Bauer Fly Reels

About Us

What matters most in a fly reel is reliability.

You can’t put a price on that.

A reel must be smooth, seamless, and consistent – every time, in all conditions. The slightest hitch – or worse, a complete lockup – means the difference between landing the fish of a lifetime or losing it.

What we do

We work with specialty machine shops in the USA to build our unique smooth drag system and in various countries around the world for some of the larger parts to come up with the optimum supply chain for precision-machined parts from the USA and other parts of the world to build these incredible reels.

Bauer revolutionized the fly reel world in 1995 with an award-winning design that combined superior large arbor performance with an innovative yet simple “zero-backlash” drag clutch. With a background in race cars and precision technology, Jon Bauer had a different perspective on how a fly reel should work. By applying principals of basic physics, he came to an obvious conclusion: the best design for a direct drive fly reel was one with a large arbor spool that minimized the variance of moment arm effect. The result was a reel with vastly improved line handling and retrieval, as well as superior drag performance. Over the years, Bauer has continued this tradition of design evolution, precision engineering and unmatched performance. Today, our reels are considered to be among the finest made and have earned a reputation among serious anglers and guides as the “Swiss watch of fly reels.”

Where we do it

Assembled by hand in Twin Bridges, Montana – the same place we make all Winston fly rods.

Contact