LOOP Reel: Advantages

Göran Andersson and a Norwegian Atlantic salmon (Photo: LOOP)

Advantages of a large arbor reel

• The speed of retrieving the line

To begin with, one can think of the speed at which the line can be retrieved. For the Frenchman that I became in the 70's (I was born Belgian), this was obvious. Most of the French who started fly-fishing at the age of split cane rod, were using an automatic fly reel. Who has forgotten the marvelous Abeille reel? Those who could not afford it, usually turned towards a Shakespeare. With the first carbon fiber rods, which were a lot lighter than split cane rods, the need for lighter reels became more urgent. It gave birth to a lighter version of the Abeille, the famous Cordel. But this was still not enough as the carbon fiber rods were becoming lighter and lighter.

The French then hated manual reels. Why? Because the speed of retrieve was a lot slower than on the automatic reels, and manual reels were noisy. They all had a clicker to prevent the spool from overrunning, some were also offering a rim control in order to put pressure on a fish when this was needed and possible. Why was the noise a problem to the French? Because since the invasion of France by the Nazis, fishing during the night has been prohibited. The French have recovered freedom, but not that freedom: they cannot start fishing more than 30 minutes before sunrise, and they cannot fish more than 30 minutes after sunset. Silly, but that's how things go. The time difference between the east and the west of France is about one hour, and that between the north and the south can be a good 40 minutes in June. In those days, the official time of the sunrise and the sunset was that of Paris, and it was quite difficult to find the exact time at the place you were willing to fish. The issue of all this was that fishermen had to stop fishing before the actual sunset in Brittany (west), when those fishing in Alsace (east) could very legally fish in complete darkness! The evening rise was legally impossible to match in the west and north of France. As you may imagine, it is not the law that will prevent the descendants of those who have made the Revolution from going fishing in the evening... But in order to minimize the risk of getting caught by the bailiff, a silent reel was a must. It is then that the first affordable light manual reel with a drag system was brought to the market. I must admit that I was one of the very first French who imported one… Although it had a clicker, I had imagined that the clicker could be removed without problem. When I received it, I discovered that the clicker did not need to be removed, it could simply be pushed aside. The manufacturer had considered the need for silence of some of his potential customers! Later, I learned from that manufacturer, when I met him, that he had to put the drag system forward in order to make that reel saleable elsewhere than on the too small French market. Remember this: the drag system was meant to make the reel silent, and not to put pressure on a fish, nor to stop a train!

However that may be, the speed of retrieving the line remained a problem to the French, Some considered the multiplier reels, but those were almost as heavy as automatic reels. Others turned to the semi-automatic reels that then appeared on the market, in spite of their disadvantage of not being good at all when it is a better than average fish that takes the fly. Needless to say that when the first large arbor reels (LOOP) appeared on the French market, it did not take them long to catch, in spite of their then expensive price: they were light, silent and they were offering a very good speed of retrieve. That said, other advantages were to be discovered.

• Line memory

First of all, the large diameter of those reels helped against the line memory. This, the first users promptly discovered. And they all considered this as a very good thing.

• Low resistance

But the most important thing they also discovered is that the spool of LOOP reels offers virtually no resistance to start rotating. The result is fewer breakage of the tippet when a fish starts to run. And the brake system of the LOOP Evotec series, can easily be adjusted so that the spool never overruns in spite of an extremely low resistance to the release of the line. Yes, this also means that it is possible to use smaller tippets without increasing the risk of breakage. And lighter tippets often mean more offers… This huge advantage is due to the amazing lightness of LOOP spools.

• Almost no drag increase

Another advantage found by those who cast at longer distance, and those who play larger fish that take a lot of line, is that the resistance of the spool does not increase that much significantly as the reel empties. This is clearly due to the large arbor concept. The line never gets that close to the axis of the reel as on a conventional fly reel. Therefore, the spool rotates slower, with less friction, and offers less resistance. Again, the risk of breaking the tippet is lower with a large arbor reel.

Advantages of a LOOP reel

Convinced? A large arbor reel is what you need. But why bother with a LOOP reel when there are so many copies available on the market, and easy to find? A good part of the answer is within the question itself. What is best: the original or its copy? About the principle, nobody argues any longer: a large arbor reel is better than a small or smaller arbor reel. And the result of this is that almost all manufacturers copy LOOP. Still, what makes a LOOP better than any other brand? LOOP Evotec reels are manufactured from the finest aircraft-grade aluminum available, and LOOP Evotec CLW and CLWC from the best composite material. The Evotec offers the best brake system you have ever dreamed of. It consists of disks made of "hi-end" material, not ordinary cork as it is all too often the case for copies. The brake system is sealed, which means that it is impervious to dirt or water. Due to this, there is never any slippage of the brake, be the reel dry or wet, in the air or in the water. Try to put copies for one hour at the bottom of a tank full of water, and then test the brake. You will probably discover that copies don't like the water that much… Do the same with a LOOP Evotec, the brake will remain exactly the same. LOOP reels are made for fishing, not just for showing.

Philippe Dolivet and a sea-trout from the Rio Gallegos, Patagonia, Argentina (Photo: Thierry Willems)