Z-Reel

I don't know if I've ever seen a more beautifully crafted piece of engineering anywhere. (My mind is drawn to the Beretta SO5, the E-Type Jag, the Spitfire, all peerless in their class at time of inception and release).

My Z-Reel arrived yesterday. I can't thank Carl McNeil and Jeanie Acklin of On The Fly who are the NZ agents, highly enough for helping me buy perhaps the first one in NZ. Like the other pinnacles of engineering, there is a strange little quirk.

The quirky thing is... the spool size. I checked it all out prior to purchase and figured that the 7 was actually more a 5 weight reel, pushing 6. I'm going to load 80-100m of 12kg spectra (if i can) but I fail to see how they came up with sizing because I seriously doubt it would then gobble a #7 full line.

I'm not certain how their engineers came up with the size spec, but I have a feeling that it has quite a bit to do with the size of fish available to most European anglers. Has to be. To only allow for 50m of backing is kind of unthinkable.

I'll spool her this evening, probably first run will be Whirinaki in early March.