Neil Maidment
Moderator
I have "more than one" centrepin! Tend to use only one at a time and at the moment that's a modern Okuma Sheffield! Excellent piece of kit and a joy to use.
centre pin reels--- where do they all go?
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S-Kippy
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Absolutely ! I love em.
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Yes they do wear out eventually and need parts replacing. I suppose the good thing about the ball race pin is that you can just replace the bearings rather than the whole spindle. I poke to Garry Mills and queeried him about a true pin verses a ball race pin and he said the ball race would last much longer.
Catfishingham
Well-known member
What is the differance between centerpins and "fly reels"?
Cat
Cat
Ray Roberts
Well-known member
Centrepins are more free running and better balanced. eg;Fly reels often have one handle, which doesn't matter for a fly reel as the line is pulled off by hand.
Well, at the FM Itchen Fish-in you will see almost every angler using a centrepin.
Maybe if Nigel, or someone, can find it there is a nice picture of all the rods lined up while we had lunch.
I own, lets just say a fair few centrepin reels, the most recent addition being a Fred Crouch Emerald Aerial (a limited edition reel) which is simple gorgeous. If my local Hampshire Avon is ever back to being even half-fishable I'll be using it soon.
Right, I managed to find that picture:
http://www.fishingmagic.com/fmimages/news/grayday4lrg.jpg
(note: see they are all 'cack-handed' except me LOL)
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Stop it! Stop talking about pins! 
Raise the interest, and you raise the market price. I've already been outbid on Ebay twice this week on items that I would be confident of winning.
Wow Peter! nice bit of Pin Porn that!
If you want to join my 'web-ring', there's a few of us that regularly swap photos. Dont worry, there's no under-age models, it's all older stuff for the refined enthusiast.. you know, wink, nudge, say no more.....
Raise the interest, and you raise the market price. I've already been outbid on Ebay twice this week on items that I would be confident of winning.
Wow Peter! nice bit of Pin Porn that!
If you want to join my 'web-ring', there's a few of us that regularly swap photos. Dont worry, there's no under-age models, it's all older stuff for the refined enthusiast.. you know, wink, nudge, say no more.....
flightliner
Well-known member
Tigger, at the point when you have just trapped the line with your finger instead of replacing the bail arm manually try simply extending your finger outwards at about 45 degrees with the line still laying behind it and then wind the bail arm shut,as the bail picks up the line it just slides gently off the back of the finger onto the spool - it works a treat- no jerky movements that give lightly hooked fish the chance to shed the hook.
I find myself in two camps on this one as i dearly love using my pin (a stanton-- fifty five shillings in 1964) If i am out for a pleasure session on running water its great to use with the stick but after an hour or two of "batting"back to recast my finger ends hurt and if its long trotting the return upriver becomes a bit of a chore. Using the fixed spool i can have two trots down (almost) compared to the pin- last year on my local river a friend and myself were doing extremely well with roach and skimmers-most days we were both taking between twenty and thirty pounds using fixed spool reels (mitchell matches). One day i used my old stanton and just couldnt keep pace with my friend-(he only lost two fish all day that shed the hook after the strike) taking only sixteen pounds to his twenty five, the following trip we reversed the roles and the results were the same in favour of the fixed spool.
I agree with others comments here that the pin is a joy to use , the control is superb when running a float down running water but the same control is to be had from a fixed spool by simply backwinding with the forefinger revolving in an anti- clockwise motion against the stem of the reels handle.
I suppose if i had to take my pick of a reel to use for the rest of my angling life it would have to be (sadly)a fixed spool (whats yours).
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flightliner, I would have to have a fixed spool if I could only have the one(but only for all round use). I do think though that in the right conditions I could catch as many or more fish in a trotting match as someone else using a fixed spool.
I use both centrepin and fixed spool for the same jobs, use of either depends upon the swim and what I want to do, or can only do, in it. Batting all the way back from the end of a long trot down is a pain, but if the fish are biting that far down and you can move down stream to meet them half way, then do it! If not change over to a fixed spool and put up with the awkwardness of having to engage the bail arm.
I think that reel manufacturers could do us all a favour if they were to produce a fixed spool reel designed for river work with a shortened leg so that the finger tip could reach the spool without so much stretching.
Float control and fighting big fish is much more fun with a pin though...
I think that reel manufacturers could do us all a favour if they were to produce a fixed spool reel designed for river work with a shortened leg so that the finger tip could reach the spool without so much stretching.
Float control and fighting big fish is much more fun with a pin though...
flightliner
Well-known member
Tigger, you are dead right, but the conditiond for that to happen are (sadly) very limited which is a crying shame as like you i would dearly love to say a centre pin would be nice thing to have in your hand (if you are on the river bank that is:wh) if/when the grim reaper calls!
