Center Pin magic ..or is it ?

[Philip]

No not a wind up so don’t run away just yet. You see I got myself a pin 2 or 3 years back just a basic one and absolutely love it. Really gave my fishing a new lease of life. On my roving sessions now & I often find myself reaching the pin rod as first choice such am I taken by it.

However ! …I have to say in my admittedly limited experience of using Pins and as a die hard fixed spool user prior to that, I was a bit, lets say surprised, by the lack of skill needed to use one. Ok the casting is not a given and I still make a hash of a Wallis but once you get the tackle out there I really don’t see the big deal with pins. I know we all like to THINK there is some magical skill involved in holding it back and easing it through but to me its no different than what you would do with a fixed spool. If anything trotting with a fixed spool is more skill full because its more difficult to keep a consistent flow of line going and not impacting the floats run down the swim. With a pin you just apply thumb pressure to the drum..with the fixed spool you have to make sure your constantly pulling line off the spool and feeding it out before all the slack is taken up to avoid those annoying “judders” that shake the float, but still keeping it tight enough to ensure a clean strike….sure you all know what I mean. As for playing fish …ok with a pin you apply finger pressure to the dum but is this any more skillful than backwinding or applying pressure to a slipping cluth on a fixed spool ?

After that what else is there ? …I cant see anything else that’s Particularly skillful with Pin fishing yet the impression I always had before I used one was that pin anglers sort of put themselves on a pedestal above the rest of the fishing rabble ! As far as I can see the most skillful aspect of pin fishing is avoiding tangles !

Am I being unfair ? …or am I missing something here ?

 

[S-Kippy]

No....you're not missing anything. Though it takes practice and skill to cast any distance with a pin I have long maintained that there is no great mystique about using a pin competently. It doesn't take long to work out how to cast well enough and thereafter they fish themselves. I'll win no style or distance points but I am perfectly content. If I want or need to cast 30 yards I'll use a fixed spool but I rarely need to.

I love em....but not because of any perceived snob value . They are just so nice and simple to use. So much so that I rarely use anything else now if im float fishing be that still or running water.

 

[tigger]

Have you ever fished with someone who can use a pin, I mean really use one?

 

[binka]

I'm completely hung up on pin fishing at the moment, I've been using mine pretty much all year on both running and still water since returning to them after a long absence.

I agree about their simplicity, I will be using mine again on the river tomorrow despite being on the tip all day.

 

[sam vimes]

As far as I'm concerned, casting with a pin is the real skill, distance and/or accuracy. There's no great mystique to the rest. At times they are more trouble than they are really worth. However, I simply enjoy using them. There's little doubt in my mind that they are a good tool for a job. For me, that job is trotting. It's easier to achieve far better float control than it is with either open or closed face fixed spool reels. At times that superior float control doesn't matter that much. At other times it can make the difference between catching or not.

I have used them for legering and stillwater float fishing, but I invariably get to wondering why I've bothered. It always feels like I'm making life unnecessarily difficult and limiting my fishing when I do so.

Do I feel superior when using a pin? Hell no. It's just another part of my angling armoury, and one I thoroughly enjoy using.

 

[john step]

Nothing special or snobby or superior about pins. Just enjoyable to use when the situation is right.
By the very nature of their mechanics they are a simple thing.

 

[thecrow]

Have you ever fished with someone who can use a pin, I mean really use one?

Yes ............


There is amongst some pin users a feeling that they are so much more difficult to use than a fixed spool, from what I have seen they are not that difficult once the basics have been mastered

 

[barbelboi]

After fishing with a pin for over 60 years you tend to get the hang of it For pleasure trotting a pin is preferable for me for many reasons - if I was a match angler where the retrieve time was paramount a f/s would win hands down.

 

[Philip]

Like most I do see a pin as a tool for trotting first and foremost.

However its worth mentioning this summer I did find another situation where I actually preferred it to a fixed spool and that was when I was waggler fishing overdepth and then dragging the float back to cock it on a tight line.

As I guess anyone who has done this will know its really sensitive and even a tiny tug too much dislodges the shot on the bottom and float shoots up so you have to reset it again. Its pain to get it perfect with a fixed spool as either a handle turn drags it too much or you have to fiddle around with the clutch to inch it in. Anyway it was absolutely perfect for the pin..you could click the line tight on the ratchet millimeter by millimeter setting the float perfectly.

Any Crucian anglers out there ? …I recon the lift method teamed up with a pin is tailor made for you guys...

 

[Keith M]

No not a wind up so don’t run away just yet. You see I got myself a pin 2 or 3 years back just a basic one and absolutely love it. Really gave my fishing a new lease of life. On my roving sessions now & I often find myself reaching the pin rod as first choice such am I taken by it.

Exactly! I use a pin simply because of its ease of use and the enjoyment It gives me as I try to work my float downstream, and also when I'm trying to play a good fish.

I don't think there are any magical skills needed to use a pin in fact I don't think it is a particularly difficult set of skills to master at all; just a slightly different set of skills that's all.
NB: Except maybe the art of casting with a pin which is slightly more difficult because it isn't primarily a casting reel, unlike a fixed spool reel.

As you say; it can often take a lot more skill to trot with a fixed spool reel because it can be more difficult to keep a consistent flow of line going while not impacting the floats run down the swim simply because you have the line spilling off your spool erratically or you are having to release line manually and also let the line feed out before all the slack is taken up to avoid those annoying “judders” that often shake the float; while still keeping it tight enough to ensure a clean strike. But to a skillfull angler these problems can be fairly non-existent.

