An item of tackle which has stood the test of time

[John Keane]

Heres a pic of a few of my older reels that I keep in the back of a drawer. The only three that still occasionally get used are an Abu cardinal 55 reel which I occasionally use when I’m surface fishing for Carp, the Black Cat centrepin that I occasionally use when I’m using the lift bite method for Tench, and the Abu506. However they have all stood the test of time and are all still working.



I also have three old Shakespeare Sigma reels and a couple of Diawa baitrunner reels from around 15 to 20 years ago and a couple of the original Shimano baitrunners from around that time and all of these are still serviceable.

I have a Richard Walker B James & Son MkIV Carp rod which has seen better days and is missing a lot of its varnish, plus I have a Diawa Amorphous Whisker ‘Harrier Match’ Light Float rod which looks almost new looking and which I still occasionally use with an old Team Diawa S2553 Match reel on the canal (see pic)



I still have a couple of small items that my father gave me a long time ago like a milbro lesney bread press and also a small Milbro Hook tying device (see pic below) which is still usable.



I also have an old Heron bite indicator

Keith

I look at those photos, Keith, and I see “Ebay” written all over them. mg:

 

[rayner]

Peterjg, are you speaking of Mitchell reels. If so in my experience I've never had a bail turn the wrong way, OK the clutch is tripe on all models from the 300 to the 440A. Line lay is OK, the spool as in most fixed spool reels just goes up and down making the line lay acceptable the bail doesn't cause the line to twist.
They wind in a similar fashion to most fixed spool reels. I don't think they are anything like a food whisk, they have a steady wind with no wobble. This is nothing to do with fact just my thoughts.
Of course, if you put a Mitchell by the side of a Diawa TDR 412qd or the 18TDR they are as far apart as rugby and football in cost and quality. Newer reels are better engineered but a Mitchell 440 is still functional.

 

[sam vimes]

If so in my experience I've never had a bail turn the wrong way

The rotor on the Mitchell reels turns in the opposite direction to every other fixed spool reel I've ever encountered. In this respect it turns the "wrong" way. However, the reality is that it's akin to most countries, outside of a few Commonwealth ones, driving on the "wrong" side of the road. It's only "wrong" by our own conventions. Some anglers, especially left handed ones, might actually prefer the fact that the Mitchell rotors go the "wrong" way.

 

[108831]

Mikench, don't waste your money. The bail arm turns the wrong way, awful clutch, awful line lay and they wind like an old fashioned hand food whisk!

Line lay on a mitchell match was excellent,but turning the handle feels like a coffee grinder,that was from new,any reel that runs on monkey metal gears,with no ball bearings is going to be that way,the gear ratio is purely achieved by several cogs within the reel,this makes a stiff handle action....

 

[mikench]

Thanks chaps you have put me off.

 

[108831]

Look Mike,if you get Silvers to talk to you about Mitchell Matches he will give a far better account of them,i'm sure Steve is of a similar mind,maybe buy one,then put it on ebay,lol....

 

[David Rogers 3]

Some anglers, especially left handed ones, might actually prefer the fact that the Mitchell rotors go the "wrong" way.

I'm left-handed, and having owned and used only a Mitchell 301 from 1979 to c.2003, had no idea what the "wrong way" debate was all about! Since then, I've discovered my Mitchell 309 goes the wrong way for me, but all my Shimano reels (nearly 20 years old now) go the right way, i.e. the same as my Mitchell 301. Maybe I've just been lucky and (largely) avoided the makes that suit right-handers but not left-handers?

 

[nottskev]

Thanks chaps you have put me off.

You're too easily discouraged by people exaggerating. There was a time when nobody was using anything else, including the most famous and successful. How can they have been rubbish? It's like listening to people who say my team is great and theirs is s**t when they are both obviously good teams. Coffee grinder? The Mitchells I owned purred. Stiff handle action? I put heavier grease in some modern reels to stop the handle flopping and creating slack. Bearings? I've got a 3000 size reel here with so many bearings it weighs a ton and spins if you look at it. The Mitchells belong to an older time, but running them down as rubbish is just silly.

 

[mikench]

I have noticed a reel which looks a very old design but which is still sold new.

Team Daiwa Deluxe TD1350DM float match spinning reel

The price is £90 or thereabouts. Is this an item which has stood the test of time. I have never seen one and was amazed that it was still being made and sold.

