[QUOTE=Francis Morin;45890 lower the rod and reel into the water and hydraulic pressure of the current adds drag-[/QUOTE]

I would much rather be able to feel my fish and know what he's doing and try to anticipate his next move than sink all my equipment in the water and deaden any telegraphic feel I might receive through the line and rod from the fish.

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.

Ooops-I mis-spoke
 

- What I meant was, the Hardy Perfects have a palming spool drag feature, besides the check pawl that serves to prevent over-spooling. They are set on ball bearings, and are indeed fine reels. The original Akron mfg. Pflew-Gear Medalists did not have exposed rims, the later Yakasaki copies had that feature, if memory serves.

Hey Dean- I always watch the Boston Pops on the tube every year at 4th July- Host/MC was a Boston native son- Mike Chicklets(?) from Andover- isn't that your set-up, and that home of the late great Skeet-Ist Wm. Hardon Foster Jr.- A died-in-the wool grouse and Parker small gauge man to boot??
By the power O'mud there, Eb- if I recall the remark about a fox killed by the "little gun" (A Parker 16) about 1885 or so-I have an original copy of his book, published my year of birth 1941- great writer, as was the late Burton Lowell (close to Boston, yes?) Spiller, and later salt water fishing editor Frank Woolner- great stuff- I even drank a few Sam Adams brews to honor "Beat-Town" Cheers!!!!:bigbye::bigbye:

Bill was like L.L. Beanie-
 

The goodies in his store were "eye-candy" 90% of his business was catalog. I met him about 16-17 years ago, in March- I was in the Detroit area visiting an USMC buddy for the week-end and we went to the big Southfield Fly Fishing Expo- Tom and I helped him carry in his display items and watched his table for him- we met in the parking lot- he had a flat tire and his spare was "kaputt" so we got out the spare compressor and got him "road-worthy" He probably had more Bogdan reels worth more than our first house in his trunk-after he got back home he put me on his catalog mailing list (pre- Al Goer-ian Internet days) and sent me a used LH wind 3 & 1/8" dia size Hardy perfect with case and lined with a 4/5 Wulff TT line and backing and 6 hand tied flies as a "thank you"-- I still have the reel and all his back issue catalogues, ditto those from friend Marty Keane- Bill was probably the most knowlegable salmon fisherman of his era, Art Wheaton has one of those flies Bill sent me:bigbye:

Francis, I'll respond in a PM to you.

Dean

The latest generation Medalists look more like all the currently popular machined aluminum reels and do indeed have an exposed spool that can be palmed. I have at least one somewhere and they are actually quite nice reels that would not embarrass any but the over picky. I just like my old ones. They work just fine... besides, who else makes a reel that is designed so that you can add lead shot to the spool center for the purpose of balancing it!? Talk about engineering!

I knew a fellow- Franke? Lived near Stan Bogdan
 

-- 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!!

Bill Franke is his name, eh? Same guy I'm sure. I just never knew his last name, despite going back and forth on email on parts. Maybe I did know it but just always think of him as Bill Pfoot. He's branched out and was/is? making replacement metal latch plates also. All that old plastic stuff can warp and break eventually if not stored properly. His metal drag plates are very nice and give the reel a very nice click vs the tunk you get with a worn plastic plate. His marbled replacement handles are gorgeous.

I just looked at the 1492 DA in my picture. You can rewind the line the other way and use it with the crank on the left side but the line guide will not relocate unless you drill new holes for it, which would be easy enough to do. You don't need a line guide for a reel that small anyway. I like the 1492's best of all; they just seem perfect for lighter rods up to 4-wt. Seems I couldn't get a 5-wt line + backing onto a 1492 so had to go to a 1494. I like the wide ones also; I'd rather go fatter than with a larger diameter. The one with the sculpted pillars and the round guide is a real favorite but still needs some TLC.