Thanks Tom for diagramming such great photos.
I've never handled a Colorado reel, but always thought they were cool, and a great idea from the days of One rod for everything, and that's a fly rod if you live with trout.
Also, what can we do with this new nylon mono.
What they always intrigued me for was float fishing, what we call steelheading and the Brits call trotting.
The fabled PNW Rogue reel was taking the steelheading idea a step further with a spinning spool and free-spool finger lever.
Unlike the Rogue, though, this set-up would also work for casting light spinners and jigs using mono with a fly rod.
There were also a few rod models aimed specifically for this reel, including the Phillipson Haywood Zephyr.
btw,
searched up four quick topics about Fre-Line reels and a matching W-M rod - the rod post has good photos, but unfortunately, other than Tom's, only came up with one reel photo.