I can't remember anybody on this forum saying that a centrepin needs any magical skills to use, or needs any more skills than other float users need (just slightly different), or professing any superiority, although if you have never used a centrepin it might seem a bit daunting, but as you already know this is not justifiable and it is not a difficult set of skills to learn at all.

Keith

 

[binka]

Like most I do see a pin as a tool for trotting first and foremost.

However its worth mentioning this summer I did find another situation where I actually preferred it to a fixed spool and that was when I was waggler fishing overdepth and then dragging the float back to cock it on a tight line.

As I guess anyone who has done this will know its really sensitive and even a tiny tug too much dislodges the shot on the bottom and float shoots up so you have to reset it again. Its pain to get it perfect with a fixed spool as either a handle turn drags it too much or you have to fiddle around with the clutch to inch it in. Anyway it was absolutely perfect for the pin..you could click the line tight on the ratchet millimeter by millimeter setting the float perfectly.

Any Crucian anglers out there ? …I recon the lift method teamed up with a pin is tailor made for you guys...

I've found the same with slider fishing, it's perfect for 'dialling' the float down.

Also good when fishing worm under the rod tip as it's so easy to just thumb the drum to give it an enticing twitch every now and again.

 

[itsfishingnotcatching]

As a complete incompetent with a pin I do find that it is far superior to a fs reel for trotting and controlling a float. The downside is applying the correct amount of drag when tackling larger fish. I've used it on pools to try to improve my technique and generally struggled with fish I'm sure I would have landed easily on a fixed spool reel. I'm contemplating using the pin on the Itchen, but will probably "bottle it" and revert to the "Romulan warp drive" fixed spool reel (single handle Shimano S-Kip) that I can cast further and critically, more accurately with than my cp. The pin will be out tomorrow, only because no-one will witness any major "c0ck ups" Practise would probably cure this but only generally fishing once a week, do I really want to risk it?

 

[S-Kippy]

As far as I'm concerned, casting with a pin is the real skill, distance and/or accuracy. There's no great mystique to the rest. At times they are more trouble than they are really worth. However, I simply enjoy using them. There's little doubt in my mind that they are a good tool for a job. For me, that job is trotting. It's easier to achieve far better float control than it is with either open or closed face fixed spool reels. At times that superior float control doesn't matter that much. At other times it can make the difference between catching or not.

I have used them for legering and stillwater float fishing, but I invariably get to wondering why I've bothered. It always feels like I'm making life unnecessarily difficult and limiting my fishing when I do so.

Do I feel superior when using a pin? Hell no. It's just another part of my angling armoury, and one I thoroughly enjoy using.

That just about sums it up for me. I do use mine on stillwaters.....when tenching or crucian fishing in close but though I've tried to satisfy the barbel police [soppy old sods division] by using a pin when I'm on the lead after Captain Whiskers but it just doesnt feel right to me. I wasn't "brought up" on pins so I was a bit apprehensive when I acquired my first but it took me no time at all to get used to it. I love using them so much I use them on days when I really shouldn't but I dont mind the odd tangle. I would find it very strange to trot with a f/s reel now.

My biggest problem with pins has become deciding which one to use.

 

[Philip]

My biggest problem with pins has become deciding which one to use.

Ah now thats a good one point which I have been musing of late.....I have 2 pins but they are both the same. is there really any additional advantage or enjoyment to be had if I spend my hard earned dosh on a different one?

Ok I get that some run on bearings while purists may want one of the proper spindle jobbies but to a pin noddy like me its still just a free wheeling drum. So at the end of the day a pins just a pin.

..isnt it ? ...

 

[S-Kippy]

Basically yes. A pin is a pin is a pin. Some like true pins, some like bearing pins....I couldn't care less as long as it looks nice and performs well. I have both.

Like fleeces and rods,you can never have too many IMO. I am a shameless tackle tart so I dont probably need as many pins as I have but what the hell...why not ?

 

[tigger]

A bush and pin reel are better to cast with and there are subtle differences between them and ball race reels when trotting.

 

[Philip]

A bush and pin reel are better to cast with and there are subtle differences between them and ball race reels when trotting.

Dont know how true it is but I recall reading somewhere that the older reels running on the spindle principle can actually improve with with age and become even more free spinning. Seems a bit strange as you would have though the opposite would occur.

 

[S-Kippy]

A bush and pin reel are better to cast with and there are subtle differences between them and ball race reels when trotting.

You may well be right but the average pin user probably wouldn't notice or care. I certainly wouldn't .

 

[barbelboi]

A bush and pin reel are better to cast with and there are subtle differences between them and ball race reels when trotting.

As much as I enjoy using a pin a f/s reel is better to cast with - if there had been a decent f/s around at the time Wally would never have popularised the Nottingham cast.............

PS The main difference between a bush and pin and and a ball race is one needs to be kept horizontal whilst trotting.........:wh

 

[tigger]

As much as I enjoy using a pin a f/s reel is better to cast with - if there had been a decent f/s around at the time Wally would never have popularised the Nottingham cast.............

PS The main difference between a bush and pin and and a ball race is one needs to be kept horizontal whilst trotting.........:wh

I've found I can cast far more accurately with a pin than with a fixed spool.


I often use a bush and pin horizontal to slow the trott a touch.