First fish with my D Fuller "Old Reliable"

Originally Posted by Richard Flanders

Lower the reel into the water? Never heard of that one. Doesn't sound like a good method to me. For the fishing I do for grayling and maybe dollys or char up to 30", "drag" is not much of an issue. You can palm a Medalist once you figure out how. You can also swap the spool to the other side by by just switching the line guide and flipping the inside drag plate over...... at least on the DA models. I have one with the circular guide; not sure it's a DA. The "clicker" is definitely ambidextrous. Bill Pfoot makes some very nice metal replacements for the drag plates. He's a real peach of a guy if you need Medalist parts. He has pictures of one of my handle jobs on his website somewhere. I know he's had/having? medical issues but the web site seems active. I would highly recommend his stuff; it's all top drawer quality.

-- Bill Franke, machine shop- many years ago offered a "One-Pfoot for medalists and Gar-Wood Fin-Nor WC fly reels- he sent me several to "hawk" for him at TU functions- priced at $14.95 most of the locals would say- Shoot- I just bought a new medalist (yakasaki series) for $22.95 and Dunham's, why should I pay half that price again for a different reel foot-- He modelled his after the Hardy LRH-Princess series reels- good pattern- I had a 1494 and a 1495- both Akron OH mfg. older ones- and installed the One-Pfoots, way better design than the original IMO- I like the "cement mixer" sound, da "ptta-putta" they make when a big brown takes off against the drag and the rod's arc- and tests your leaders and knot-manship abilities. Like the Model 12 and a D-28 Martin guitar- American classics!!