I'm finishing up my first fly rod build. It is a temple fork professional series blank in a 9wt. I'm wondering if any of you have experience with this reel. I'm looking for something thats less than $100 bucks, but I also don't want to buy a crap reel.
What do you guys think?

I have the used the RLS 2 for my 6 wt and the RLS 3 for my 8wt. Both of these reels seem to be about right for my Sage flyrods, maybe a little on the heavy side. I have landed dozens of steelhead and salmon with the RLS 3 and have not had any issues with it. The drag seems to be holding up nicely. If you can catch them on sale, sometimes these reels can be had for around $80.

Just bought Konix Lamson reel for 100$...pretty good reel.

Thanks for the feedback. I found another deal online I thought I would give it a shot. See the reel here. The guy is really great to work with and I've heard great things about the reel on another site I frequent. I should have it soon and will try to give a report.

A year ago I bought an okuma reel for my 3 wt TFO rod that looks very similar to this. It's machined aluminum and very light...but one thing i hate about is that its too shiny...maybe its just me but I always think that it spooks the fish when I don't catch any.

Arkman,

Where did you pick up your TFO blank and all the fixins?

I just retired my gander xls 5wt and pick up another TFO 5wt. Heading to Brule in 2 days with my 5wt TFO Pro series with Lamson Konic and shark skin line, 3wt TFO Pro series with akuma reel, and 8 wt Sage Launch with G-Loomis reel.

I picked up my TFO's at cabelas for 149$.

quote Badgerboy: "Arkman,


Where did you pick up your TFO blank and all the fixins?"

I got my blank, cork, and guides at The Fly Angler in Blaine MN. Otherwise I think you can pick up TFO blanks at Mudhole.com