You can spend more than $1,000 on a fly reel. But who needs it? Charlie Blair and I each caught derby fly-rod-record fish on reels that cost $25.

Today’s fly-fishing tackle is superb and constantly improving, really much better than it has to be for 99 percent of the fish we are trying to conquer. High-end saltwater reels are marvels of technological wizardry. They are impervious to rust and corrosion, with lightweight machined frames, sealed drag systems with smooth stopping power, large arbors that make
for a high retrieve ratio, and plenty of backing capacity. What’s more, the best of them are visually attractive. And the best new fly rods are equally breathtaking in their strength, beauty, lightweight casting ability, and – in many cases – price.

Things were different back in the 1970s and early ’80s when Charlie and I took up saltwater fly fishing. It was a relatively new sport in the Northeast and hadn’t caught on in a big way yet. There weren’t a lot of tackle choices. Rods were heavy fiberglass or delicate split bamboo, and reels either were expensive, heavy, virtually custom-made in Florida, or click-drag freshwater models like the iconic Pflueger Medalist.

And then in 1979 the Garcia Corporation of New York imported the Ambassadeur 178 fly reel and everything changed. Made in Sweden by ABU, famed for its series of Ambassadeur baitcasting reels, the 178 was a single-action, lightweight fly reel with an adequate drag and a price tag of only $25.

Spider Andresen of Salt Water Sportsman magazine introduced me to the reel in 1980 and I became an instant fan. It weighed only 5.2 ounces – lighter than any other saltwater fly reel I own – and could hold 150 yards of 20-pound test Micron backing plus an 8- or 9-weight floating fly line. The drag system was simple and smooth, in fact better than many I have used on much more expensive reels.

In 1981 I used this reel to catch the derby-record bass for fly rod, a 42-pound, 14-ounce fish I got at Cape Pogue. And Charlie Blair caught the record 18.85-pound bluefish with his in 1984 from his charter boat Nisa off East Beach. Last but not least, Roberto Germani landed an estimated 18-pound false albacore with it at the Gut in 1990, which would have been a derby record if he had entered the contest that year.

Indeed, the Ambassadeur 178 (and its successor the Diplomat 178) is the little reel that can tame big fish. I am still using mine, and so is Charlie. It has been out of production for many years, but sometimes one shows up on eBay for a very reasonable price. So do our old Daiwa graphite fly rods, which cost only $40 then and now.