For under a hundred bucks you can be sporting a great large arbor reel with a fantastic disc drag system.

How do they do it? The Ion reels begin life as a lowly cast reel and then blossom in the machine shop where the finishing work is done to assure close tolerances and perfect fits between frame and spool. No rubbing, solid drag, easy off spools and cheap to boot.

These reels are often chosen in spey rod packages when we want to keep the cost down but the trout sizes are great for lake guys who want to have a reel with 4 or 5 extra spools and lines to reach most depths.