I need your opinions guys on the best reel seat for fly rod. Rod I'm building I might use it in saltwater. Which of these makers do you guys like? Recoil Struble, Pacific Bay or American Tackle?? Right now I leaning towards ones made by Recoil.

Hi art. REC(recoil) has some great seats as well as struble. You can't go wrong. with these guys. Tom

Art,

Depends entirely on your definition of 'best'.

If you want holding power and light weight, then the graphite seats with the cushioned hoods are far and away the 'best'.

If you want an all metal seat with lots of strength, then the 'channel lock' seats from Pac Bay are tough to beat.

If you want 'pretty', then you have a myriad of options, but understand that adding 'pretty' often entails a trade off in other areas like strength, durability, and such. Nothing wrong with that, a long as you know it going in.

Up to you, of course.

Good Luck!

Buddy Sanders

For saltwater, best to me means corrosion resistance, and nothing would be better than titanium. Next in line would be high tech plastics, which would include powder coats or epoxy paints on stainless or aluminum. Marine grade stainless would be suitable, but will require cleaning. Can't put it away wet too many times or issues will develop. Anodized aluminum is similar.

Lots of materials and coatings will work just fine if you throughly rinse and dry them after EVERY USE. Know that will NEVER happen. Sooner or later, it get's missed, and you can have a problem overnight with anything chrome. With titanium or plastics you can just rinse off the dry salt and no harm done.

The other issue for me is, big reel requires a seat that will stay tight when fighting big fish.

So I would start by selecting the best materials first, then see which manufacturers have the best locking designs with those materials. Then select a size that fits the reel you will use. Then look at the price, save your money until you have enough, and don't compromise.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/12/2006 10:59PM by Tim Stephens.

I like the way the Struble U15 and U18 fit the feet of my saltwater reels. I have used REC seats on a lot of saltwater rods as well, and some ChannelLocks. I have never had a probelm with any reel seat. Wish I could say that about the reels.

Art,
I second Buddy's advice. I use pretty seats on customer rods and use the cushioned hood graphite skeleton seats on my own. I just like the way they tighten securely regardless of the reel used.

Stan Grace
Helena, MT
"Our best is none too good"

I second the suggestion to try the Struble U15. It's a great seat for saltwater applications when you don't want to spend a fortune on a titanium seat (and if, like me, you can't bring yourself to use cheap plastic seats no matter how practical they might be).

Thanks for all the info guys...

I uee REC they make reel seats for a lot of the top rod makers. Never had a problem with this product.
Bill