Allen Reels half off

I'll take my Danielssons all day every day over those pieces of junk.
 
Allen reels used to get a lot of praise. It’s a weird company though; they used to be very active, but haven’t made any new products in years. I suspect they’re running down the remaining stock and plan to wind up the company.
 
I'm surprised they lasted this long after the guy that made them successful(Evan) left several years ago!
 
jaredoconnor said:
Allen reels used to get a lot of praise. It’s a weird company though; they used to be very active, but haven’t made any new products in years. I suspect they’re running down the remaining stock and plan to wind up the company.
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No updates since... this guy I know left the company in 2016. They also fired the one remaining employee that actually fly fished last year as a costs-saving measure. Which reminds me I should check in on him. Good dude.
 
I guess I could weigh in with a recent experience. I used to buy stuff from them occasionally back in the day, and one thing I picked up was an 8 weight Alpha 2 reel. Pretty nice reel actually. Except, at some point a while back it started free-spooling occasionally while I'd be stripping line out. Instant tangle. It took me forever but I finally, at the end of this past June, sent it in to them for repair. I got a tracking number form USPS and it was delivered end of June. I ended up checking in with them several times, and got a variety of excuses/reasons for inability to give status updates, and at one point they told me they had no record of the reel. But eventually, they did return it to me free of charge. It arrived at the end of August, so before the end of the pink run. I used it a little bit and it didn't free-spool on me. I hope it is fixed; it appears to be. I have no idea how to service this reel myself. Overall, the experience went about how I expected it would. If it's fixed, I guess I'd give it a 5 or 6 out of ten.

Kinda liked using the ol' Medalist better anyway, once I got it out there on them pinks and rezzies. But if I really needed a drag, the drag on that Alpha 2 is pretty smooth and strong.
 
Matt B said:
I guess I could weigh in with a recent experience. I used to buy stuff from them occasionally back in the day, and one thing I picked up was an 8 weight Alpha 2 reel. Pretty nice reel actually. Except, at some point a while back it started free-spooling occasionally while I'd be stripping line out. Instant tangle.
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I have an ever growing collection of reels that freespooled their way outta my life and into a random garage bucket. One of them is an Allen. (It, and all the others, look cool, they look like they might be useful, so that's why the bucket is there, next to all the cuts of shitty "project" wood and tins of half-used paint I can't bear to throw- ie pretty standard-issue garage shit-bog accumulation tendencies here.)

It is possible to regularly cast with a freespooling reel by using your pinky as the "brake." A stripping basket also helps, so does pre-ordering a wrist splint for the tendonitis (and ben gay) that later comes if you don't ease into it. This contorted cast is perhaps the fly fishing equivalent of riding a fixie. (The type of stuff that if you get into it and preach it as "1:1 original" could make you basically insufferable, prone to mustache growth and being very liberal about telling others "how that fish legit took me into my backing")
 
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