Vintage Pflueger Medalist fly reels

[think trout]

I have an old book on steelhead fly fishing called Steelhead Fly Fishing and Flies, the book has an bunch of old photos of anglers catching huge steelhead using Pflueger Medalist fly reels. I was wondering if anyone is still using these reels for steelhead?

 

[Rip Tide]

I used them in the salt for 18 years before I got my first disk drag and I'll still use one occasionally.
When you have a hot fish on, the biggest problem was the back lash / over run.
I solved that with my customized drag system.

 

[flav]

There are some guys still using them, I see one being used on the river every once in while. You certainly don't need a high tech reel with a powerful drag for steelhead, they seldom run too far into your backing. I've never felt the need for anything more high tech than an old spring and pawl reel myself.

If you worry about backlash find a rim control (RC) model, and you can palm the reel.

 

[fredaevans]

Two of my spey reels; need new lines but other wise good to go. Now just need to get 'foot stable' enough to be 'good to go.' Suspect, I honestly don't know how old I am, now that is OLD; Read some thing that says I'm 75, pushing 76; a folding chair in the river, a spinning rod .... YUCK AT THE THOUGHT!

I, and old dog, shall prevail; just don't fall down; that would get 'complicated.'

New fishing lic's in wallet; zip Steelhead/Salmon fish in river for the next few months.

Old 'Doggie-Dog,' a adopt a Doggie Dog, is flaked out on top of my feet .. A good thing, a good thing, except she 'snores and snort' when sleeping. What could she be dreaming about?

Beaches not forgotten?

'Is it OK to pet your Dog?'

Rolled up with a child at nap time.

Mother: 'Is she safe?

'Who? .... the Dog?'

fae

 

[pnc]

I used them in the salt for 18 years before It's got my first disk drag and I'll still use one occasionally.
When you have a hot fish on, the biggest problem was the back lash / over run.
I solved that with my customized drag system.

Lol...... your custom drag ? Pflueger should make dotted lines. Wondering If you remember where you first saw cutout. I don't. Was not first reel, think I did cutout before using, many moons ago.
Did get laugh out of seeing without pulling reel from closet. Brought back the days of uneducated fish. For a brief moment had similar thought about Hardy Princes I got a month or so ago. Then I slapped myself.

....... pc

 

[lake flyer]

I use four of them for my two handers for steelhead. I use three 1498's and one 1496 and they've never let me down. The drag is every bit as good if not better than the more modern one-way bearing clutches which tend to freeze up or not work at all when dunked in 33 degree water and below freezing air temps. The Pfluegers don't seize up.

 

[flytie09]

The Pflueger Medalist has caught many Steelhead over the years and I'd dare say it's caught more steelhead in the US than any other reel. Less recently, but they are in use by a few nostalgic anglers. The 1498 or 1496 1/2 would have been (and is) a good size for steelhead and it had, for the time period, good drag power and range (not by today's standards), durability, were economic and simple to maintain. It's design was changed very little for 50+ years. It is what they call the perennial blue collar fly reel.

The only problem with them for use today...is their capacity. The new aggressive taper Skagit or Scandi lines are a little tough to squeeze on one. It can be done w/ gel spun backing, thin mono style running line and a max 420 grain line (or there abouts). Perfect for a lighter weight switch rod IMO. For this reason and the fact that they're fairly light..... it may not balance a heavier WT 11'+ switch or longer double hand rod the greatest. A perfect starter reel or a nice pair for a 9' 8 WT vintage glass fly rod.

The 1400 series were the most common available. There are others like the 1300 series and 1500 series that are rare and some sought after by collectors. A MIB 1400 series reel can be had from $25-$400 depending on its vintage, condition and scarcity.

Some think they're old technology and best used as a paper weight. To each is own.

View attachment 9736

 

[falcon53]

I first saw that cutout on the reel in a book. I believe the book was authored by Lefty Kreh. I'll check my Library and look it up.

 

[lake flyer]

Flytie is right that the capacity isn't that great. I do use them though for skagits up to 550 grain Rio Flights and Airflos. My general purpose rod is a 7/8 weight 13 footer, and it balances that nicely with a 475 grain Skagit or a 7/8/9 Windcutter versitip. Extra spools are cheap and readily available. I use mono running line 130 ft. and dacron 30# backing 100 yds. Ohio steelhead aren't likely to spool you, in fact I don't think I've ever had one even take me into the backing.

Biggest problem is that the arbor is mighty small so lots of turns to get the line in. I also fish a Delta long but I keep that on a Cortland Magnum 200 reel. I use them because they were the go to reel for tarpon in the 50's and 60's. If they can handle tarpon I figured steelhead would not be a problem. I believe the most I ever paid for one was $70.00 but that also came with two extra spools (and before I knew better), most of them cost me around $25-$30.00 and spools around $10.

 

[silver creek]

I used them in the salt for 18 years before I got my first disk drag and I'll still use one occasionally.
When you have a hot fish on, the biggest problem was the back lash / over run.
I solved that with my customized drag system.

This is one of the many innovations that Lefty Kreh introduced before there were reliable fly reel drags for salt water. His original Pflueger reel is in the American Museum of Fly Fishing and has the cut out modification as noted in the Orvis article below.

Museum Pieces: A Fly-Fishing Icon's First Reel - Orvis News

Lefty Kreh is credited with popularizing this "modification" in his book "Presenting the Fly."

