As an avid fly fisherman, I’m quite interested in how fly fishing tackle evolves. Recently, I’ve learned about an exquisite reel from Hardy, the Zane Ti. This is a reel that many anglers, including myself, can only aspire to, since it was a limited edition model that carried a hefty price tag of £5500.00, yes, £5500.00! For the sake of letting everyone know what a reel at this price point entails, here’s a brief review of what you can expect from a reel of this calibre.
Key Features
This elite reel is made from titanium (chemical symbol Ti), a metallic element known for its superior strength, light weight and resistance to corrosion. It takes 6 continuous days of machining to make just the cage and spool. Titanium has the highest weight to strength of any metal or metal alloy. It’s is as strong as steel, but 45% lighter. This makes this reel quite an extraordinary product, especially when you consider that only 100 were produced. The reel has a large arbour design, which has been carefully designed to take maximum advantage of titanium’s incredible strength. Not satisfied simply to offer a stunning titanium reel, the designers at Hardy also built a woven carbon fibre disc into the Zane Ti’s Teflon™drag system. The disc has a superior design and is incredibly durable. The multi-drag system also is fully sealed and has an easy to use, large central drag knob.
More About the Hardy Zane Ti Reel
Machined from solid titanium bar stock, the reel is hand finished and hand polished by Hardy’s engineers in Alnwick in the UK. Another unique feature of the reel is that if the reel is completely immersed in water, it loses none of its braking ability, even when you’re fighting a big fish on the line. Also know that this reel has minimal start up inertia and pick up that’s virtually instantaneous. The well designed drag knob is large and easy to locate, even when your hands are cold and/or wet. Another important design feature is that the Zane Ti is quite easy to disassemble for thorough cleaning. The reel has a backing capacity of 400 metres. It weighs just 15.02 ounces (426 grams) and has a diameter of 4.25 inches (10.79 millimetres).
Heading: Final Thoughts on the Hardy Zane Ti
The drag plate is knurled, which makes it supremely easy to set the drag and make the finest of adjustments with ease. This reel allows the angler to pre-set the maximum drag setting so that it matches your tippet strength perfectly. Once the drag is set, it cannot be over-tightened, so there’s much less risk of a break-off. The reel also has excellent ventilation that rapidly and efficiently dissipates heat.
The Hardy Zane Ti is a superlative piece of fly fishing tackle that’s available to only the limited few — but that can’t stop me from dreaming!