Pfleuger reels

[Gene L 0]

Pfleuger reels: lots of people have them.  Probably a lot on this BB have at least one.  We look on them today as solid, heavy, cheap reels. But back in the day when we wen't to the local hardware store to buy fishing tackle, they were just about the only game in town.  I have a 1494 in the box, marked price on the box is $14.  Yes, that sounds cheap, but in today's money, figuring in inflation that come out to be $191. Not so cheap, nowadays.  You can get a pretty good reel for about that expenditure but that's because we're in a New, Golden Age of reels.

Our fathers had little choice like we have today.  The 1400 reels are easy to find today because they were just about the only game in town. 

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

I have one of those old Pfluegers on a 5wt rod that I hand anglers fishing exotics in local canals.. Great fun

[gadabout 0]

I have quite a few Pflueger Medalists, and also their Orvis equivalent, the Madison 6/7.  For warmwater fishing it’s the only reel I use.  For trout, the 1494 is the perfect match for my 6-weight Wonderods.  I love these reels.

[vicrider 0]

My gosh gadabout, you are an oldtimer. I grew up on the Shakespeare Wonderods and still have several in the shed. I also have several Medalists laying around and they work as well as my Hardy Cascapedias. The big difference is the Medalists would sell for around $50 and the Cascapedia for $450. I have the Hardy's on the two Bamboo rods I still have left I fish with and they are such a great match I just had to have the right reel on the rod. 

Unlike a lot of you when I grew up with Wonderods in the 50s and 60s my Dad and those we fished with all used automatic reels. I still have Garcia, Perrine, and Shakespeare auto reels and they are all that ever was needed for the bass and panfish we fished for back then. As a matter of fact this inspires me to drag out my heavyweight Wonderod and Garcia auto reel with the 9 weight Bass Bug taper line and see if I'm strong enough to case a big bass popper anymore.

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

I started out with automatic reels as well - bass and bream fishing - they're ideal for the simple lift and lay casts we used working poppers on relatively short lines along banks and weedbed edges in north Alabama (the closest I ever came to a home state or home town as an Army brat - all those years ago...).  I still have one of them along with fifty or more reels that I've squirreled away over the years.  I keep telling myself that they're all "parts reels" but that's rarely the case... Spinning reels, plug casting reels, heavy offshore gear,  the occasional fly reel... all of them very hard used at one time or other.... 

[niveker 0]

I love my Pflueger Medalists: 1492, 1494, 1494-1/2, 1495, 1495-1/2, 1498.  It's what I use 90% off the time. I'll never pass up a reasonably priced Medalist, another sickness I have. 

I've never used an automatic reel. I should pick one up just for fun. 

[gadabout 0]

I bought an old Shakespeare automatic some years ago, just to try one.  They’re ok, I suppose, but I’ll stick with my single action reels.

[Mark Knapp 0]

My very first ever fly reel was a Pflueger that I bought at a garage sale. I used it till the anti-reverse quit working and the crank handle fell off. Now I have three Pflueger reels that I keep around. I haven't used any of them. I have a lot of more modern reels and I like them a lot.

[OldMedMan 0]

I just bought my first ever Pflueger fly reel on my way into Grande Prairie, AB to pick up two Hardy 4/5 Lightweight's I'd bought through FB marketplace.  On the highway about 20 min before GP is a really big, (for way up north here), Hunting, fishing trapping, prepper store called Trapper Gord.  Usually on these trips we are in a rush to make a medical appt so never have time to stop and the wife ends up waiting in the car if I do go in for something.

I wasn't planning on buying much but found a good selection of weedless hooks I'd been looking for so grabbed a half dozen 5-packs of various sizes.  I've fished single barbless hooks since I was 12 so the fist thing I do when I get a new spoon or spinner equipped with a treble hook is take that off and put on a real fisherman's hook.  A few years ago here in Alberta they brought in a barbless rule.  You could still fish those rigs with 3 or 4 treble hooks but you had to file off or crimp the barbs down.  All the crybabies with no real fishing skill raised such a stink the rule was revoked.  My apologies to those that do have skill but still rely on those barbaric contraptions to land a fish.  I rarely keep a fish and it's so easy to release most by just giving the line a little slack and they get off themselves without having to touch the fish.  Or grab the hook shank with my hemostat and off they go without being manhandled.

Anyway, I digress, but after finding the hooks I poked around drooling over some of the gear in the display cases and saw this sweet 3/4 wt Pflueger reel and after asking the clerk to get it out for me decided to buy it as well.  I'm awaiting an order of 10 rod blanks from NFC and 2 of them are 3wts so definitely need at least one reel to be ready for that.  One for me and one for #1 son who lost his 3wt rod to a broken relationship but still has the reel and line so won't need that.

it's a Pflueger Monarch Mon34 that I paid $74.95Can for so about $20US.   The Hardys were professionally rigged at the shop the previous owner bought them at just two years ago with backing, running line and each has a Scientific Angler's Mastery MPX WFF line.  One a 5wt and the other a 6wt so perfect for my need saving me over $100/reel to equip them in a similar fashion.  I paid $500 for the pair and think I got a pretty good deal.  The 6wt will be going on my grandfather's old fiberglass fly rod he bought about 1945 and I try to fish once a year at least to put a trout on it.  I like to think it'll make him happy wherever he is in the great beyond.  The guy I got them from had a serious shoulder injury not long after getting them and some rods for them so was selling all his fly gear. 

I put two pics up so you can see both sides of the Pflueger.  Not a drag knob but a tension adjustment for the clicker that's set up the same internally as on the Hardy reels.

So looking forward to next spring!

[MfishP 0]

I had a Pflueger medalist 5 weight and caught my 1st fish on a fly rod-a sunfish, then a pumpkinseed. I was so excited.

[Carl Z 0]

Medalists for their durability, affordability and nostalgia,

Ross Gunnison for a modern equivalent

Able Big Game for truck stopping ability

JW Young (Sage 106m) for a sturdy click & pawl reel.

There are lots of other favorites, but I think those are the reel's that beat out all the others.  When I'm fishing, I don't want to have to baby my reel and these all stand up to the bangs of wading rocky high gradient streams.

[cphubert 0]

Pfleuger / Edwin Haenelt multiplier on medalist 1495 frame. just picked it up and striped the line and washed it in dawn and hot water whatever lube they had used turned very sticky and the paint came off with it. Going to be a canoe trolling reel anyway will disassemble and finish cleaning rest of spool.

[niveker 0]

Never heard of it - pretty cool find, CP.  

[cphubert 0]

19 minutes ago, niveker said:

Never heard of it

I have only seen one other on a fly trolling rig, I was shocked no one bought it before me.

[sandflyx 0]

On 10/21/2023 at 7:54 AM, niveker said:

I love my Pflueger Medalists: 1492, 1494, 1494-1/2, 1495, 1495-1/2, 1498.  It's what I use 90% off the time. I'll never pass up a reasonably priced Medalist, another sickness I have. 

I've never used an automatic reel. I should pick one up just for fun. 

you are missing three the anti reverse series