 

[Keith M]

I used to love my Mitchell’s back in the 70s and early 80s and Mitchell reels turning the wrong way (as Walker said) was irrelevant to me. They were one of the best reels you could buy back in those days (before Abu and Diawa took over); although I didn’t like the larger format Mitchell 810’s and much preferred the Abu cardinal reels which were a lot better for really large fish like Pike, catfish and large Carp (not that I caught many of those ) But I definately wouldn’t use one of my Mitchel reels now unless I was feeling a bit nostalgic.

The great Roach Angler Mark Wintle still likes using the Mitchel Match when he’s Roach fishing and I can see why he likes them with its excellent line lay and it’s auto bailarm.

I don’t remember my Mitchell’s being anything like an old fashioned hand whisk when you turned the handle, mine all turned quite smoothly and compared favourably with the other reels of that day; although I must agree with the drag mechanism being a bit suspect (like on most fixed spools back in the day) but I did catch plenty of Barbel using my Mitchell 300’s back in the late 70s and 80s so they couldn’t have been that bad.
We also very occasionally got line getting behind the spool although that was a fairly rare event, and again this was the same with most other reels of that day.

However my Mitchell’s have been consigned to the back of a drawer and stayed there for many years now as they are yesterday’s technology and there are far better reels on the market today.

Keith

 

[nottskev]

I have noticed a reel which looks a very old design but which is still sold new.

Team Daiwa Deluxe TD1350DM float match spinning reel

The price is £90 or thereabouts. Is this an item which has stood the test of time. I have never seen one and was amazed that it was still being made and sold.

Test of time? This is a Johnny-come-lately reel. I bought one in around 2001. It was like fishing with a Shimano when your fingers are numb. Sold it to a bloke who came round a while later and asked if I'd take it back. I didn't.

 

[108831]

As Keith ive caught many barbel on Mitchell 300's,including my first,first double,88 barbel in a session,plenty on the float on the match too,countless chub,roach,you name it,i caught it on them,as for the daiwa you mention Mike,i moved to them,good little reels,mainly because the auto bail shut manually,a design fault of the match imv,but they had things that weren't brilliant,the most important being the narrowness of the spool,and the shape of it....

 

[peterjg]

On Mitchell's the gears were so bad it was the only reel that you could carp fish with the bail arm closed and the ratchet off! When I say get real I don't mean get (Mitchell) reel - they 'reely' were rubbish!

And if they were so good (not) why did most carp anglers who suffered them have the clutch, bail arm springs and bail arm roller converted!!!

 

[108831]

On Mitchell's the gears were so bad it was the only reel that you could carp fish with the bail arm closed and the ratchet off! When I say get real I don't mean get (Mitchell) reel - they 'reely' were rubbish!

And if they were so good (not) why did most carp anglers who suffered them have the clutch, bail arm springs and bail arm roller converted!!!

Used to call runs 'churners' eh,forgot that term lol....

 

[nottskev]

This is getting surreal! I used these reels for two decades and caught netfuls of all kinds of fish. Most of the top match anglers did likewise. They were a standard item for the well-equipped angler It's one thing to say the reels have been superseded ( and no-one's arguing); another to claim they were always rubbish.

I can't answer the question about what carp anglers did or why. Since when were they, with all their gear fetishism and OCD tackle tarting the measure of angling sense?

 

[S-Kippy]

They ( Mitchell 300s etc) were a great reel in their day.....but their day was an awfully long time ago. My mate had a 410 which I lusted after but it was just too much money. Compared to the Intrepid Monarch 66 I had been using the 300 was as smooth as silk.

But oh how I hated those fiddlyarsed 300 bail arm springs that had a habit of pinging off or breaking and that godawful plastic box ( black &red) that they came in. Could easily take 30 mins to get the damn thing to fit back in.

Mind you....I could strip and replace the bail spring one handed in the dark. You had to be able to if you had a 300.

 

[peterjg]

Whitty, that's it - "churners" - the gears were so terrible that the bail arm rotor could not over spin with a carp run. With a run the carp angler used to pick the rod up, and then try to hold the reel handle as it was turning and strike. Hilarious.

 

[nottskev]

I read that a bloke called Richard Walker used Mitchell reels for his carp fishing. Whether he ever caught any, I don't know.

 

[steve2]

In all the years I used Mitchell's I can't remember any of the problems being mentioned. I sent mine of for servicing in the close seasons so maybe that why they were never a problem. The fish I caught using them must be in the 1000's. The main reason I stop using them was they felt heavy on carbon rods.

 

[trotter2]

Few things I remember there. Golden marlin line that takes me back a bit. Used it myself for years. Had a brennan and hickman rod holdall as well. Orange and black if I remember correctly.
Things which have stood the test of time for me are the Abu 501,506.Bayer perlon line and kamasan b520 hooks.