Lehigh Valley Limestoner: The Modified Pflueger Medalist.

Here's a photo of Lefty with his Pflueger.

 

[sweetandsalt]

My first trout and salt reels where both Medalists. And I recall a magazine article suggesting this cut away, maybe even a leather finger pad affixed to it. Maybe it was by Lefty. Lefty has been ahead of the curve for a very long time but it is relevant to mention...and he would concur...that ideas and knots he has popularized, he may have learned form one of his many wide spread angling friends rather than having innovated it himself. Lefty is a collector and disseminator of smart, forward thinking ideas. He may have learned this Medalist cut away from Rip Tide. I know he learned the Non-Slip Loop Knot the same way I and so many others did, from long time Florida Keys guides who learned it from one another and no one actually knows who originally developed it.

 

[flytie09]

I met a guide Steelhead fishing last fall that had a unique way of applying extra drag to his Hardy Bougle. As you know.... these reels have no exposed rim to palm and they have a ported spool also. This can turn them to a cheese grater with a hot fish on the other end if you try and palm the face plate.

He had a custom made leather pad that he had dangling off of one of the frame posts. When the fish made a run.....he flipped the leather pad so it was riding on the line on his spool and could apply however much pressure he needed. A great auxillary brake idea. I told him he should patent and start selling them. I should have taken a darn picture. But it's really a pretty simple and inexpensive concept.

A better idea than cutting a hole in your reel or removing part of the frame to expose the spool rim as I've seen done on many older Hardy Perfects.

 

[dennyk]

While I don't use one today, I have in the past. I caught my first fly rod Steelhead with a Pflueger Metalist fly reel, an 8 1/2 foot True Temper glass fly rod casting a Black Nosed Dace streamer in Sand creek.

That goes back a lot of years!

Denny

 

[sweetandsalt]

"That goes back a lot of years!"

For me too. I find it remarkable that this oh so popular reel of yesteryear remains in use by so many today. Rods have gotten so much lighter and (in my experience) superior in casting/fishing performance that these heavy, old school reels seem way out of place...unless fished on a similar vintage glass rod. Sure, I rarely get rid of any fishing tackle and I have several including the Orvis Madison version of the Akron built Medalist but they are no longer used to go fishing. Reels where drag is applicable have gotten so, so much better that even nostalgia does not get me to rig a Medalist up. Yes, I have elderly reels of 1960's - 70's vintage that may still get water time but they are Hardy spring and pawl small stream trout reels...an example of an old product that has not been improved upon where as machined and anodized, large arbor with a disc drag assembly reels have evolved way beyond good old Medalist.

Just for kicks (no, I did not do this to my same model Medalist)

 

[Rip Tide]

"That goes back a lot of years!"

For me too. I find it remarkable that this oh so popular reel of yesteryear remains in use by so many today. Rods have gotten so much lighter and (in my experience) superior in casting/fishing performance that these heavy, old school reels seem way out of place...unless fished on a similar vintage glass rod.

I use my Medalists in fresh water almost exclusively. Not only with my glass rods but with plastic rods well, so I don't have many reels to compare them too, but I think that you'd find that the weights aren't all that much different.

I just weighed out a Medalist 1494, loaded with a DT6F at just about 6oz.
Then a smaller Okuma loaded with a WF5S at 5.5oz.
It's a visibly smaller reel and only 1/2 oz. lighter.

BTW, A loaded 1495 1/2 with a WF8F was 8oz while my System 2 8/9 was 11 1/2oz

So while it may seem logical to expect the Medalists to be heavier, the facts are in dispute

 

[sweetandsalt]

"Not only with my glass rods but with plastic rods..."

Rip Tide, are not both graphite and fiberglass rods Plastic Rods? And, per my speculation above, is it possible Lefty learned to cut out the frame of his Medalist from you?

 

[Rip Tide]

And, per my speculation above, is it possible Lefty learned to cut out the frame of his Medalist from you?

No of course not, that's ridiculous
However I did have the opportunity to talk to him about it once. He just looked at me like I had 3 heads

 

[think trout]

I purchased an old 1495 Pflueger Medalist fly reel new in the box several years ago. I don't know how old it is but it does have made in Akron Ohio stamped on the face plate, and I totally refurbished it with One Pfoot parts. I own other reels from Hardy, Ross, and Lamson, but I really doubt any of those reels could take a beating like an old Pflueger Medalist. My wife got me a new Orvis Recon last year and its a really nice rod but I still prefer my old Fenwick HMG Graphite from the 1970s with my Pflueger Medalist reel.

 

[rsagebrush]

I have a 1494 and 1495 and they are excellent reels. Medalists were the best reels made in America for 40 or 50 years, aircraft grade aluminum. Just a great classic American reel that will take a lot of abuse.

 

[pnc]

Both the cut out and leather pad attached to post. Are pictured in , Fly Fishing in Saltwater / Lefty Kreh. Other books by him also as mentioned.
Thinking back before I ever had any of his books. I had met , and over the next couple of years was lucky enough to see Lefty, a few more times. Once for a couple of hours of smallmouth fishing on Susquehanna (It was after this I started buying books). He may well of told me about cutting out back of Pflueger. It was he, that told me about splicing lines the first day I met him.

......... pc