Lamson Litespeed

A few months back I was looking for a reel to put on my new to me Circa 589. I wanted something lightweight, large arbour, and with a decent drag. After looking around at a few options I checked out the Lamson Litespeed IV. It got a lot of good reviews and from what I read the hard alox coating is capable of taking a beating which is good since I'm pretty hard on my gear - I did break a rod and dent a reel while scaling down some rocks to get to the river this past summer.

After fishing it for a while, I picked up a spare spool so I could use the reel on another rod as well. The drag is incredibly smooth and has little startup inertia. I've had no problems fishing 5X tippet with dry flies and having a fish take a screaming run. The drag wasn't cranked down, but it wasn't so light that it caused any overspooling.

The thing I love the most about this reel is how fast it picks up line. I'm not one of those people who fights every fish on the reel, but if I feel that I need to I can pick up slack line incredibly fast. It's also helpful if you move around a lot from one run or pool to another. I've since replaced the reel on my 3wt with a Litespeed and picked one up for my 13'6" spey rod. I've caught a lot of fish on these reels now and have tons of confidence in their ability. Can't wait to test the Litespeed 4 on some steelhead next...