I wrote this for someone else a couple of years ago, but it still sums up my view of how to step out of the fixed-spool dark side:
"Lay out a tenner or so on a cheapie; an old brown Aerialite or one of those Theseus things, for example.
Take it down to your nearest commercial and catch a few fish with it, close in.
Did you enjoy the direct contact as you played the fish?
Did you enjoy the way you can cast almost two rods out by just hooking your thumb in the line where it comes off the reel, drawing off a comfortable loop, and pulling back, with your thumb as a pulley, to launch the rig towards the rod-top, while giving the rod the merest "Harry Potter" swish'n'flick to ensure the float didn't actually hit the tip ring, thus enabling you to fish all those swims with cast-inhibiting trees all around?
If you didn't, stick with the fixed spool, sell the reel on, or use it as a line-store.
If you did, but certain things drove you nuts - usually to do with slack line - persevere till you stop getting tangles. Learn to tuck the reel under your arm, if standing, or belly (should you have one) while sitting, to prevent the sneaky unhooking/baiting-up time overrun, for instance. Keep an eye out for side-winds. Learn to cast a bit farther by taking several loops off - and thinking about the sequence in which you release them so you don't spend the whole day unpicking tangles. Learn to find the check button as you put the rod down and pick it up; slack line is your enemy.
Having fun? OK, now try a river where you can catch close in, using the casts you know and feeding line to the float by hand, or by thumbing the spool.
If the flow is strong enough and your reel starts turning easily enough, fit a big enough float to enable the flow to pull line off the reel. See what a difference in resistance there is between pointing the rod downstream, almost at the float, and holding it across the stream, with a right-angle in the line at the tip. Try using that to vary your presentation, holding-back then running-through by turns.
If you reel is not free-running enough, now is the time to consider an upgrade. Okuma if you have the dosh, Cortesi or decent old Trudex if you haven't. If Cortesi, read up on it's "quirks", use thread-locking compound and carry a cross-head screwdriver. Either way, flush out the bearings/ pin with lighter fuel, clean and dry it, and re-oil with light (sewing machine/hair-clipper) oil. (Best of all, scrounge a day's loan of a decent pin from a buddy).
Back to the river.
Still having fun?
Right, time for the big one: If your reel is free-running enough to spin under its own inertia/momentum/whatever for ten seconds or so, go to a free water or even a park, stick a swan-shot on the line and, having watched a few youtube tutorials, have a go at the Wallis (THAT's how Mr. Wallis spelt it!). If you find yourself making progress, then is the time to ask about a "good" pin.
To my mind, and for my modest needs and means, a run-in Trudex is as good as it gets; spokes'n'pillars jobs are beautiful, but let in maggot-dust, groundbait, rain-splashes and such, and are best left to the addicts.
When you find yourself trotting for half-pound chub rather than hurl a feeder out into a vast lake and wait for a shoal of bream to drift by, you're an addict..."
