Centre Pin Reels

[Derek Gibson]

Or even a Coxen Ariel :wh

 

[Paul Boote]

The Coxon reel? Silly money, far too fragile for barbelling with its vulcanite / ebonite spool. Pretty, though.

PS - Don't want to raise anybody's blood pressure, but I happen to own the 3.5-inch, metal back plate, vulcanite-spooled, very early 20th Century Aerial that F.W.K. Wallis of Trent and Royalty fame once owned. Three others of his centrepins, too.

Prozak, anyone?

 

[Derek Gibson]

Interesting that Paul. Up untill a few years ago I was an avid centrepin collector. Amongst my collection were eleven ''Coxon's'', including the very rare ''3 spoke'' version. Sixteen other metal ''Ariel'' reels from the very early ones, and several David Slater of Newark ones including the ''Zephyr''. But I wasn't one of those collectors that just wanted to admire them in the cabinet. I did periodically take them out for their original purpose. I also used to retune/correct wobbles on the older ''Ariels'' for some of my collector friends, so yes I do know a little about centrepins. So I still maintain my belief in my original post, that the ''Speedia'' in reasonable nick, and in its price bracket is a worthy option, as do you I believe.

 

[Paul Boote]

Absolutely, Derek. The Speedia is both a design and end-user classic, a reel that sold for Morris Minor and Mini prices in its day but offered old 1920s - '30s Racing Rolls Royce performance. A proper, people's and Anglers' reel, not some poncy over-priced thing that a lot of people merely admire behind glass or pose with these days (a sentiment that I first expressed in the late 1970s in an article I did for Angling Magazine about the Wallis Cast].

 

[flightliner]

Interesting that Paul. Up untill a few years ago I was an avid centrepin collector. Amongst my collection were eleven ''Coxon's'', including the very rare ''3 spoke'' version. Sixteen other metal ''Ariel'' reels from the very early ones, and several David Slater of Newark ones including the ''Zephyr''. But I wasn't one of those collectors that just wanted to admire them in the cabinet. I did periodically take them out for their original purpose. I also used to retune/correct wobbles on the older ''Ariels'' for some of my collector friends, so yes I do know a little about centrepins. So I still maintain my belief in my original post, that the ''Speedia'' in reasonable nick, and in its price bracket is a worthy option, as do you I believe.
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I,ll go along with what you say Derek, as well as saying that it would be interesting to see your collection if it still exists.
I have what many would call the "Adcocks Stanton" which was actually made at the Rolls Royce factory in Derby so its quality must be unsurpassed by definition as well as a Youngs Trudex in almost mint nick.
I,ve had "one or two" barbel over the years and both reels are fine in the right swim but like all centrepins they do have their failings (for me at least)in certain circumstances.

 

[Paul Boote]

Very much so, flight'. My message over many years, in private, occasionally in fishy talks to clubs etc and more recently in online public, has been "De-mystify and de-fetishize centrepin reels, PLEASE; they're just bits of fishing tackle, albeit sometimes very nice-looking bits of fishing tackle, that were made for USING". It has become a bit "hot" at times for me, for having said this, but I have only been repeating what I heard from some pretty hard-core, very able and life-long centrepin users when I was a very young man, one of them hugely West End and Shakespearean "Dear boy", contemporary of Michael Hordern, ac-tor posh, whose rare but extremely colourful use of foul language - "Start casing and collecting the f-ers, Paul, and we'll not speak with or fish together again" - to me when I began buying them as a teenager really hit home.

So, buy a 'pin, use it, personally value it, but make no big deal of the thing.

That's all.

 

[Rich P]

mick b mentioned Fred Crouch a couple of posts ago, and I can vouch for the suitability of his own aerial copies. I have a couple of Jets, wide-drum and anodised black. Superb reels for barbel angling, though I'd prefer a slightly heavier ratchet for when there's a little more water in the river. That aside, they're mid-priced and excellent quality; around £130-£140.

If anyone around the Manchester area would like to give me a lesson (or two) Wallis casting, I'd be much obliged?

 

[tigger]

mick b mentioned Fred Crouch a couple of posts ago, and I can vouch for the suitability of his own aerial copies. I have a couple of Jets, wide-drum and anodised black. Superb reels for barbel angling, though I'd prefer a slightly heavier ratchet for when there's a little more water in the river. That aside, they're mid-priced and excellent quality; around £130-£140.

If anyone around the Manchester area would like to give me a lesson (or two) Wallis casting, I'd be much obliged?

I could probably help you out with casting, drop me a pm if your still after a lesson.

 

[Rich P]

I could probably help you out with casting, drop me a pm if your still after a lesson.

Thanks Tigger - will do.

 

[flightliner]

So, buy a 'pin, use it, personally value it, but make no big deal of the thing.

That's all.

Paul, I paid £2-54/ for mine when I was nineteen-- a kings ransom for me back then as an underpaid apprentice . Pins were falling by the wayside to fixed spools in those days but my angling gods at the time were using them so it was more than good enough for me.
It was practice practice practice till you could drop a float pretty much where you wanted too.
One of the big benefits of all this (besides catching/enjoying it all) was that after a year or two the reel aquired a "used look" that gave it that special appeal reinforced by a thousand memories that no collectable pin bought from a shop and put into cotton wool to be only admired and maybe rendered unto Mamon at some later date could ever hope to better.

 

[Sean Meeghan]

I agree with pretty much everything that has been said, although (purely a personal opinion) I've never got on with Speedias despite having used both narrow and wide drummed versions.

I now use Mordex Majors for much of my my small/medium river work and they tick the boxes for me: robust (very), a strong ratchet, decent diameter and a drum width that's just right. The Mordex Merlin looks a bit different, but works much the same. I also use a Grice and Young Gypsy d'Or, but it's drum is a little on the narrow side, especially when using thicker lines.

One thing to watch for on many older pins is the condition of the centre boss. Many were made of plastic that is now brittle with age and prone to breaking. This doesn't apply to Speedias which have an integral metal boss. I've replaced the plastic bosses on my Mordexes (Mordices?) with an aluminium one which has sorted that particular problem.