Price: £ 140.00 PLUS £ 30 FOR OPTIONAL WOODEN BOX Way back in April 2002 I received a new reel from the Lewtham Stable. Most anglers are probably aware of the cheaper end of this company’s products – the Leeds series of trotting reels and, indeed, for many of today’s generation of centrepin users the Leeds may well have been their first ‘pin. When I first opened the box the blue colour struck me as being a little unusual but I quickly overcame my first reservations and looked at the overall quality of the manufacture and was impressed. These reels come in two spool widths, 0.75″ and 1″. The spool diameter is 4.25″. The reel on test was the narrow drum version.
The spool is of the solid drum variety which gives the massive advantage of reducing the problem of line bury to virtually zero. It can be very easily removed and the ball races can be extracted for cleaning and re-lubricating as and when necessary, though a pair of circlip pliers is need for the removal of the bearings. The outer rim of the spool is deeply knurled to make batting the line back nice and easy and, for those who prefer it, there are six large holes for you to stick a finger in to retrieve line that way as well. I am aware that there may be the odd person left that still uses handles, which have been provided, but they can be easily removed……. by those who prefer not to use handles! The check mechanism is a superb piece of kit. It is operated by turning a lovely knurled brass knob on the back of the reel. It sounds marvellous when a decent barbel streaks off with the bait! The provision of a decent check is important as it means that the reel can be effectively used for legering for barbel in the traditional way, using the reel as a baitrunner! The reel spins very freely even straight out of the box and gets better with use. This means that you can trot even in quite low flows using light gear. For those who wish to, you can ‘Wallis’ cast with it as the inertia is low enough to be easily overcome. | ||
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