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3. Hardy Dutchess

With the recent discussion of the Sage 500 series reels I thought this may be of interest to some, look familiar?

Yes, that looks like the Sage reel, except for color.

I don't know the Dutchess, but I have a 1950's Princess I picked up in the late 1970's from a retired physician. I was being paid to clean his garage and found a box of fly tackle, labelled "Montana". In it was the Princess. He gave it to me and I wouldn't take the day's pay, saying the reel was plenty. I was thrilled and use it still, although I must say the click-n-pawl makes an awful racket when drawing line from it. Somehow I didn't mind it so much when tethered to a good steelhead -the sound takes on more of a pleasant "buzz".



Here's mine:

Okay, maybe someone can tell me the history behind this reel. Mostly I'm interested in what period it was manufactured. It is a neat reel in that has a disc drag but also a click and pawl mechanism to get that classic Hardy sound when a fish runs or you reel in line.

I did a little looking around and it appears they were introduced in the early-mid 90's Matt. CJ

CJ,

Thanks, I hate to admit this but it was the first time I may ever have removed the spool since I bought it way back then. It was pretty gunked up so I wiped off all the old grease, added new, and put the spool back in the cage.