L.L. Bean’s Meridien reel

L.L. Bean’s Meridien reel is a great value: the disc drag reel has powder coating on the injection-cast aluminum frame to protect the reel from corrosion. (In the powder- coating process, the coating or paint is negatively charged while the reel is positively charged, or vice versa, and thus the powder is sucked right into the surface contours of even a finely machined disc.) The low-inertia drag medium is a Teflon composite. For line weights 5/6, 7/8 and 9/10. ($79 to $99; 800-347-4552)