Real Mystery, Mystery Reel

[Rocco 0]

In sorting through the bottom of my unused tackle swamp this week I came across an ORVIS Battenkill IV Large Arbor reel. I dimly recall snapping it up for a song off a bargain table at the closing of one of our tackle shops many moons ago. My reasons escape me.

 

It is like no other Battenkill IV large Arbor reel I have ever seen and has some outright puzzling design features.

 

-- It is in like new condition but marked DEMO on the reel in the same gold script as the ORVIS label.

-- It is a big reel @4" in diameter and wide enough --@ 1 1/4" -- that you would think it good for a 7-8 wt line with 100 yards or so of backing. It is also very ltwt being skeletonized. . And it has a very responsive, sensitive, drag.

 

-- But the storage area on the spool itself is very limited. It is shallow -- less than 1/2" deep! That means you can, maybe, get a 3 wt and maybe 50 -75 yards of 20 lb backing on it. I doubt it could handle a 6 wt.

 

I cannot figure out what the designers and marketeers at ORVIS had in mind for this odd critter. In fact, I halfway suspect that it was a trial balloon that popped before launch.

 

For the time being I have set it up as the reel on a Euro-nymphing package to compliment an 11' foot 3 wt rod and a thin ORVIS running line. ( I am adding an extension fighting butt to the back of the reel seat so that the big reel rides forward of the butt and the whirling spool won't hang up on clothing/gear.)

 

Any background info or other use suggestions would be appreciated.

 

Rocco

[vicente 0]

Honestly I could see using it for warm water fishing and loving it, those spots where you are dealing with line getting caught whenever you try to move to a new location.

[flytire 0]

according to the orvis spec sheet below the "IV" is for a 7-9 weight

 

 

specs and capacity

 

https://www.orvis.com/orvis_assets/files/0608_BKLABigGame.pdf

 

orvis fly reel manuals

 

http://www.orvis.com/s/orvis-fly-reel-manuals/2041

[mikechell 0]

The reel doesn't "look" very deep ... but that's deceiving. Since each wrap around the spool takes up about a foot of line, it holds more than you think.

[Rocco 0]

Right now -- as currently set up -- it holds 100 ' of thin .30" Orvis running line plus about 100 yards of 20 lb backing and it just clear the pillars..

 

New development. I just talked to ORVIS technical support and they said to use 75 yards of 12 lb backing for a 6 wt! There are no different sized spools. I fail to see how heavier wt fly lines would fit the reel with any but the most minimal amount and strength of backing. (Hell when I use a 7 or 8 wt my leader is often stronger than 12 lbs!) It was discontinued a decade or so ago in favor of deeper spooled and stronger designs. .

 

Thanks gents,

wunbe

[flytire 0]

.30" is not thin

[Rocco 0]

flytire,

 

.30 is about as small as you can go in a running line. Fopr example, OPST uses that size line as the thinnest Lazar product it offers as shooting line. It is surely not UL in the broad spectrum of mono lines but the combined need for strength, low stretch and memory, and easy handling eliminate the really thin lines as viable running line candidates.

 

Rocco

[flytire 0]

rocco

 

.30" is over 1/4 inch in diameter

 

check out the ruler below

 

 

now if the running line is .030 in diameter (thats 30 thousandths of an inch) then i'll believe you

 

[Rocco 0]

Yep, yet another typo. .030" is right.

 

Sorry for the confusion.

 

Rocco