Hardy Ultradisc UDLA fly reel
I was waiting for a long time to get my hands on the new Hardy UDLA reel, and now, after one month of using it and an afternoon photo session of it, I can’t wait to share my opinion about it.
At the end of 2020 Hardy introduces a new freshwater fly reel in the 300 euro range. Like most of the Hardy reels, the packaging of this reel is a classical beautiful black card box with a nice black case with a Hardy logo on it. When I held the reel for the first time I was pleasantly surprised by the weight of the reel. The reel is almost fully made of 6061 aluminum and weighs only 4oz/113gr. Only the drag system is made from carbon. It is not the lightest reel on the market, but I have to admit that 113gr is insanely light for a reel with perfect drag and a large arbor. Yup, the drag is perfectly smooth, accurate, and fine-tuned and I have to say that this is the biggest advantage of this reel if you ask me. I simply enjoyed having a fish on the other side of the line and playing with a drag reel. I don't have a lot of experience with Hardy reels, but, in my opinion, fly reels generally have some issues with drag systems. Sometimes, when you hook a fish, reel drag is not releasing the line evenly and I know some reels in the 400$ range with that issue, but that's not the case with UDLA. In my few fishing trips, this reel was in a battle with some nice wild extremely strong rainbows from 30 to 60 cm and it did the job perfectly. It has 12 turning points for fine adjustments and goes from pretty soft to, I say, pretty strong. This reel won the “Best of the Category” reward on ICAST 2020.
A little bit about materials and design.
Like I said before, the body of the reel is made from aluminum and the drag system is from carbon fibers. That's the reason why this reel is so light. The guys from Hardy are slowly stepping out of the comfort zone and this is the first Hardy reel made for fly fishing competitors. The design follows the idea so the reel is intended for thin competition fly lines. How did they achieve that? The manufacturers had a simple idea, protect the fly line from getting stuck between the spool and the body of the reel. They made a simple design where the part through which the fly line travels was completely surrounded by an aluminum frame without putting the extra weight on the reel, the so-called line guide system.
UDLA is a top-of-the-line freshwater fly reel with a beautiful design, nicely positioned details, and amazing sound, designed by fly fishing world champion Howard Croston. Hardy makes it in Metal Green and Black Orange color, reel handle position is right and left. It's designed for competition fishing with extra thin fly lines.
I chose the classical fly line for early spring fishing because I was not able to go to the rivers where I could fish with the euro nymph technique, and that is the theme for my next trip to Idrijca river in Slovenia, where I‘ll be fishing Euro nymphing style with Zephrus and UDLA… if Corona doesn't screw up my plans again.
UDLA on ADH Fishing
UDLA on SportFish
Pictures and text: Luka Šimunjak