But regarding the efficiency of the fixed spool reel, if you veiw the other thread on FM where there is a link, its possible to look at the 1973 Woodbine final in Denmark-- all the competitors shown were all to a man using either an Abu closed face reel or the ubiquitous Mitchell match .
---------- Post added at 12:34 ---------- Previous post was at 12:22 ----------
Rufus, i have written about this very thing in the past , when the new generation of reels came out some twenty years ago and swept ( well almost) away the likes of Abu's and mitchells it was the first thing i noticed that were a major drawback to using them for floatwork/trotting which was one of the reasons i kept all my trusted three hundreds and matches (mitchells) - they have never let me down .
Mark Wintle
Well-known member
Tigger,
You'd find that the centrepin is just too slow to compete in the long term. On any particular day you might prove a point but you are giving away 10-30% of time which is too much to give away in most matches. Of course the reel is only part of the equation. You'd also find that in a surprising number of circumstances that the pole will easily out fish rod and reel on running water, at close range at least, regardless of type of reel, and often by a massive margin. Check what happened the last time Bob Nudd won the World Champs and ask yourself if ANY angler could have competed using rod and reel?
Ray mentioned the stick float yet when this float came to the Trent it was the fact that it was allied to fixed spool reels by the likes of the Ashursts that enabled it to dominate the matches. The ultra light stick float shotting was a far cry from the traditional Nottingham match anglers using 'pins and heavier shotting with porcupine floats. It was a question of speed. Later it became a deadly long range method in the hands of aces like Wayne Swinscoe.
Flightliner,
With FS reels there was a design shift about 5-7 years ago so that now it's much easier to find reels with shortened stems; both Daiwa and Shimano have reels that are perfect in this respect - Drennan's new reel has similar proportions as do others from other manufacturers. You're right in that reels from 20 years ago and for the decade that followed were a nightmare in this respect. I think you answered your own question - where did they all go? - in that the regular hype about 'pins persuades many anglers to buy excellent reels but they find them too much like hard work, they catch less, tangle often and they quickly go back to their old reels - unused bargains for the 'pin kleptomaniacs! I suspect that just as many F/S reels get bought and lie unused in drawers somewhere! Boys and their toys...
You'd find that the centrepin is just too slow to compete in the long term. On any particular day you might prove a point but you are giving away 10-30% of time which is too much to give away in most matches. Of course the reel is only part of the equation. You'd also find that in a surprising number of circumstances that the pole will easily out fish rod and reel on running water, at close range at least, regardless of type of reel, and often by a massive margin. Check what happened the last time Bob Nudd won the World Champs and ask yourself if ANY angler could have competed using rod and reel?
Ray mentioned the stick float yet when this float came to the Trent it was the fact that it was allied to fixed spool reels by the likes of the Ashursts that enabled it to dominate the matches. The ultra light stick float shotting was a far cry from the traditional Nottingham match anglers using 'pins and heavier shotting with porcupine floats. It was a question of speed. Later it became a deadly long range method in the hands of aces like Wayne Swinscoe.
Flightliner,
With FS reels there was a design shift about 5-7 years ago so that now it's much easier to find reels with shortened stems; both Daiwa and Shimano have reels that are perfect in this respect - Drennan's new reel has similar proportions as do others from other manufacturers. You're right in that reels from 20 years ago and for the decade that followed were a nightmare in this respect. I think you answered your own question - where did they all go? - in that the regular hype about 'pins persuades many anglers to buy excellent reels but they find them too much like hard work, they catch less, tangle often and they quickly go back to their old reels - unused bargains for the 'pin kleptomaniacs! I suspect that just as many F/S reels get bought and lie unused in drawers somewhere! Boys and their toys...
Neil Maidment
Moderator
Despite the fact that I get far too many tangles (don't like line guards anyway) and it's slow (retrieving can be tiresome) and it's cumbersome (sometimes) I do enjoy using a centrepin. :wh
I agree entirely with Mark, in a competitive scenario, centrepins will rarely match a fixed spool.
But I still cling to an occassion when I was but a lad, pegged in a match on the Lower Stour just above Tuckton Bridge (Mark probably knows the swims). Two fine lower Stour stalwarts either side of me - Dob Chislett on peg 1 above the bridge, me on peg 2 and my uncle (Mick) on peg 3. Three of the best winter dace swims on the lower Stour, two of the local best (and me), the dace were "in residence" and the anticipation was incredible. Dob even shook his head as I tackled up the 'pin but I ended up beating both of them (and everyone else) to take the coin! One of my very few claims to fame but I will enjoy the memory for ever!
I agree entirely with Mark, in a competitive scenario, centrepins will rarely match a fixed spool.
