Design Objective: Reduce Physical Weight

Rods had gotten lighter. Reels had not. How much did a 5-wt. rod weigh ten years ago? Five ounces? Five and a half ounces? How much did a reel weigh? About the same. Now rods weigh almost 50% less than they did ten years ago. When we began this project, trout reels still weighed five ounces and more. Reels had become the 350-pound passenger in a finely tuned Lotus. It became time to get a lighter passenger. How do you reduce the weight of the reel? There were a number possible approaches to choose from: reduce overall size; reduce material usage; use lighter materials; create a lighter structural format; reduce the weight and number of components. Obviously, to build a large arbor reel, the first option was not a practical consideration. But each other directive held promise. We reduced material usage by careful and precise engineering and machining, leaving material only where it provided structural strength, carving every gram from non-critical areas. We made bold (and expensive) material choices employing titanium where other manufacturers used steel, polymers instead of wood and cork. We invented a structure that would free the reel from the bulkiness of traditional designs. Key to this process was a drag system that, unlike a disc, wouldn’t dictate a particular and restrictive geometry for the reel. The development of the conical drag was therefore integral to building what would seem to be an engineering paradox: Bigger yet lighter. Lastly, we shaved grams off each individual component through testing, evaluation, re-design and refinement.

The gravity-defying Waterworks ULA, world’s lightest machined reel

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