Great point, I bought the same exact reel for my 3 weight. Everything else was too heavy that I owned. It balances perfectly.

Also, I found that the normal 5 weight reels were a little too heavy for my shorter TFO proffesional 5 weight. I found a max catch reel on ebay that way 4.7 grams and balanced perfectly with my 5 weight.

I know there's no sound reason, at least one that makes financial sense, to put an expensive reel on a 3 wt, but...

Orvis is releasing a new version of their top of line Mirage reel, and the previous version has been on sale. The only ones they have left are the Mirage 1's...which are perfect for a 3wt. Anyway, they just knocked off another 20% of the already discounted price, making them $170. And there's no shipping charge on that at the moment.

http://www.orvis.com/p/mirage-fly-reels/1t2k

My bad...the 20% is off of the $170, so it makes the reel $136 once you add it to the cart.

That is a STEAL boys and girls.

At that price, it does not make any sense not to purchase one. LOL

You stop it you silly, silly funboy! It is a nice real, though. Chicks would dig it.

It'd dress up a cheapo 3wt with some style!

2flyfish4 had to switch out fish after that last Bvk haha. My 7'6" tfo pro still takes some ok fish. Was serendipity as I was crappie fishing but great close quarters rod. And will take a beating paired mine with a G Loomis reel. Drag works great with fine tippet.

Are you talking about a Venture 3? If so, yeah man, those are rad little reels!

Put a $400 reel on a $30 featherlight for maximum irony.

Yep venture 3 really like the drag system on it. It has wipped several fish I had no business hooking on a three wt. it is very smooth with the smallest of tippet.

I didn't like the small arbor at first but on a 7'6" rod it fits well.

Even with the small arbor, it'll still take up some line pretty quick. The way it free spools like it does, you can just smack it and it'll pick up slack in a jiffy. I've got one that I usually pair up with a 5'11" 3wt CGR for tooling around neighborhood ponds with and I love it dude.

I wish they still made them. They were a heck of a bargain and good looking, too. They're getting harder to find these days, but I'd bet if one were to go looking, you could still get one for 75 bucks or so.

Well I ended up replacing the little plastic Cahill reel, at least temporarily. I will probably move the reel to a 4wt rod someday. The reel balances OK with my 3 wt Fenwick Aetos rod, but the ultralight feel of having a fly rod and reel weigh almost nothing is lost. The Cahill reel with fly line on it weighs as much as the Mirage empty. Definitely a great reel though, and even cheaper now. You can get the reel plus an extra spool for under $200 from Orvis.

Here is a nice sunfish I caught today.

Looks sharp dude!

Great fish!!!! I would take my rod off the expanded metal before I lite the grill though lol. I have to ask what is that the rod is on??