For the large majority of trout fishing, a reel is indeed just a line holder and often nothing more. Most trout fishing doesn't require any drag. Most of my trout reels are click/pawl style Abel TRs or Ross Colorados. I have a couple disc drag trout reels on my streamer rods where I have a better chance of tangling into a fish that may need drag, but largely not needed. Click/pawl reels also sound the best to me.
In the salt, a reel is often more important than the rod. Having a quality drag to stop hot running fish is important. Sealed drags seem common, but the gold standard is the old draw bar cork style drags ala Abel, Tibor, etc.
Last edited by GuideGun; 07/04/22.
