Free spooling a Loop Trad.

[Jamey McLeod]

So I was out fishing the Muskegon last night with a co-worker and long time friend (same person) for trout. He was hammering away at some fair sized fish on a 3wt with sulphers popping all around in a pool at the head of a long, fast(er), boulder strewn run. I was fishing the run with my 13ft4in Loomis 5/6 swinging some small white marabou speys. Fishing with a WC7/8/9 with the middle removed(375grains@39ft) and the type 6 tip, a bit of an underhand stroke and this combo really performs. I realized if I loosen to tensioner screw that controls the pressure on the rollers on my Loop Trad. #3 the reel would "freespool", and the "stick" of the body of the line going down stream would pull the running line off almost like a C-pin. I had been making a double spey across the run and dropping the fly on the edge of a large gravel flat that starts about 1/3rd of the way across, letting it swing back across the run. After a bit of tweaking I realized I could nearly make the fly dead drift down the run broad side to the current, with only a slight swing across as the running line was sucked out of the reel. Letting the line slide through my fingers to feel the take, and pinching it occasionally to mix up the swing rate. I had already made one pass down the run (about 90-100 yards), and hit a few fair sized fish, when I realized this. Decided to give it another go from the top letting the reel freespool and really extend the drifts and really slow the swing. Throughout the second pass I think I had one drift where I was fishless. Not once did I hang up on bottom or a rock in probably 4-6ft of some faster moving water. On two consecutive drifts I hit a fat 16in rainbow, and a very fat 18in brown, both quite respectable for this stretch. After I released the bow, my friend yelled down "doesn't get much better than this", the words weren't even off his tongue, when the brown took the fly and made a few nice splashes. My only hold up was that I would run out of running line and didn't feel all that comfortable with backing spooling out down stream. I'm thinking of hacking the line at the color change, and looping it to 15lb amnesia or flat mono.

So everybody that owns a Loop Trad., give it a try. Maybe a good way to entice a stubborn winter fish also. One more reason these reels rock.

After I posted this I realized it may be common knowledge that Loop Traditionals reels are good for this. If so, I wish somebody would have told me earlier, as its really cool to watch, and seesm quite effective.