 18 reels, then Sage with 8, Galvan and Ross with 6 each, Echo and TFO with 3 each, Greys with 2 and Maxcatch with 1. The brand pages describe the lines in more detail: Lamson, Sage, Galvan, Ross, Echo, Temple Fork Outfitters, Greys and Maxcatch. The full fly reels page covers every type, and the brand catalog lists all makers.

What the page cannot tell you

Prices are not shown on this site, so I cannot tell you which reel is the best value, and I would not trust a page that claimed to without showing its math. What I can say is that value in a saltwater reel is mostly drag, sealing and warranty, in that order. A reel that survives three trips in salt and then stops being smooth is not a bargain at any price. Click through to the Amazon page for current prices, and compare the maker columns first.