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I would never touch a Bucks mini reel ever again. Wasted my $15 and time on that. Couldn’t even use it for a child’s toy either.
I hear you. Unreliable at best. Now if you could get a hold of a Mardo its a whole different story. Been fishing mine for over 10 years now with no problems. Thats a pretty good record for any reel.
So here is an email I just received from Lamson fly reel company on line ratios in fly reels…..
Calvin,
The gear ratio on all of our reels is 1:1. You will be hard pressed to find a fly reel that is not 1:1 as most every fly reel manufactured is this way. I would recommend looking at small bait casting reels, I know that Cabela’s sells a bait casting reel that weighs around 3 ounces and should have around a 3:1 retrieve ratio. With the bait casting reel you will be able to find something that does not twist the line, is light weight and line retrieve ratio you are looking for, hope this helps and best of luck finding what you are looking for. –Tim
Tim Volk
Technical Support/Warranty Repair
The Waterworks-Lamson
2772 South Cole Road #110
Boise, Idaho 83709
208-562-1310
888-562-1310
ok so i am sold on the fly reel for ice fishing. i was wondering what would be a good rod to use? i was looking at the thorne bros panfish sweet heart rod in 28″ or a sweet thing rod.i was also looking at a st. croix premier in a 28″ ultralight or light. would those be good choices to use? and if i got a thorne bros rod are they sensitive enough that i dont need a spring bobber as i have always used a spring bobber on my panfish rods. 
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ok so i am sold on the fly reel for ice fishing. i was wondering what would be a good rod to use? i was looking at the thorne bros panfish sweet heart rod in 28″ or a sweet thing rod.i was also looking at a st. croix premier in a 28″ ultralight or light. would those be good choices to use? and if i got a thorne bros rod are they sensitive enough that i dont need a spring bobber as i have always used a spring bobber on my panfish rods.
Very good questions….here is another Fly Reel post about what rod recommened for the fly reel. I personally use a custom 36″ quiverstik with the fly reel.
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ok so i am sold on the fly reel for ice fishing. i was wondering what would be a good rod to use? i was looking at the thorne bros panfish sweet heart rod in 28″ or a sweet thing rod.i was also looking at a st. croix premier in a 28″ ultralight or light. would those be good choices to use? and if i got a thorne bros rod are they sensitive enough that i dont need a spring bobber as i have always used a spring bobber on my panfish rods.
Cal offered a good link. Here’s another that has pics on how a fly reel will mount to various handle types. The truth is you can put the fly reel on just about any rod.
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I personally use a custom 36″ quiverstik with the fly reel.
Same here. Cal gets major kudos for turning me on to this rod. 
ok fellas so after watching this thread “reel” close, i bit the bullet and ordered the martin, my plan is to get it in hand and take it to work to one of the engineers and see if i cant find some way to machine some of the weight off it without destroying the integrity of the reel. i will post pictures along the way and after i either get it right or destroy it…lol
EK
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ok fellas so after watching this thread “reel” close, i bit the bullet and ordered the martin, my plan is to get it in hand and take it to work to one of the engineers and see if i cant find some way to machine some of the weight off it without destroying the integrity of the reel. i will post pictures along the way and after i either get it right or destroy it…lol
EK
Now things are getting good! This is how significant advancements are made. See a problem. Envision a solution. Make it happen.
Keep us in the loop, EK.
if you get it done, I will take 20!
Do not forget the powernoodle and the sweet pea as rods being candidates for fly reels. I love mine!
well after a long discussion, google searching, and alot of scratch paper it looks like i am gonna use the martin as a “template” to machine a new fly reel. I got to thinking that the extra beef on the martin is most likely there for a reason and im thinking the reason is its cast aluminum (wont be sure till i get it). cast aluminum needs to be bulked up to be strong. if i machine the cassette out of bar stock i should be able to go thinner on the “beef” and lighten the reel….. this is my theory cant test it till i get my hands on the reel
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well after a long discussion, google searching, and alot of scratch paper it looks like i am gonna use the martin as a “template” to machine a new fly reel. I got to thinking that the extra beef on the martin is most likely there for a reason and im thinking the reason is its cast aluminum (wont be sure till i get it). cast aluminum needs to be bulked up to be strong. if i machine the cassette out of bar stock i should be able to go thinner on the “beef” and lighten the reel….. this is my theory cant test it till i get my hands on the reel
I can’t wait to read the results. Good luck
just an update…. got the reel in hand now and as soon as we get off this damn overtime i will sit down at the desk and see what the heck i can do with it, with the ice among us i might just tape it to a rod and see how it fishes as is, i was doing some checking around and most of the smaller spinning reels come in around 7-9 ounces so this isnt really a whole lot heavier than some of the stuff we have been using for years. but i am still gonna make an effort to lighten it up and maybe reverse engineer it for some ice friendly mods!
EK
Hey guys Just remembered this post, was actually googling something else and this came up. So I did buy two more of these trial 1, Basically blew up in the mill. Trial 2 was able to cut a little weight off but not enough for any real difference, and the third one I just threw on a bros series quick tip, fished it all winter. a little heavy on the but of the rod but it wasnt any different than a spinning reel, give it a shot it was nice when fishing crappies deep. If i remember right the one i was able to mill came down like an ounce. so nothing significant, the gear system is located inside the casing which made it hard to try to eliminate weight on it. Shoot me an email if there is any more questions
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