The automatic fly fishing reel was developed to allow the angler to retrieve the fly fishing line automatically without having to turn a handle on the reel. Therefore an automatic fly fishing reel does not any have handles, and to retrieve the fly fishing line an angler must press a trigger, which will release a spring that will start the automatic retrieval mechanism
Although this seems like quite a clever innovation to reduce the effort required for line retrieval, there is also a downside to this – these fly fishing reels are quite heavy and they are not all that durable either. The chances of these reels breaking down are increased because there are so many parts that can, and will often develop snags. In addition, an automatic fly fishing reel does not provide any fine drag setting, and these reels have a limited line capability, and do not allow for much backing on the spool. The other headache to using an automatic fly fishing reel, is that is changing the spools is very time consuming and painful process.
All these downsides to using an automatic fly fishing reel have ensured that such reels are not very popular among fly fishermen, and it is not surprising to find that very few anglers risk using such reels. No doubt, in the recent past much improvements have helped to improve the functioning of the automatic fly fishing reel; but, if you are really serious about your fly fishing you would do well to steer clear of the automatic fly fishing reel. The popularity of automatic fly fishing reels peaked in during the 1960s, and since that time they have been outsold many times over by manual fly reels.
And, if you are interested in saltwater fly fishing then you must definitely not risk using an automatic fly fishing reel – only the very foolhardy anglers would attempt using such reels when doing saltwater fishing. The fact is that the parts of the automatic fly fishing reel will not stand up to the heavy usage and handling, and without sufficient backing such reels would prove to be quite useless when you try and control large fish at the end of your fishing line.
The moral of this story is stay away from the automatic fly fishing reel!
