Ross Animas Review: The Reel Built Down the Road
The reel that gets built down the road
Ross named the Animas after the river just upstream from their shop in Montrose. We are in Montrose too. The reel you are looking at was machined a few minutes from our front door on East Main, and the people who make it come in here to buy tippet. That is not a marketing line. It is just where we happen to be.
It matters for one practical reason. When something changes on this reel, we hear about it from the people who changed it, not from a press release. And when one of our guides puts a season on an Animas, we can walk the reel back over and ask why it did what it did.
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What the drag actually does
The Animas runs an upgraded composite drag with a low profile, two tone knob on the back of the frame. Startup inertia is low, which is the part that matters on a trout river. A fish turns and runs, the spool moves without a jolt, and light tippet survives the first second. That first second is where most fish are lost.
The adjustment range is wide and the knob has a firm detent feel, so you can set it by touch without looking down. Conversion between right and left hand retrieve takes no tools. The drag has a hard stop at the top of its range, which some anglers read as a limitation. On trout water it is not. You will never fish the top of that range with a 5X tippet in your hand.
Arbor, handle, and the details you notice in November
The arbor is bell shaped and oversized. Line comes on evenly, picks up fast, and holds less memory after a cold morning. The frame is fully machined with structural porting, and the spokes are overlaid so line and backing dry instead of sitting wet against aluminum.
The handle is canvas phenolic, and it is the feature our staff mentions most. It gets tackier when wet rather than slicker. If you have ever tried to palm a polished aluminum knob with numb hands in March on the Uncompahgre, you already know why that matters.
Which size to fish
The Animas comes in three sizes, and the choice is simpler than it looks.
Animas 4/5. Diameter 3.25 inches, weight 4.1 ounces, holds a WF4 with 70 yards of 20 pound backing or a WF5 with 50. This is the small water and dry fly reel. It balances short, light rods and it is the one we reach for on the Uncompahgre and on the creeks above town.
Animas 5/6. Diameter 3.5 inches, weight 4.43 ounces, holds a WF5 with 100 yards of backing or a WF6 with 75. If you are buying one Animas and fishing western trout water, buy this one. It carries a full backing load for the Gunnison, it balances a 9 foot 5 weight properly, and it does not feel heavy on a lighter rod.
Animas 7/8. Diameter 3.875 inches, weight 4.74 ounces. The streamer and big water reel. The larger diameter picks line up in a hurry, which is exactly what you want when a brown eats a streamer at your feet and runs downstream. It also handles bass, carp, and light steelhead without complaint.
Worth noting that the current 7/8 weighs well under five ounces. Older Animas reels in that size ran closer to seven. If you fished one years ago and remember it as a heavy reel, that is no longer the reel you are picking up.
Spare spools
Spare spools are the reason a lot of people end up with an Animas rather than something else. Spool release is maintenance free and the swap takes seconds, so one reel covers a dry fly line and a sink tip on the same day without carrying a second setup. If you are fishing the Gorge over three days, that is a real convenience.
Care
Rinse it in fresh water after a saltwater trip and let it dry before it goes back in the case. That is genuinely the whole routine. The corrosion resistant finish and the composite drag do not want oil, grease, or your attention. Reels get ruined by maintenance far more often than by neglect.
How the Animas fits the rest of the Ross line
If you are cross shopping inside the Ross lineup, the closest comparison is the Evolution LTX. Both are disc drag reels. The Animas runs a composite drag in an open frame that is simple to rinse and dry. The LTX runs a sealed drag with more stopping power and a bit more weight. We wrote that one up in detail in our Ross Evolution LTX review.
Come handle one
Specs only carry you so far with a reel. You want to feel where the drag comes on, whether the handle suits your hand, and how it sits on the rod you actually own. We keep the Animas on the floor, and you are welcome to bring your rod in and balance it. We are at 432 E Main St in Montrose, and if we are not busy we will tell you more about Ross reels than you wanted to know.
For more on why Ross Reels are made in Montrose, read our piece on the local manufacturing story. For a broader look at which Ross Reel fits which river, see our guide to fishing Ross Reels on Western Colorado rivers.