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I wouldn't call them "tiny," but the smaller "lightweight" gearfly or Speedex fit the 3 or 4 weight fast retrieve idea perfectly. There's a farily small Hardy multipler as well. I use my Speedex reels with WF 5, so they'd do well with DT 4 also. If you use "advance search" with, maybe multiplier and large arbor in your search terms, you'll find some multiplier discussions where, it so happened, Jgstar and I hit the same point about their use in so far as retrieve rate is important. I have a large size Gearfly--the finish isn't very durable and the foil labels fade and fall off--with two spools. I rehabbed the finish and made a large arbor spool from one of them by fabricating spokes through the middle row of vents. I still have a WF7 and backing on it, but it would be suitable for a DT 5 weight. These aren't especially valuable reels so you can fool around with them as you like. If I had one as new--well, I do in the form of a Gladding--I would certainly use it, but take care of it. I find theyare best with only extremely light application of machine oil--regularly--as opposed to grease. The pawls are more or less self lubricating and last way longer than you might think, enough so that I gave away my stash of extras out of confidence in the ones in the reels. If you like the foil labels, I'd check that they are still securely afixed. If not, pick it off there carefully and then glue it on again with a modern contact cement. If they are, flow a coat or two of clear nail polish over it, which will help keep it stuck on and prevent fading. Somewhere back in these discussions another multiplier fan put together the manufacturing history past what I knew, but I'm remembering late '60s through 7Os as prime time.



Large capacity on the largest gearfly; about the same line and backing before the "large arbor" modification



Size range with smallest version





My favorite, the Speedex. There is also the evolutionary 1500 series narrow spool multiplier that Ron has and some of us would like to have

Oh, I think that's great to have a narrow spool Speedex, which equates in line capacity to the 1980s 1525. Ron will know the comparable conventional wind style from that period of JW Young production. http://fiberglassflyrodders.yuku.com/sreply/14043/t/Speedex-.html I forgot to put in the gear ratios and don't have the paperwork handy, but it's easy enough to watch the notch on the spool inner rim pass by and count the spool's rotation versus one turn of the crank. I seem to remember the Speedex as 1.8 to 1 and the Gear fly in the same neighborhood. I'd consider the narrowspool Speedex on the small/light size for a 9' bamboo or 'glass rod and wouldn't hestitate to put a DT 4 on one. I don't like small diameter reels in general, anything less than 3." By sizing norms of the bamboo and 'glass era, 3 to 3 1/2" reels represent the size range, and beyond that, capacity was modified according to the width of the spool (as in the 1/2 size Pfluegers). Narow spool reels spool line very evenly, another advantage over some of the too-wide large arbor reels. As shown above, that Speedex has a WF 5 on it, and you can see the level of backing, about 100 yards as I recall without going down to find it and look at the little label I stick on my reels someplace. So it would be great with a DT 4 and somewhat less backing. Like its similarly sized descendant, the 1525 or its multiplier variant, I think of it as a reel for 5 and 6 weight lines, so to me it would be just as fit, especially with fiberglass, for a DT4, which I have about talked myself into loading my other one up with.

One other little point if your Speedex has the nylon gear. Somewhere in "reel papers" the paperwork is posted, advising no grease or heavy oil on these (post # 20 in the reel papers thread . http://fiberglassflyrodders.yuku.com/sreply/11086/t/Reel-papers.html I'd guess that's because the material is "self-lubricating," yet easily chewed up if excess lube gets gummy or holds grit. Also, I'm guessing that too much lube will let the gear teeth slip and get chewed in the process. You can just about make that happen by force-cranking the handle, stopping abruptly, and starting to crank again in the opposite direction. I would pick my prefered winding direction and after that, never use the handle to wind the opposite way, which you would never do in fishing, but might do just fooling around with that nifty little machine. In that way, the gears will wear in to consistent bearing surfaces, one side of the tooth according to handle driven--winding--force, and the other side according to force originating from the spool rotation when line is stripped. It probably makes no difference but has worked for me, and I know folks get that nylon gear stripped. I put only a drop of machine oil on the spindle and have very good service from mine, and on some pretty big hard running fish, using it almost daily in late spring the last two years. The click drag is very stout.

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