The Alternative Angler – Reel-ly?

Never mind smelling the flowers, don’t forget to take time out to see the satirical side of fishing life and grab a laugh along the way as well. So here’s a regular column from Kevin Perkins to remind us that life is for laughing at, or taking the p*** out of, whenever we can.

As everyone knows, we Brits are not ones to complain (apart from me, apparently!) but I am not so sure that the tackle industry is going the right way at the moment. We are being offered (flooded with) ever-cheaper gear, but is it with built in obsolescence in mind, either through a lack of longevity due to fashion dictates, or is it the quality that is being sacrificed

Whilst I am pleased with the fact that I recently picked up two of ‘last season’s’ feeder rods for the frankly ridiculous price of £ 10 each (I will get the wet and dry paper out and remove the ever so slightly garish fluorescent graphics) surely that price comes nowhere near the cost of the materials involved in making them, let alone giving a profit to the supplier, shipper and manufacturer. A new rod for not much more than the price of a couple of day tickets, I could afford to fork out for a new one every month or so, and sling the old ones away!

Whist those prices may be a little unrepresentative, it is perfectly possible to purchase a very serviceable rod for under £ 30. Now, do you buy that, and given the price, give it any amount of abuse, then cheerfully replace it in say, eighteen months time, or do you pay well over £ 150 pounds and hang on to your far better rod for at least five years.

What if your cheap and cheerful rod takes all the abuse you can give it and lasts for five years, wasn’t that a bargain! How do you feel when your mutt’s nuts two-piece £ 150 rod suddenly becomes a three-piece after a couple of years of very careful handling?

If it’s right to expect that a £ 150 rod is five times better than one priced at £ 30, or is the cheaper one five times as bad? Or is the difference between the two not as marked as the price variation would suggest?

The reason for these musings is that I, although I am not in the market for another rod (at the moment!), I am looking for a new reel. And quite a specific one at that, I want one for spinning. Now, this should present no problem at all, because wasn’t the ‘threadline’ reel first developed for spinning (no doubt the indomitable Mr Clay will be able to adjudicate on the historical correctness of that statement).

That being the case, with tackle development being the way it is, I should be faced with a bewildering selection of fixed spool reels, all specifically designed with spinning in mind. Errrrr……..no! In fact, a selection of catalogues (coarse and specimen, including pike) obtained from a well-known tackle retailer lists no less than 53 models of fixed spool reels. Now, I could find plenty of match reels, closed face reels, method reels, big pit reels and no end of bait runners (curiously though, no mention of barbel reels…..yet!) but only one of them is listed as being recommended for spinning, and then only a variation of the sport known as ‘light spinning’ apparently.

Perhaps (everything other than ‘light’) spinning is considered to impart too much strain on a reel. I mean, if an ‘all the bells and whistles’ reel with at least a dozen ball bearings is what is needed for carp fishing, where you cast out once (not if you use a bait boat, obviously) and then leave your bait for three days before you reel it in, someone casting and retrieving every couple of minutes (could well be several hundred times in a day) is going to need something with around 100 ball bearings, at the very least, for fear of grinding the internals to paste in a matter of hours.

I’m sure that amongst those 53 models was one that will be just the ticket, although the spool capacities seem to range from 100yds of 2lb to around 350yds of 10lb, with not a lot in between. I just want something with a reliable rear drag, fairly modest capacity and won’t fall apart a week after the warranty ends. I used to have one of the original ABU55’s that fitted the bill nicely, but of course, like a twat, I sold it and later bought a pair of ABU 654’s and what a load of crap they were!

Will they both still be going strong in another 30 years?

Over the years I’ve got through a number of ‘spinning’ reels, with the exception of one, which I bought from new and is now over 30 years old. Despite my constant neglect, my trusty ABU5001 multiplier got dragged out of its leatherette case yesterday in preparation for some imminent autumn spinning action, and it still runs like a Swiss watch. I turn the handle and click the free spool button, and to my amazement and shame, it still feels brand new, despite my inattention and the fact that it’s never been to the ‘service department’ in its life.

It has been used for light, medium and downright heavy spinning, as well as being frequently commandeered to help propel whole mackerel deadbaits towards the horizon, and never faltered once. This is no museum piece, wrapped up in cotton wool and only brought out to impress fellow anglers before being wrapped up and put away again, oh no.

Will I find a fixed spool reel that will emulate that? I suspect that in another thirty years time that old ABU will still be going strong and if I’m still around, I will be bemoaning the fact that I have had to go out and buy yet another ‘spinning’ reel to go with it.

Fixed spool on the right, multiplier on the left?

In fact, I don’t doubt there are some 30, 40 even 50 year old centrepins still giving good service, and whilst I realise that there is a fundamental engineering difference between centrepins/multipliers and fixed spools, isn’t it a fact that the fixed spool is a flawed design. In my mind it compares to the Porsche 911, which achieves what it does despite having the engine hanging out the back of the car, in completely the wrong place.

Even given four-wheel drive, the Porsche’s handling still can’t compete with a mid-engined car. I had one ‘swap ends’ in front of me at 150mph+ trying to outbrake the Lamborghini I was driving during a track day. Fortunately the v.v.experienced driver and v.v.v.terrified passenger were both wearing dark brown racing overalls……

Given that, and seeing that so many ‘fixed spools’ now offer a ‘free spool’ facility, why the need for a huge (often heavily counterbalanced) rotor housing whizzing round the spool recovering line, why not have a stationary rotor/bale arm and rotate the spool to retrieve line, just the opposite of the ‘baitrunner’ principle, in fact a bit like a multiplier turned sideways. Far fewer moving parts, I would have thought, therefore less wear and of course less weight. But that would never work, would it ……..?