looking at getting a new reel and I was looking at the Frabill 261 or the 241. Should have looked at the Ice Fishing show, oh well. Typically fish perch / walleye out of my house on Mille Lacs and looking at a different way to fish – try the fly type. Any help guys….
The 241 was last years edition. The 261 is this years addition. I have the 241 and didn’t really like it, it was made of very good material but that made it way to heavy for my liking and it did not have a free spool feature. Now I do not have the 261 but I have played around with it a few times and I can tell you it is much lighter and does have a free spool feature, so Frabill did some nice refining from the first model. I have one on my x-mas list! I will say the 241 did have an excellent drag system so I hope they didn’t change that on the 261. Also I’m not positive but I know the 2:4:1 was the retrieve ratio for the 241 so I’m assuming that the 261 has a 2:6:1 which is an even better ratio to boot.
I just got two of the 261 don’t like it at all on one the spool drags on the body and wont free spool have to pul line out,the outher one freespools but the drag sucks puls hard then gives then hard again going to send them back to frabill. 
I haven’t been impressed with the 261s. Every time I’ve visited a store with them it seems like 2 out of 3 I pick up won’t free spool correctly. It’s like they just threw them all together and sent em away cause they clearly didn’t verify that they work correctly. At first I thought maybe one was just bad but nope, every location I’ve tried some there’s always some bad some good, it was surprising to me frabill put them out like that. If it’s the 261 you want I’d get the eagle claw instead.
That’s what I’ve gotten 2x with the Eagle Claws. The reel won’t engage after free spooling. I had one delivered to Gander. They didn’t say they’d get me another one and get it here soon. All I could do is return it and order another myself. At least they put the credit on my card instead of giving me another gift card. They have nothing left for winter.
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