But I still cling to an occassion when I was but a lad, pegged in a match on the Lower Stour just above Tuckton Bridge (Mark probably knows the swims). Two fine lower Stour stalwarts either side of me - Dob Chislett on peg 1 above the bridge, me on peg 2 and my uncle (Mick) on peg 3. Three of the best winter dace swims on the lower Stour, two of the local best (and me), the dace were "in residence" and the anticipation was incredible. Dob even shook his head as I tackled up the 'pin but I ended up beating both of them (and everyone else) to take the coin! One of my very few claims to fame but I will enjoy the memory for ever!
Mark Wintle
Well-known member
Drew the 'flyer' then, Neil!
Neil Maidment
Moderator
No mate!
Peg one was the flyer (shoaled up under the bridge). I like to think I skillfully drew them up and past Dob and then even more skillfully held them and stopped Mick from nicking them. Family ties were forgotten as he all too often "trotted just that bit further" as his red tipped balsa passed before my eyes - "oops sorry!" was a familiar cry!
Peg one was the flyer (shoaled up under the bridge). I like to think I skillfully drew them up and past Dob and then even more skillfully held them and stopped Mick from nicking them. Family ties were forgotten as he all too often "trotted just that bit further" as his red tipped balsa passed before my eyes - "oops sorry!" was a familiar cry!
quickcedo
Well-known member
I am not by any means a purist. I own 2 pins which I would say are used for 90% of my fishing on river and lake. Of that 90% almost none of it is done with a float! For me, the real pleasure of a pin is when playing a fish, the control canot be matched.
Whilst on the subject of pins is there any way i can tighten the check on a Okuma Sheffield so I can use it when the river is up and funning, at the momment the preasure on the line is enough to take line from the reel.
Whilst on the subject of pins is there any way i can tighten the check on a Okuma Sheffield so I can use it when the river is up and funning, at the momment the preasure on the line is enough to take line from the reel.
Neil Maidment
Moderator
Suprising! The check on mine is quite severe! But there again I rarely clean or "service" my Sheffield - when brand new it was way too smooth - now it has a bit of mud, maggot dust and the odd twig in its innards, it's just right!
quickcedo
Well-known member
Thanks Neil, I'll stick some mud in it, although it does sound a bit techy for my pea brain, so maybe I'll pay someone proper like to stick the mud in! (lots of smiley things)
Mark Wintle
Well-known member
Neil,
Dob's weakness was that he often liked to start on bread punch over groundbait even on dace pegs with the hope that the roach were at home but the problem with that would be if it was a dace-only day and someone above fed maggots and drew the dace away before he abandoned his roach quest. I watched Dob do this on a match on these very same pegs (early 80's?). Pete Hutchinson did the same on a Wimborne match and before he knew it the dace were in my swim! Those last 3/4 pegs are now out of bounds being in the Sea Scouts compound and below the marina entrance.
What I did find on the lower Stour is that occasionally there's a big difference in fish size between pegs. I had 34lbs - 550 dace - in one Xmas match on the pole not realising that the angler below was catching dace 4 times the size I was getting. He had 27lbs but only about 100 fish.
Dob's weakness was that he often liked to start on bread punch over groundbait even on dace pegs with the hope that the roach were at home but the problem with that would be if it was a dace-only day and someone above fed maggots and drew the dace away before he abandoned his roach quest. I watched Dob do this on a match on these very same pegs (early 80's?). Pete Hutchinson did the same on a Wimborne match and before he knew it the dace were in my swim! Those last 3/4 pegs are now out of bounds being in the Sea Scouts compound and below the marina entrance.
What I did find on the lower Stour is that occasionally there's a big difference in fish size between pegs. I had 34lbs - 550 dace - in one Xmas match on the pole not realising that the angler below was catching dace 4 times the size I was getting. He had 27lbs but only about 100 fish.
Neil Maidment
Moderator
Those first several swims above the bridge in the reedbeds were usually excellent holding areas for Dace and Roach (and there was always the back up of "The Perch Pool" behind you as well). 30/40 years ago when it was Tucktonia or the golf course it was a favourite area as it was so varied and contained virtually everything that swam including Bass, Flounders and Mullet!
The big Dace would often turn up down in "The Boats" but you're right, when that area was fishing well, you could weigh in a netful only to find someone a few pegs away had a much bigger stamp of Dace. I used to enjoy trotting those "boat swims" with a centrepin especially if there were a few Sea Trout running!
I fished it last Winter a couple of times, had a few good days but as ever it wasn't quite the same!
The big Dace would often turn up down in "The Boats" but you're right, when that area was fishing well, you could weigh in a netful only to find someone a few pegs away had a much bigger stamp of Dace. I used to enjoy trotting those "boat swims" with a centrepin especially if there were a few Sea Trout running!
I fished it last Winter a couple of times, had a few good days but as ever it wasn't quite the same!